Ahead of Armed Forces Day, David Cameron has said the British public should express its appreciation of Britain's military more loudly and more proudly.
I readily admit that they do a job that i wouldn't do but i do find myself in a bit of a bind about how i feel about them in their present role.
I was strongly against the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions so feel it hypocritical of me to express my appreciation of them doing a job i was against them doing in the first place.
How can i say i disagree with you being there but well done anyway, i'm very proud of you. I can't do that.
Not that i agree with the people who berate them when they come back, i prefer to keep a dignified silence and appreciate the job they do, just not appreciate the job that they are presently doing.
It does feel slightly like the emotional blackmail that George W Bush and his cronies employed against the American people with the 'if you are not with us, you are against us' mentality thrown around at the start of the Iraq invasion.
I'm not buying into that from our Government, the military was not in Iraq to keep us safe in our beds. Inquiry after inquiry has hammered that point home and we did not go into Afghanistan for any other reason than to punish the Taliban for not handing over Bin Laden. The former owner of this blog has pointed out many times the deal made where his handover would mean the Taliban would be left safely in power.
I'm not going to be waving my flag and applauding 'our boys' next week and i won't be waving a placard asking how many kids they killed today either. I will be thinking brave boys doing the wrong job in places they shouldn't be.
4 comments:
I agree with you 100%. I've never rolled with all that "Support the troops even though you don't support what they're doing" rubbish. The Iraq adventure particularly was a fundamentally flawed and dishonest endeavour. What's to 'support' about that? Were noble & informed Germans in 1939 thinking 'well, I do think that invading another sovereign nation for our own selfish ends is a nasty thing to do... but I do 'support the troops!'.
It's all a bunch of arse. Sold to us to secure our compliant acquiescence. To shut us up, basically, cos speaking out is being disloyal to those lovely troops over there.
And all of this is quite apart from the fact that there have been many proven instances of troop brutality against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is a fine line to tread and i have had a few disagreements with people who have switched from being anti-both the wars to supporting them because its 'our troops' over there. It just stinks of hypocrisy.
yawl are both full of it on this. if the troops pick when and where to fight every military situation would be utter turmoil. ditto on the methods, objectives, and tactics. like it or not the troops need to be order takers. support your troops you fools.
"troop brutality". no way to justify it. however, being human, troops are subject to human flaws. therefore one has troop brutality. wish it didn't happen. wish the taliban didn't abuse women too.
if in doubt thump your "representatives". and quit blaming everything on bush. at the time your representatives did what they thought was best for themselves and hopefully the UK. obviously you dont agree with them. thats fine. but stop blaming bush. the uk would attack the usa tomorrow if the uk leaders thought it was in their best interest. so place the blame where it belongs - with your representatives.
q
"and quit blaming everything on bush"
Are you talking to me? There's nobody I blame for this clusterfuck more than Blair and his cohorts. Anyone who's read what I've written in the last few years would know this. Blaming Bush for dickhead decisions is a bit like blaming a tetraplegic for soiling himself. If Bush wants to plead insanity then I'm with him all the way i.e. I don't blame Bush.
"support your troops you fools
Exactly how would you like me to do this? Or rather, you tell me exactly how you're supporting the troops' and I'll tell you whether my conscience and I are OK with me doing the same. It's a personal choice though, right?
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