It will soon be the Eleventh day of the Eleventh month and at Eleven o'clock most of us will stand in respectful silence and remember those who have given their lives in the service of this country, this world and the greater good. Undoubtedly there will be some who will say that the sacrifice wasn't worth it, that the sacrifice of the young lads in Iraq and Afghanistan isn't worth it. In some respects they are right, every one of the lads that has died has been too high a price to pay. We don't deserve the sacrifice that our Armed Forces have made for us over the centuries, we have squandered the legacy of their sacrifice. A land fit for heroes after WW1 and they came back to dole queues and poverty. A bright new world after WW2 and we have seen the gradual interminable decline into a nation where a 93 year old man gets beaten up on a train and his attacker gets three years in prison and will be back out on the streets in 15-18months. A typist with RSI to the thumb gets £400000+ and a paralysed soldier with multiple injuries is entitled to under the new improved, revised compensation scheme to a maximum of £285000, all the Labour Minister for Veterans affairs can say when questioned is "Well, there was nothing there before" in a pathetic attempt to deflect blame onto the previous government!
Given the profligacy of the politicians at the feed trough when filling their own coffers you would think that when it is something as sensitive as this they would do something, but it seems that greed triumphs again for political animals.
Maybe when we have our two minutes silence and bow our heads in Remembrance, we and the politicians should also be bowing our heads in shame at the manner in which we treat those that serve and face the ultimate sacrifice to protect our way of life!
To any who read this, buy an extra Poppy this year, have one less pint, put the money in the Poppy jar. Remember those who served and think of those still serving.
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4 comments:
If that sacrifice hadn't been made in the last war............where would we all be now.
Whether any sacrifice like this is worth it I find impossible to answer because we don't know what the world would be like without those sacrifices; although Iraq and such like invite negative answers.
I buy 2 or 3 poppies every year.
.......as much because I keep losing them LOL
GOM,
Well for a start we'd all be speaking in German. We almost certainly wouldn't have the freedom that we have now to criticise and blog. There would be no non aryans allowed.
Check this link out, it hasn't changed much for the PBI(Poor Bloody Infantry) since the 1800's
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/volumeXI/tommy.html
It is a very sad thing when we say those boys who have died in Iraq should not have and it was all unnecessary. It makes their contribution and their lives worthless, and it must also make their immediate families feel awful to know how the public regards the death of a serving soldier.
I watched the remembrance service on TV and felt honoured to be a part of "our armed forces". They deserve far more respect than we credit them with.
Joanne & GOM,
Were the lives wasted, I would say that the cause for which they fought and are fighting for in Iraq and Afghanistan are not worth it. However as an ex soldier none of us fought for any of the lofty values of Queen and Country. You fight for your mate in the shell scrape beside you, your section, your platoon, your company, your battalion and regiment. That is something that those who have not served do not comprehend and why the regimental system is such a powerful tool. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, for patria substitute amici and you have the answer why their lives weren't wasted. The real sacrifice was for their mates, the strategic aim of the sacrifice isn't worth the immediate tactical sacrifice. We will be in these places for the next 10 years and at the end of it will still be hated. The recent destruction of some historic regiments and reduction of infantry has meant that the guys on the ground are being overstretched. As in every war it is the PBI, Tommy who suffers for our lack of care.
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