AS two former soldiers, we watch the hounding of our servicemen and women by unscrupulous and opportunistic lawyers with incredulity and dismay.
The pressures and demands on the frontline are already tough enough without our forces fearing legal repercussions every time they step off their base.
Many of the allegations being brought against those who fought so bravely and tenaciously in Iraq, after more than a decade, are spurious or totally fabricated, motivated only by the hope of financial gain.
A genuine attempt to right historic wrongs has become a compensation industry, benefiting only the legal profession.
Multiple legal probes into single incidents waste time and public funds, and leave those who served their country on our behalf feeling betrayed and persecuted.
Furthermore, to learn that the new Shadow Defence Secretary, Emily Thornberry, has received a donation-in-kind from a law firm accused of pursuing false torture claims against British soldiers is beyond parody.
A soldier will fight for his mates and for his country.
The former will seldom let him down, but it would seem that the latter, sadly, can be less reliable.
The whole episode is a disgrace and it must stop and we ask the Prime Minister to intervene personally.