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 "From the minute I heard the dreadful news of the death of my brother, I couldn't help feeling something wasn't right, and after the inquest, I feel it even stronger. The war was founded on lies, we are not wanted over there, and it seems as though Lee was an open target."
Sister Karen Ellis, Miltary Families Against the War
Lee Ellis, 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, from Wythenshaw, was killed in Al Amarah, Iraq, in 2006.
There were 197 British soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq, as well as 2.400 US troops and over 1 million Iraqi people
I lost my little brother on the 28th of February 2006, I say little, he was two years younger than me but 6 foot 2, and 15 stone of a very handsome and kind man!
Already it is nearly Christmas and a year to when we last saw him! Where that year has gone I have no idea! We are now facing Christmas with out him, and already things have changed so much. I wish I could cancel Christmas, but for the sake of my daughter I can't, in-fact, if it wasn't for her I would of just given up a long time ago!
She is in the same class as Lee's little girl, whom we also have as a beautiful reminder of him. She is not going to spend Christmas with us this year, as she has for the last five years along with my brother, and all this change is just getting harder! Maybe time will heal, though it doesn't seem to! I just miss him more! We had Lee's inquest on the 27th of November and just seems unacceptable that people whom have lost previously to Lee have still not heard the torturous ways in which their loved ones have fallen!
As for the inquest, well what a joke! Lee was killed half an hour after appearing on Panorama supporting some propaganda about what a good job the military are doing over there, though I think he would of been more impressed about being on the telly, as Lee hated the army and couldn't wait to leave. This was also two weeks after a mosque was blown up, which was explained to me as comparison with someone coming over here and blowing up the palace with the Queen and even Princess Diana in it. As you can imagine it didn't go down too well!
From the minute I heard the dreadful news of the death of my brother, I couldn't help feeling something wasn't right, and after the inquest, I feel it even stronger! Yes Lee signed up and apparently new the risks, though there are necessary risks and just plain negligence!! The war was founded on lies, we are not wanted over there, and it seems as though Lee was an open target! Lee was killed in Al Amarah, a well known hot spot! And Lee had told me this himself, he also told me you didn't go out in that town unless in a Warrior, though in the January before he was killed, tactics were changed and it was deemed safe enough to travel in Land rover's (death traps)! Even though there had been endless rocket attacks at the army base after the mosque had been blown up! The Iraqi police had come across some of these rockets and very kindly wanted to hand them over to the military on national television, isn't it a coincidence he was killed shortly after!
I could go on for ever about how members of the military contradicted themselves in that Inquest. About the questions I asked which were not allowed to be mentioned in the papers. The first hand experiences I have encountered with regards to what control is had over the media, how everything has been glossed over!
And how, when I looked at that fat bald headed solicitor for the army sat in the middle of that court room, whom on occasion had a smirk on his his face whilst sat in the room of a grieving family, how he reminded me of someone who had just freed a murderer!
R.I.P. Lee Ellis ! Love and miss you forever and always xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox |
