If we needed any reminding that warfare today is a brutal business, we need only think about the five soldiers killed in Afghanistan this week.

More young lives cut short in a distant country, in a conflict that is leaving many people wondering why we are there.

The debate is likely to go on until the day Britain and the other nations which supply troops withdraw.

Of course the one group of people who cannot say much about the war's strategy is the soldiers themselves.

They sign up. They receive training. They get posted abroad. They fight. And some of them do not come home.

It was like this in the World Wars, the Falklands, Iraq, the Balkans and all the other conflicts.

Young people carry out the wishes of whatever Government is in power and they do not reveal anything in public about their true thoughts.

This is why it is so important that whatever our views on war, we must continue to support them.

And it is why, if they pay the ultimate price, we must remember them.

Across the Bristol area on Sunday there will be parades, services and ceremonies of remembrance.

It is important we give soldiers our thoughts.

And spare a thought for the mums and dads, wives and husbands, and sons and daughters whose loved ones are in the war zone.

This time of remembrance must be observed by all.