Following success at the National Theatre of Scotland and after a global tour, Black Watch made its long awaited début at the Barbican at the start of June.

Iraq is an unpopular war yet unlike Vietnam the military have been viewed in a good light..could this change? In late July the British defence establishment was rocked with accusations of institutionalising torture and forbidden intarogation techniques… as opposed to ‘a few bad apples’ practices illegal on the Geneva conventions such as hooding and the use of stress positions were reported by an investigatory committee to be common practice.

Black Watch is part of a larger effort by the arts to explore the impacts of the war in Iraq through a variety of mediums ranging from films, documentaries and theatre. Hollywood though, has failed to do Iraq cinematic justice. Indeed the recent spate of films, despite their supposedly ‘anti-war lite’ motivations, focus on the impact of Iraq on US soldiers rather than the far more devastating impact vice versa. Clearly Iraq and the violence that has embraced it since 2003 has become a showcase of horrors that is understood in the West only through examining that impact of the war on our soldiers themselves.

Why? Because Iraq is a war detached and buffered in numerous ways from its domestic civilian constituencies. Our best connection therefore exists to those who return from service in the country.

Financially we've not been affected – the fact that President Bush has been able to lower taxes during the ‘War on Terror’ a reflection of a conflict fought on borrowed money. Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz speaking at The Frontline Club last month described the entire war as being ‘fought on a credit card’.

In addition having a professional army, albeit one generally recruited amongst the economically disadvantaged, has meant that our society has not been faced with the traumas of conscription. So it is our soldiers alone (and a small number of brave diplomatic operatives) who understand the horrors of the conflict and the reasons, or lack of, for being there. An officer in Black Watch jokes when challenged to explain the reason for their going to war quips: "porn and petrol". What the play does so well is skillfully weave together a story of soldiers and their 267 years of tradition and lifestyles reacting to the war and politics around them in Iraq.

The delay in arriving in London is rumored to be down to an inability to find a venue that allows for this particular type of performance. The theatre is arranged as if you were attending a military tattoo and as the narrator announces to a fanfare…. “The Black Watch”. But this is no parade. The narrative itself tells of the regiment’s deployment to Camp Dogwood in 2004 that allowed the US a freer hand to attack Falluja. It is told as a series of flashbacks by a group of disillusioned squadies to an investigative journalist whose naivety represents the general public’s inability to understand the reality of Iraq. At one point when he asks a former solider about his experience, the soldier threatens to break his arm. Why? "If he wants tay ken about Iraq, he has tay feel some pain."

In the play Iraq itself has become a catalyst for both the rejection of war back home and for the Black Watch "tribe" to learn about the pain of loss of friends. The "golden thread" of regimental history is a constant presence, with the story set to the background of the Black Watch being merged into a Scottish "super-regiment". Black Watch is fuelled by a relentless energy that is a potent reminder of the prime of life, so quickly transformed into death, severe physical or mental injury. It is also at its core a reminder of the great distance between the British population and the wars fought in its name.

As with Hollywood though, again Iraqis are missing from the story of their own war. When asked about their interactions with the indigenous population a soldier reacts with surprise: "What the fuck have the Iraqis got tay fucking day way anything?". What is needed next is a production focusing on Iraqis experience that holds itself to the high theatrical standards set by this excellent performance.