[Mb-civic] The Observer: 'Mother to mother' plea to Cherie over Scottish soldier killed in Iraq

[harry.sifton at sympatico.ca]

HS spotted this on the The Observer site and thought you should see it.

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Note from HS:

The other war is at home where poverty/oppoutunity makes young people enlist!!
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To see this story with its related links on the The Observer site, go to http://www.observer.co.uk

'Mother to mother' plea to Cherie over Scottish soldier killed in Iraq
Anti-war campaigner makes film revealing poverty which forced her son to join up
Lorna Martin
Sunday December 19 2004
The Observer


Tears trickle down Rose Gentle's cheeks as she watches Dear Mrs Blair, a short film about one mother's son. It evokes too many memories.

But she forces herself to sit through a rough cut clasping her gold necklace which contains a photograph of her dead teenage son.

The most difficult parts to watch are clips from home videos: there he is, her boy Gordon, aged about eight, a cherubic child, performing in a school play; then as a teenager, fooling around with his sisters during a family holiday in Benidorm. This is more painful, she sobs, than looking at photos, because now she can also hear him.

It's the first time Gentle has heard his voice since he called her mobile from Iraq on Friday 25 June three days before a roadside bomb exploded under him.  

Since losing her only son, Gentle has embarked upon a controversial campaign: launching a petition to bring troops home; hand-delivering with her daughter, Maxine, 14, an angry letter to Downing Street and announcing plans to sue the Ministry of Defence.  

Now, as she prepares for her first Christmas without him, Gentle has made a short film. 'A mother to mother appeal' is how she describes it, an unusual festive gift for the Prime Minister's wife.  

Before it is dispatched to Downing Street, the film, whose soundtrack has been composed by the Ivor Novello and Mercury Music-nominated Belle and Sebastian, and which has been endorsed by numerous Scottish actors and writers, including AL Kennedy and Iain Banks, will be shown in Glasgow's GFT cinema before Christmas.  

'Cherie Blair said she cried when her son Euan went away to university,' said Gentle. 'But at least they will get to spend Christmas together as a happy family. For the past six months, I have cried myself to sleep every single night. My family and others who've lost sons in Iraq are dreading Christmas. I can't bear to put up decorations or to open Christmas cards.'  

Gentle hopes the film will persuade Mrs Blair to influence her husband in two ways: first, to ask him to bring British troops home; and second, to urge him to visit Pollok to see the unemployment that forced Gordon to join the army.  

'Some people say that soldiers have to expect to die or be injured when they sign up for the armed services,' she said. 'Maybe so. But Gordon didn't join out of any burning desire to defend his country.  

'He joined because he lost his job and was surviving on £40 a week in benefits with no prospect of finding work.'   

The film features Gordon's friends. It shows that last year three of them spotted an army recruitment stand inside their local job centre.  

The sales pitch mentioned places such as Canada and Switzerland and there was talk of a guaranteed job and driving lessons. It proved irresistible. A week later, they were picked up in an army Jeep and taken away to complete full applications.  

But Gordon's best friend's application was rejected over his asthma while the other friend changed his mind.  

So Gordon went alone to Catterick Garrison and after six months' training was told that he would be posted to Iraq. Four weeks after he arrived he was dead.  

'My son didn't even know where Iraq was,' said his mother. 'In his last phone call he sounded down. He said he hated it. He was with a good crowd of boys but he said no one back home was seeing what was really happening ... He was beginning to realise what it was all about.'  

We are sitting in Gordon's bedroom which has become a hive of activity for the Justice for Gordon Gentle Campaign.  

The walls are decorated with dozens of Celtic and Rangers shirts - in times of grief old enmities are forgotten - and numerous photographs: Gordon at home as a five-year-old; Gordon cuddling his baby godson; Gordon in uniform, proud and smiling.  

Gordon Gentle's friends have been an enormous source of support for Rose and her family.  

They visit her often; call her 'Ma'; Gordon's best friend, Gary Scott, has become like a big brother for Maxine.  

Before they leave, Scott scrolls through his text messages. There is one he received from Gordon the day he left Britain on his tour of duty. It reads: 'Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Love Gento.' 

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited