“Sergeant Steve Roberts, 33, was told to hand back his flak jacket while serving with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, because there were not enough to go round.

Days later, on 24 March last year, he was shot dead trying to quell a riot.

His widow Samantha has called for Mr Hoon to quit saying he has “blood on his hands.” (Source: BBC News)

This is the lie of patriotism, the lie in all those stirring recruitment adverts for the armed forces. The lie is that the British state actually cares about the health and lives of its service men and women.

It doesn’t.

Any care that’s shown is exactly the same care as that shown by a farmer pre-slaughter: the farmer wants to make sure the produce ends up on the slab and not in a fox’s belly.

If the army, navy or air force take care of their troops, it’s purely because they want to deliver healthy, trained soldiers into the slaughter of war.

All that training, all those simulations and what happens? A soldier steps off his transport and gets his head blown off by a passing sniper. Sorry about that, but that’s war. And every war needs willing, dutiful cannon fodder.

That’s why absolute obedience is required, start asking questions and you may want to know exactly why you’ve invaded this foreign country that hasn’t even attacked Britain. And why, if you’re an army of liberation as Bush, Blair and Hoon claim, you’re being greeted by nailbombs and bullets instead of garlands of flowers and street parties.

But we should be proud of “our country” and fight for “our country,” lay down our lives without question for “our country.” The same country, the exact same ruling class that decimates our healthcare, kills us on its privatised rail network and then won’t even give us the decent fighting chance of body armour in a combat zone.

The life of British soldiers means exactly as much to Geoff Hoon as the life of Iraqi civilians does: nothing.

One last thing.

The implication of all the current press hoo-haa is that Hoon is now a bad minister and now has blood on his hands. Now, he should resign for his crimes.

Is Iraqi blood invisible?

Or is it only the blood of British people that counts?