Within the next two weeks more British soldiers from Northern Ireland will fly to Iraq amid a deepening controversy over the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners which shows no sign of abating.
The US military has filed criminal charges against six of its soldiers accused of abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraid jail, Baghdad, and a number of senior personnel have been reprimanded.
The action was taken after pictures showing the torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners were beamed across the world. Now the British army is in the dock facing similar accusations of mistreatment.
The publication of photographs showing the alleged abuse of Iraqis at the hands of British personnel has sparked a political and military crisis.
The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation into the pictures, one of which appears to show a hooded and bound Iraqi prisoner being mistreated.
Shortly after the pictures were published in a British tabloid newspaper, military personnel raised questions about their authenticity, although the soldiers who took the pictures reportedly insist that they are genuine.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said that if the images were authentic the torture would be "totally unacceptable".
Soldiers from Northern Ireland are due to fly out to Iraq for escort and guard duties within the next few weeks.
Thirty-five part-time soldiers from the Territorial Army's Royal Irish Rangers are to travel to the city of Basra – the scene of continuing serious violence.
A British army spokesman confirmed that 208 personnel from Northern Ireland had been "mobilised" to Iraq, including those in training and other staff from medics to infantry soldiers.
Amid the torture allegations comparisons have been drawn with the British army's conduct in Northern Ireland – particularly during the early years of the Troubles.
Former internee Paddy Joe McClean's victory in a landmark human rights case against the British government more than 30 years ago is testament to the fact that the security forces have committed abuse of the type alleged in Iraq.
In the early 1970s the former chairman of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association – now a member of Omagh District Policing Partnership – was hooded, deprived of sleep, subjected to continual noise and starved while interned at Belfast's Crumlin Road jail.
The Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found his jailers guilty of torture and the British government was ordered to pay out thousands of pounds in compensation.
Mr McClean said he believed the Iraq photographs to be authentic.
"I accept that various interests will go to all lengths to defend what happened once they are exposed," he said.
"In our case that was the British government. Whilst they paid us compensation, they never accepted responsibility. That is the key issue and that is the ultimate cover-up of governments.
"I have a number of thoughts on the photographs. I am surprised that people do not understand that this is what soldiers do. That happens all the time. All armies will do that – history is full of instances of that.
"In relation to our own experiences, we were fortunate that there was such a thing as the Geneva Convention of Human Rights because after the Second World War the different European countries came together to defend what would be legal and what wouldn't be.
"Under the terms of that convention armies were supposed to behave in a defined way. If they didn't do that there was recourse for people like me who could go to the international court in Strasbourg and have our case heard and that did happen so that we had redress against the excesses of the armies.
"As you know in the hooded case of which there were 12, we were successful in bringing the British government to book. They were found guilty of inhuman degrading treatment against detainees. That avenue is not open to the people in Guantamano Bay for example, because the greatest and largest superpower in the world, the United States, don't subscribe to any form of international convention on the human rights of detainees.
"In fact the Americans have gone further because they have designated Guantamano Bay in Cuba as a no-man's land where no law applies so that the detainees there have no redress at all. That is savage."
After the pictures were published General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff in the British army, said any soldier who abused Iraqi prisoners was "not fit to wear the Queen's uniform".
Human Rights Group the Pat Finucane Centre pointed out that Sir Mike had sat on the army board which ruled that Mark Wright and James Fisher could remain in the military despite their convictions for the murder of north Belfast teenager Peter McBride in 1992.
SDLP North Belfast assembly member Alban Maginness said he believed the Iraq photographs to be genuine.
"It is a matter to be resolved but they seem to me to be fairly realistic. We should not be sending any more (military personnel to Iraq) and we shouldn't be sending any local soldiers to a situation that is fraught with difficulty and where there are controversial circumstances to be investigated," he said.
"The Iraqi people should be listened to. The council in Iraq has effectively been ignored in terms of its counsel to the Americans and to the British.
"The UN should ultimately be involved in any sort of decision making as far as that is concerned."
Ulster Unionist Policing Board member Fred Cobain said the authenticity of the pictures was not the issue.
"My view is the same as everyone. People who are guilty of abusing prisoners need to be caught and dealt with," he said.
"I don't know whether they (the pictures) are genuine or not. That is not the issue. If people are being mistreated by British soldiers, that issue has to be dealt with.
"I am anti-war. The difficulty is, how are the coalition going to extract themselves from Iraq and leave themselves some sort of democratic system behind them? It is a total mess at the minute."
Sinn Féin North Belfast assembly member Gerry Kelly said the debate over the abuse of prisoners was nothing new.
"Sinn Féin told both the British and American governments that the invasion in Iraq was wrong. We predicted that the outcome would be more misery and death and greater political instability," he said.
"The maltreatment of prisoners in Iraq comes as no surprise, given our experiences of occupying forces here in this part of Ireland.
"Whatever the veracity of the pictures currently circulating, nationalists living in this part of Ireland have direct experience of not just the approach of the British army as an occupying force but also their treatment of prisoners.
"You only have to look at the cases of the hooded men where the British government was found guilty in the European Court of Human Rights of inhumane and degrading treatment to see evidence of how the British army has behaved here."
Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International in Northern Ireland said he feared that the pictures would "exacerbate an already fragile situation".
"The prison was notorious under Saddam Hussein. It should not be allowed to become so again. Iraq has lived under the shadow of torture for far too long," he said.
"The coalition leadership must send a clear signal that torture will not be tolerated under any circumstances and that the Iraqi people can now live free of such brutal and degrading practices."
