The Queen will unveil a memorial to fallen heroes of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars today (09.03.17).
The 90-year-old monarch will head to Victoria Embankment Gardens in Westminster, London where she will host the tributes to soldiers who lost their lives on the frontline in the war-torn countries in 2003 to 2011 and 2002 to 2014 respectively.
The new shrine comes as Labour MP and ex-army Major Dan Jarvis – who served in both conflicts – urged how important it is that the UK to "learns from the mistakes" of both wars as well as remembering those who lost their lives.
In an essay penned for the Daily Mirror newspaper, he advised: "We need a memorial as a physical reminder of the sacrifices made.
"But the most important thing we can do is to learn from these two conflicts.
"We must ensure that old mistakes are not repeated and new mistakes are not made."
Going forward, Jarvis feels that there needs to be more justification for starting wars and has called for all MPs to be informed by the Government of their plans.
He added: "It is the duty of every MP to scrutinise the basis of any future proposal to go to war and be able to justify it to their constituents. For them to do this, the Government needs to better share its intelligence with all our MPs."
456 British troops lost their lives during Operation Herrick in Afghanistan and 79 died in Iraq.
Queen to unveil new war memorial
