This wrong, very wrong. We all must abide by the law and expect to be punished if we don't. I can see no reason why soldiers should be exempt from the law.
This seems the start of a similar tradition where a sitting government will declare an amnesty on prosecutions where there's the potential for bad publicity in the run up to an election.
If Mr Straw is looking for his spine he may find it Rupert Murdoch's desk draw
Lets hope he doesn't continue to lose other parts of his anatomy in the next week