حملات محاسبة جنود الجيش البريطاني تقوض قوته

Voices CommentI led the British army – now I fear we’re failing our troopsBritain’s armed forces face a growing threat – and not just from adversaries abroad. As former soldiers are increasingly drawn into courtroom battles years after serving, legal challenges at home risk undermining the army’s trust, morale and effectiveness, says former chief of the general staff Peter WallSunday 19 April 2026 13:02 BSTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popover{"translations":{"comments":"Go to comments","share":"Share","copyLink":"Copy link","bookmark":"Bookmark","removeBookmark":"Remove bookmark"},"showComments":true,"showBookmark":true,"articleId":"b2957221","articleMeta":{"url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/uk-lawfare-soldiers-human-rights-act-army-veterans-b2957221.html","title":"I led the British army – now I fear we’re failing our troops"},"popoverPlacementOverride":"bottom"}Penny Mordaunt says measures to protect British soldiers facing investigations should cover Northern Ireland veteransAs events in the Middle East are demonstrating, the UK is much better at lawfare than warfare. Our denuded military capability offers very poor defence for UK citizens and UK dependencies against emerging threats that have crystallised in the last few weeks, not least ballistic missiles. Not only do we lack the combat power we once took for granted, but our strategic “mojo” seems to have ebbed away; as a nation, we look out of touch and geopolitically irrelevant, with no obvious plan to dig ourselves out of the hole.We are, however, well ahead of our peer nations when it comes to lawfare – the politically motivated use of legal process against military personnel. The Human Rights Act (HRA), derived from the European Convention on Human Rights, is the primary instrument around which an industry of challenging former military actions has emerged in the past two decades. Lawfare grew rapidly on the back of the HRA and was exploited voraciously...