I’ve just killed four people

There are versions of this story across the British media. The Daily Mail article was more informative than most.

A Gulf War veteran who was tormented by his Army past was last night being questioned over the slaughter of four members of his own family.

David Bradley, 41, walked into a police station with a terrifying cache of weapons hours after Peter and Jospehine Purcell and their two sons were gunned down in a military style execution.

All four victims were killed at point blank range with an automatic pistol fitted with a silencer.

At 6.15am yesterday, Bradley - a veteran of the first Iraq conflict 15 years ago who saw six of his comrades killed by American pilots in a 'friendly fire' incident - walked into his local police station in Newcastle, placed his house keys on the counter and calmly told the desk officer: 'You may need these. I've just killed four people.' Full story ...

British officials are already facing around 10% attrition among troops each month because of psychological issues.

Note, this episode stems from ‘Desert Storm’ which suggests the potential time bombs are increasing in number with no apparent indication of when they will lose it.

This problem doesn’t just effect Britain, obviously the situation is similar in all countries with troops engaged in the Middle East.

I’m not sure if the ‘friendly fire’ incident is significant. I do know Canadians still talk about a more recent Afghanistan incident when National Guard pilots killed their troops in ‘friendly fire’.

I guess its just one more of the horrors of war, but that horror is coming right back to haunt us all, for a very long time.