California funeral for Scottish-born Marine

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Something to ponder...will we EVER see a memorial in Bagdad erected to the US and UK troops who dies in this war? That would be the ultimate sign that the Arab mindset was changing.....BTWE, the Kuwaitis never did that...

A true "Flower of the Forest".

There are two large UK war cemetaries in Iraq at baghdad and basra. Both have been deliberately desecrated. Perhaps having the Iraqi government pay for restoration would be a start. Sir: I am writing you as you are a living relative of Mesopotamian Campaign Victoria Cross holder Pvt. Charles Melvin. The condition of both British military cemeteries in Iraq at Baghdad and Basra is worse than disgraceful. The natives have engaged in deliberate desecration of these two memorials sacred to the courage and sacrifice of Empire forces. I have included two articles which originally appeared in the Times of London detailing the abominable state of these two cemeteries. Nothing could be done prior to the outbreak of hostilities with Iraq since there have been no diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Iraq since 1990. That has all changed and I am trying to focus attention on the need to make restoration of the two war cemeteries one of the first tasks undertaken when hostilities end. I solicit your participation in this effort and strongly encourage writing both your MP and the Ministry of Defense and Commonwealth War Graves Commission stating the urgent need to repair the deliberate damage done to these sacred places There is a lot of discussion about funds for restoration of the civil infrastructure of the Iraqi state. That is all well and good. However, the Iraqis have behaved squalidly towards the most sacred memorials of brave men and some of the first expenditures for restoration ought be for repairing the damage done to these places. If you desire to register a protest over this outrage I will be happy to provide you the information on the appropriate section of the MOD or War Graves Commission to post to. Very Respectfully Mack V Truslow INSIDE IRAQ RELICS OF IRAQ'S COLONIAL PAST JOIN THE GHOSTS OF OTHER EMPIRES The Times of London ^ | 19 June 2002 | Richard Beeston INSIDE IRAQ RELICS OF IRAQ'S COLONIAL PAST JOIN THE GHOSTS OF OTHER EMPIRES by Richard Beeston The Times, 19th June VIEWED from the busy Baghdad road, the crumbling monuments standing amid the weeds and rubbish of a vast expanse of wasteland look like the remains of some ancient civilisation, a common sight in Iraq where successive empires have come and gone over the past 5,000 years. In fact, this forlorn site close to the centre of Saddam Hussein¹s capital is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery. It is the final resting place of nearly 17,000 British soldiers who perished during the First World War campaign in Mesopotamia. ³Britch, Britch,² said my Iraqi driver with a dismissive wave of the hand. Clearly anxious not to abandon the cool of his air-conditioned taxi for the blazing heat of the midday sun, he shook his head and grimaced: ³Old. No good.² For most Iraqis that is a pretty fair description of the most visible remains in Baghdad of the British empire, whose 30-year rule certainly pales by comparison to that of the Abbasids or the Ottomans. Pushing open a rusting gate and disturbing a stray dog cooling itself in a pool of dirty water, I entered what must once have been a truly impressive place. The bleached headstones still stand in long rows of military precision. Properly tended, the cemetery would have made an arresting sight in a city better known for its traffic, dust and giant cement monuments to Saddam Hussein. Instead, it looks sad and desolate after more than a decade of neglect since Britain and Iraq severed relations at the time of the Gulf War. Local boys have dragged the headstone of Sapper T.R. Thomas from his grave and used it as a goalpost for their makeshift football pitch in the middle of the cemetery. Other graves have survived with a little more dignity, those of men from lost regiments who mostly succumbed to disease or incompetence. Only the tomb of Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Maude, who died of cholera while leading the ill-fated expeditionary force into Iraq, remained defiantly intact. The cemetery is a poignant symbol of the decline of British influence in this country, which until the early 1990s retained strong ties with its former colonial ruler. Iraq¹s military, civil service and other professions modelled themselves closely on their British counterparts. Until recently it was impossible to walk into a hospital, newspaper office or government ministry without being accosted by a British-trained Iraqi fondly recalling undergraduate years spent in Edinburgh, Liverpool or London. For young Iraqis, however, today¹s Britain is a remote country with nostalgic associations only for their parents¹ generation. Only a few speak halting English and those who go abroad tend to travel to other Arab countries. British visitors to Iraq are curiosities. The once grand British Embassy, abandoned 12 years ago, is another relic of that earlier age. Once the envy of the diplomatic community, the imposing Ottoman governor¹s villa on the banks of the Tigris is in a sorry state. The formerly pristine garden looks like an empty lot. Neighbours dump their rubbish against the crumbling walls. British officials fear that the structural damage to the two-storey building is so great that the yellow-brick structure may have to be pulled down. The only British symbol that survives largely intact is the Anglican Church of St George, where Hanna Toma, an Iraqi Christian, tends the little garden, makes repairs when needed, and prays for the day when the British return and services resume. However, there are hints of a thaw in relations between Baghdad and London. British diplomats are making more frequent visits to Iraq. There are rumours that the British Council may reopen some educational services. Dr Kamal Mudher, a historian at Baghdad University, who has studied the arrival and departure of the British, is hopeful that the thaw will continue. ³We differentiate between politics and the country that gave the world Shakespeare,² he says. ³When this unpleasant business is over, maybe we can pick up where we left off.² http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-333389,00.html * MAINTAINING WAR GRAVES IN IRAQ Letter from the Director-General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Times, 21st June Sir, Readers of Richard Beeston¹s ³Letter from Baghdad² (June 19) may be interested to learn that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has recently reached an agreement with the Iraqi Government over a maintenance programme for its cemeteries in the country. There are more than 54,000 Commonwealth war dead buried or commemorated at 13 locations in Iraq. The majority of these casualties occurred during the Mesopotamian campaign against the Ottoman Turks in the First World War. Maintenance became difficult during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, but continued until the onset of the Gulf War in 1990. In recent years some renovation work was possible, but the effects of two wars and years of sanctions have left all of the cemeteries in need of attention. However, there has been no threat to the land or disturbance of the burials. Following persistent visits by our staff, agreement to commence work was received last December. The commission plans a rolling maintenance programme in Iraq with the full agreement and co-operation of the Iraqi authorities. Work has already begun at Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, where a new perimeter fence has been installed and agreement reached over the construction of staff quarters. This will be followed by a major horticultural and structural renovation programme. The commission takes a long-term view of the situation in Iraq, and although we have suffered many setbacks, we wish to reassure the public that we will do everything in our power to restore the graves to a fitting standard. Yours faithfully, RICHARD KELLAWAY, * BRITISH WAR CEMETERIES DESECRATED BY IRAQIS by Ian Cobain in Basra The Times, 15th October THOUSANDS of British war graves in Iraq have been desecrated in a reaction to the threat of renewed bombing raids against the country. Headstones have been smashed, crosses vandalised and memorial plaques torn down and smashed in a cemetery holding the remains of the dead from two world wars. One section of a cemetery in the port of Basra, which was set aside for RAF pilots who died in Iraq during the Second World War, has been torn apart and excrement has been smeared across the graves. A spokesman for the Basra Governor said that he regretted the desecration, adding: ³We know that it is a bad thing but you must understand how angry the people here are.² About 2,500 British soldiers who died in the 1914-18 Mesopotamian campaign against the Turks are buried in the cemetery in Hakimayah, on the northern outskirts of Basra, along with a number of Second World War servicemen. A 16ft limestone cross standing at the entrance has been hacked and shots have been fired at a plinth at the far end of the ten-acre plot in an apparent attempt to erase the inscription which reads: ³Their Name Liveth For Evermore.² All of the 60-odd slate plaques inscribed with the names of the dead, which once lined a 200ft wall, have been pulled down and smashed. Local people said that the desecration began after air raids launched during the 1991 Gulf War, when a number of bombs fell on nearby residential areas. There were more attacks when Baghdad was bombed for four nights in December 1998 and, after a series of acts of vandalism in recent weeks, little now remains to record the names of the dead or the sacrifice that they made. A memorial in Basra to 40,000 unknown Commonwealth soldiers was dismantled by the Iraqi Government five years ago and reassembled 30 miles northwest in the town of Nasiriyah. At Basra, however, small children have turned the centre of the cemetery into a football pitch, using rusting oil cans as makeshift goal posts. Weeds are beginning to grow among the shattered headstones but not a blade of grass remains. Laith Hasan, who lives in a small house overlooking the cemetery, described how it had been the scene of one frenzied protest after another. ³In 1990, this was a beautiful place,² he said. ³There was a man who came and pulled up the weeds and brushed the paths every day. Look at it now ‹ it is a wasteland.² British and Indian troops seized Basra in November 1914 after the entry of Turkey into the war against the Entente powers. Determined to protect oil supplies from Iran, whose border lies just 12 miles to the east, and to protect India from attack by the Turks, the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force then pushed north along the Tigris towards Baghdad. The British suffered one of their most disastrous defeats of the war in December of the following year when the 6th (Poona) Division was surrounded at the town of Kut-el-Amara by Turkish forces. After a five-month siege, the British were forced into unconditional surrender. Kut was recaptured in February 1917, however, and Baghdad fell the following month. After the defeat of the Turkish forces in Palestine, Iraq was created under a British mandate. Carefully piecing together the fragments of the shattered plaques at the cemetery in Basra yesterday, Times journalists were able to recreate the memorial to the British regiments that fought in the campaign and to the soldiers who died. The Cheshire Regiment, the Royal Welch Fusiliers and the Black Watch were honoured, along with the Royal Ulster Rifles, the 7th Hussars and many more. A small section of the plaque commemorating the dead of the Highland Light Infantry listed the sergeants who died: Darby R., Kilgour D. and Malloy D.; with a handful of the private soldiers also buried there: Duff T., Findlay A. and McKellap J. During the Second World War, more British, Indian and Polish servicemen lost their lives in clashes with Iraqi troops while pushing north in an attempt to protect the region¹s oil supplies from a possible attack by the Germans and today there are now 54,000 British and Commonwealth dead buried at 13 cemeteries scattered across the country. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is hoping to send a delegation to Iraq next month to survey each cemetery and to arrange repairs. Although permission for the visit was granted last December by the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, it is unclear whether the threat of possible attack by American and British forces will cause it to be cancelled by the Iraqis. At Basra, it is clear that the vandals have sought out the graves of British servicemen. One corner of the cemetery which is set aside for European and American civilians, mostly businessmen, missionaries and consular officials who died last century, may be neglected and overgrown but no attempts have been made to damage the headstones. In Baghdad, at the North Gate cemetery, which holds the remains of thousands of British and Indian troops, attempts are being made to cut back the weeds and the foundations are being laid for a new caretaker¹s house. Even here, however, there are signs of vandalism: the top of a cross has been lopped off; graffiti covers the mausoleum of General Sir Stanley Maude, who led the Expeditionary Force until his death in November 1917; and, in the centre of the cemetery, are two headstones that have been dragged from their graves. Sapper 580851 T.R. Thomas of the Royal Engineers was 25 years old when he died in 1917, five days before Christmas; Signalman T/S 0011 Abdul Karim of the Indian Signal Corps had been killed eight months earlier, at the age of 31. Today, the only evidence that these men had ever lived, and died, is propped up by bricks, and children kick a football between their names.

Thanks for the info, though a para break wouild be welcome also....hmm, perhaps we can ask the French to restore the British cemeteries.....they're getting practice at doing that, sadly..

Something to ponder...will we EVER see a memorial in Baghdad erected to the US and UK troops who dies in this war?

Perhaps, but not for a long time, or even in our life time. If all goes well, some Iraqi, years from now, will read a history of this time and be moved enough to start a "War Memorial Fund" to the memory of those that liberated them from Saddam Hussein, "many years ago". Be patient. It may take a century, or more.

Right now, it is more important to appreciate the hero's we have, and remember the ones who fell and the families they have left behind.

A real tragedy would be to learn that the wife and child of a fallen US soldier is in food stamps, than that there is no memorial in Baghdad.

I think it might be sooner than we think. I hope so. I know several Iraqis in this country. I think the Iraqi people will thrive under freedom, self government. They have a long history in commerce, trade, and if they don'[t have to waste money on their military, the country will take off...

Two questions I can't wait to see answered...

1. Iraqi will start selling oil soon. Will it stay in OPEC, and support the cartel price?

2. They'll determine their own form ofgovernment, but it's got to be a secular one. If it's an Islamic state, ebven on the Turkish model, then it'll be trouble down the road..

May he rest in peace. Prayers for the family.

His widow, 19-year-old Shauna O'Day, is expecting the couple's first child in September.

Sorry to be contrary, but they are much more important than a memorial, and I fear in all the patriot fervor will eventually be forgotten. That would be the real "desecration" of the marine's sacrifice.

I think the Iraqi people will thrive under freedom, self government.

I think so too. If the Islamic extremism of the rest of the region can be eliminated or repulsed.

Will it stay in OPEC, and support the cartel price?

I think so. It is a familiar institution to them in marketing their oil.

Agreed. I wonder what type of benefits they will get from the government?