ROYAL Marines from Norton Manor Camp have been slammed over a memento they bought back from the Iraq war - a giant bronze statue of Saddam Hussein.
The 9ft statue of the deposed dictator in military uniform, which members of 40 Commando snatched during the battle for the Al Fawr peninsula, currently has pride of place in the Officers' Mess at the camp.
Troops at the base are considering using Saddam's outstretched arm as a signpost to the camp tennis courts.
But Quaker Jefferson Horsley, who opposed the invasion, described the Marines' actions as "inappropriate and insensitive".
"It's a bit tasteless," he said. "It rather mocks the whole question of conflict and why we went to war.
"It isn't the way I'd expect our troops to conduct themselves, especially when the country was so divided about the war. It is inappropriate and insensitive."
Marines regard the statue as a memento of a hard-fought campaign and say such items have been brought back from military campaigns for hundreds of years.
See full story in tomorrow's County Gazette (Friday, June 6).
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