On 22 May 2010, footballer David Beckham visited the British troops in Afghanistan.

"There were cheers and smiles in Helmand Province when David Beckham met with hundreds of soldiers," proclaimed the Ministry of Defence, keen to promote the pro-war message when all the opinion polls show an overwhelming majority of the British public want the troops withdrawn now.

One soldier Beckham met isn't cheering or smiling anymore.

Private Ryan Hewitt, just 18 years old - a soldier for less than one year - was blown up in Helmand just weeks after this picture was taken of him meeting Beckham.

He lost both his legs and a finger and fractured his spine, jaw and eye socket. His legs had to be amputated as he lay in agony after stepping on a booby-trap device.

Beckham said it was an "honour" to visit the troops; they were doing "an amazing job", which made him "proud to be British".

The job they are doing is killing and being killed in a war which has no purpose outside of desperate attempts by the warmongers to find a way of getting out of Afghanistan without admitting defeat. A lot more soldiers and many more Afghan civilians will be sacrified to save the face of politicians and generals.

It's too much to expect that David Beckham will ever understand how his celebrity was used to justify the pointless war that blew the legs off 18 year old Private Hewitt.