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- The mother of a teenage soldier killed in Iraq on the
day sovereignty was handed back to the country said yesterday her son was
no more than "a bit of meat" to Tony Blair.
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- Rose Gentle, 40, whose 19-year-old son Gordon died in
a roadside bombing near Basra, said the Prime Minister and Geoff Hoon,
the Defence Secretary, should not have sent him to Iraq after only three
months in the Army.
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- She added: "My son was just a bit of meat to them,
just a number."
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- "This is not our war, my son has died in their war
over oil and they haven't even taken the trouble of picking up the phone
to say they're sorry for our loss."
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- Fusilier Gentle joined 1 Bn Royal Highland Fusiliers
three months ago and was on his first active posting when his Army Land
Rover drove over a concealed bomb on Monday morning - one hour after George
W Bush and Mr Blair handed sovereignty to a new Iraqi government.
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- Relatives gathered at the family home in Pollok, Glasgow,
said he was ill prepared for frontline duty. His uncle, Gordon Graham,
41, said the family had received a letter from his nephew yesterday in
which he said how much he was looking forward to coming home on leave on
July 10 "to go for a pint with his Dad".
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- A spokesman for the MoD said Fusilier Gentle had completed
"all of his basic Army training and his combat infantry training".
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