The campaigning mother of a Scottish soldier killed in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq said she held Tony Blair responsible as the inquest into his death resumed today.
Fusilier Gordon Gentle, 19, was killed on patrol in Basra on June 28, 2004, and his mother Rose has blamed Army "neglect" for his death.
Mrs Gentle, a bitter critic of the war in Iraq, claims her son would be alive today if an electronic jamming device had been installed on his Land Rover.
Before the inquest into his death started today at Oxford Coroners Court Mrs Gentle, of Glasgow, criticised the length of time it has taken.
She also said she wanted answers to why the government didn't fund the right equipment and why her son was taken to an Iraqi hospital.
She said: "I want to know what happened on the day and why Gordon was killed.
"I don't agree with the war in the first place and he should never even have been there."
Wearing a poppy and a picture of her son in a pendant around her neck, Mrs. Gentle said she was proud of all the soldiers killed in Iraq.
But she said the war was based on lies about weapons of mass destruction and Tony Blair not wanting to fall out with George Bush and America.
She added: "I hope Gordon Brown doesn't fall into his shoes and gets our boys out."
Mrs Gentle stood unsuccessfully against Adam Ingram, the former Armed Forces minister, for the seat of East Kilbride, Strathaven & Lesmahagow in the 2005 general election.
Fusilier Gentle, formerly of 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers, died on June 28, 2004, when the patrol he was in became the victim of a home-made roadside bomb in Basra.
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