Troops 'must strive for the moral high ground'

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the British Army, says educating soldiers at ground level is now a "key challenge" facing commanders.

In views made public after the acquittal of four soldiers on charges related to the killing of Baha Musa in Iraq, General Dannatt said yesterday that British forces must retain the "moral high ground... when a political decision is reached to send a military force on a discretionary intervention."

Sir Richard declared that the military hierarchy must train young people to understand the core values of "selfless commitment, courage, discipline, integrity, loyalty and respect for others", and apply these to their conduct on the field.

General Dannatt received widespread publicity after saying that the presence of British troops in Iraq exacerbated the security situation, and they should be pulled out "sometime soon".

General Dannatt said: "When a political decision is reached to send a military force on a discretionary intervention there is a conscious or subconscious acceptance that, in deploying to a less fortunate part of the world, we do so having publicly adopted a position on the moral high ground."

"However, when officers or soldiers act in a way contrary to our traditional values and standards and fail to respect the human rights of those they have gone to help, we risk falling from the high ground to the valley, often in a very public way."

After the acquittal of the soldiers, including Colonel Jorge Mendonca of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), the highest-ranking officer to be charged over the Iraq war, General Dannatt was asked by senior officers to investigate.

Brigadier Geoffrey Sheldon, Colonel-in-Chief of the QLR, said: "We have a professional who is prepared to stand up for his men. He should think how the chain of command can look after these men in difficult circumstances."

General Dannatt said any lapse in behaviour must be confronted with thorough inquiries, "well-informed" decisions about whether to prosecute and "timely disposal" of such cases through the judicial system.

His remarks appeared in the foreword to The Price of Peace - Just War in the 21st Century, a collection of essays published yesterday. He acknowledged there had been a "marked increase" in military intervention mainly under the banner of the United Nations, European Union and Nato - in George Bush's phrase, "coalitions of the willing".

"The swords have not become ploughshares but in an innovative way more akin to pruning hooks - they are being used to contribute to prosperity and stability and not merely to threaten or destroy," he said.