Why did my son die?

Andrew Kelly was the youngest soldier to die in the war with Iraq

Robert Kelly, the father of paratrooper Andrew Kelly, the youngest soldier to be killed in the war with Iraq has written to the Prime Minister, asking him to justify his decision to go to war.

In his letter, sent earlier this week, Mr Kelly calls for the prime minister to resign saying the decision to go to war was taken too lightly.

He blames Mr Blair for his son's death, and says the only reason for going to war was 'in Mr Blair's head' and that it should only have been a last resort

Breakfast spoke to live Robert Kelly this morning.

Mr Kelly's letter came as the Prime Minister was preparing for a trip to Washington, to address the US Congress.

His message - that history will vindicate the decision to go to war - received 17 standing ovations. But doubts remain on both sides of the Atlantic about the wisdom of going to war.

We talked to Jeff McAllister of Time Magazine about Tony Blair's address to Congress.

Direct threat

Robert Kelly insists that if Britain had faced a direct threat from Iraq then his son had died for a just cause.

Andrew joined the army at 16 and a half. His visit to Iraq was his first operational tour of duty and he had only just finished his training.

Incident

He died in a shooting incident that the army are currently investigating. He was serving with the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment (part of the 16 Air Assault Brigade), his unit had been involved in securing Basra and protecting the oil fields.

Shortly after 6 am on 6 May Andrew was killed after "accidental discharge" of a weapon at the Basra base.

Whilst his dad is still waiting for the details of the investigation he is satisfied that accidents do happen.

Speaking to other people in the unit he appreciates that they were all really tired, and that many had not been getting much sleep

Combining this with Andrew's inexperience could have led to disaster.

Robert Kelly stresses he is not anti-war. He himself served in the Navy for 24 years and he encouraged his son in his choice of profession.

Mr Kelly says he does not have a problem with soldiers seeing active service so young, but that teenagers seem a lot younger these days than they did when he was 16.

He'll now have to wait and see whether Mr Blair responds to the letter and whether he can add anything more to his reasons for going to war.