Deaths in the desert put Blair on the line: "Stark is angry as well as scared. 'Everyone is in a state of shock and there is now a real anti-government feeling here,' she said. 'We know they're doing the jobs they signed up to do and are being paid to do. But Paul was only 19. It's too young to die. I voted Labour all my life, but I'll never vote for them again.'"

"Lt Col James Cowan said that his regiment expected 'every lunatic terrorist from miles around to descend on us like bees to honey'. 'I hope the government knows what it has got itself into. I'm not sure they fully appreciate the risks,' the email read. 'The Marines we have taken over from have taken nine dead and 197 wounded since July. I hope we do better.'"

"The plasma television screen in the corner of Geoff Hoon's office has not been the bearer of much good news lately. But the images spilling out over the past three days - weeping relatives, grieving widows, accusations of sending soldiers into deathtraps, of wars fought for 'oil and money' - have reached a new low. What is only now becoming clear is the political impact not only on the Defence Secretary's career, but on that of the Prime Minister.

"Labour MPs with slender majorities may have winced hardest when one relative accused Tony Blair of being a 'murdering pig', but it is the impact on those who have until now supported the war that is crucial."

Deaths in the desert put Blair on the line: "Stark is angry as well as scared. 'Everyone is in a state of shock and there is now a real anti-government feeling here,' she said. 'We know they're doing the jobs they signed up to do and are being paid to do. But Paul was only 19. It's too young to die. I voted Labour all my life, but I'll never vote for them again.'"

"Lt Col James Cowan said that his regiment expected 'every lunatic terrorist from miles around to descend on us like bees to honey'. 'I hope the government knows what it has got itself into. I'm not sure they fully appreciate the risks,' the email read. 'The Marines we have taken over from have taken nine dead and 197 wounded since July. I hope we do better.'"

"The plasma television screen in the corner of Geoff Hoon's office has not been the bearer of much good news lately. But the images spilling out over the past three days - weeping relatives, grieving widows, accusations of sending soldiers into deathtraps, of wars fought for 'oil and money' - have reached a new low. What is only now becoming clear is the political impact not only on the Defence Secretary's career, but on that of the Prime Minister.

"Labour MPs with slender majorities may have winced hardest when one relative accused Tony Blair of being a 'murdering pig', but it is the impact on those who have until now supported the war that is crucial."