I can understand Governments such as America and United Kingdom arguing for more troops in Afghanistan and Iraq as they have their own reasons for allowing their soldiers to be killed for no good reason, but I can’t see why ordinary people should support such a move.

Obviously the American’s have forgotten the kicking they got in Vietnam and certainly haven’t learned the lesson that they are never going to win a guerrilla war by engaging the enemy in their own backyard. I agree that there is an obvious terrorist threat from these countries and others such as North Korea and Iran but there are better ways to handle this.

Making good use of intelligence and technological superiority is key and I agree 100 per cent. We have the necessary intelligence and technological superiority to be able to monitor what is happening in these countries and indeed deal with it in a totally remote manner without committing troops to the ground.

Our troops would be better utilised by sealing the borders of our countries in order to stop these terrorists getting in and out as easily as they do at present. The real threat to our continued survival comes from within and this is the war we should be fighting, on our own soil.

Alex Tyrrell

N. Ireland