Preston Squaddie McLaughlin

When I met Steven McLaughlin I would not have guessed he was an ex rifleman to Iraq. I'd never met a soldier before, at least not till a few weeks before and he certainly didn't come across as someone I could picture in an army uniform with a gun in his hand. His casual attire and composed demeanour did not exactly spell out soldier.

When I first spoke to him on the phone I had deduced he was a man who had battled more than the unknown enemies on Iraqi soil, someone with very strong opinions and a recently published book that said it all. I was trawling across the internet for squaddies in the public eye when I tripped over a mention of his book, 'Squaddie, A Soldior's Story.

I got in touch with the publisher who passed on his details and soon I was sitting in the radio booth in the department newsroom struggling to hear what he was saying about the secrecy, the former prime minister and why he thought this inquiry was a waste of tax payers money, over a crackly phone line. The call left me curious about why the name Al Sadr was not a name I'd heard before and wondering whether Iraq was really heading towards a new dictatorship. I realised that he probably did have some useful insights that I could use and a trip up to Preston might just be worth my while.

And so, a few weeks later there I was seated face to face with the Squaddie himself at Preston public library, feeling like an undercover agent as we talked in hushed whispers and lowered voices inviting suspicious looks from passers by as we discussed Iraq , the war and the current controversy surrounding the inquiry and the speculation of a whitewash inquiry that had been making headlines of late.

I wasn't sure how much of the interview I would be able to use without breaching libel and slander laws that make the media laws in this country so stringent (but are crucial to ensure objective and impartial reporting) and how I could present his views without making the piece sound like a sounding board for anti-war and anti-Blair camp opinions. It was going to be a challenge I would have to deal with soon enough but for now I was going back to London with my interview and my copy of Squaddie which I hoped would shed some light on what happened in Iraq and the barracks, things the public couldn't see.....and it did in a sense.

So if you want a colourful but real look at the life of a Squaddie then Squaddie a Soldier's Story might be of interest.

See: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Squaddie-Soldiers-Story-Steven-McLaughlin/dp/1845961455