I HAVE just watched a documentary The Lost Platoon about the Welsh Guards in a fire-fight in Afghanistan.

Nothing can bring home what the soldiers were going through because it still looks like a film. I doubt unless one has been there, the emotion of fear, anger and despair cannot be conveyed.

The platoon lost its commander in the action. Some are going back for another tour of duty, some have been invalided out, others have left. But the one overriding thing is that all of them have emotions from that patrol that will take a lot of time and treatment to dispel. One commented how difficult he found it, not in Afghanistan, but to come back home and try to live a normal life here.

Those who have ordered the arrest of the six commandos on charges of murder and those who have examined the evidence and approved the charges should at least watch that documentary.

Perhaps at least one of the group making the decisions should be someone who has genuinely been under fire, so the full factors can be appreciated. Things that happen in a theatre of war are different when viewed in a legal office away from the front lines.

Also, perhaps authorities, police and medical staff should also be made to watch it as part of their training. In future there are going to be a lot of messed up young people to deal with, as they try to adapt back to life in civvie street. Understanding why they are like they are would be of advantage to all parties.

CHRIS PAYNE, Turnpike Road, Bicester