Thinking of those who have passed.

May I please take this moment in time To Think of all the Servicemen and Servicewomen that have Died fighting for our country and the Service persons who have also died of other countries in the past wars we have had.

May spen a small amount of time thinking of them all who have given up there lives so that we may be free to be able to live our lives the way we want to.

Nick B.

A lovely thought NB!

Dxx

Here! Here!! We will remember those who have fallen and those who are still falling......

Lovely thought, Nick.

Lest we forget.

A x

Absolutely and not forgetting those that are injured and still with us.

Given a chance, I'd work to keep wars from happening at all. Sigh. I hate seeing the young folks going off to death and pain and disability. I honor the meaning of armed services but I don't believe our governments do or they'd stop getting the world involved in these foolish wars which do no good and so much harm.

If our governments honored our service personnell they would do everything and anything -- for generations if necessary -- to avoid ever fielding our armed services.

Of course, the tough old Sarge would say that's a good way to let the Services get soft.

Perhaps I would like a "softer" world which would allow we humans to concentrate on the hard work we really need to do in order to survive eco-catastrophy. Everybody's so worried about global warming -- a no-brainer -- but we're facing eco-poisoning. We need our people here to help heal the Earth.

Of course, I'm States-side but I'm sure you all can think of a number of things in your home area which aren't happening to help the country you live in tool up for this vastly scary future. Things which our Service personell could use their non-military skills for.

Were you aware that when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans the federal government sent in armed mercenaries to deal with the civilians. Their idea of dealing with people is to beat them up at best. They're just plain killers. At least our Armed Services folks are part of us. They know we're their own people. Some might be right bastards but then that's true wherever you go. I'd trust our folks way above the Blackwater mercenaries.... darn. did I get that name right??? please forgive an old lady's memory glitches here.

It is a shame that troubles keep on erupting, as time passes I cannot help but think that the people trained to fight, create many of the problems later on, no matter if they are official soldiers or terrorists/freedom fighters.

The Triads and Mafia for instance were born from legitimate needs, some ex IRA are now main drug suppliers in the UK.

If countries could disband/step down and retire off their soldiers/terrorists after a conflict has ended then maybe another problems could be stopped before it begins?

I agree Penny ideally soldiers should morph in to another role after being soldiers to continue working until retirement. Special forces should never be allowed to start looking for other employment after such intensive training, they should definately have employment for life.

Sometimes I also wonder, why the support for a fighting force, either at home or abroad surely neednt be young men as long as they are fit for their age?

It seems with soldiers and freedom fighter/terrorists we arent learning by history.

They arent looked after the way they should be.

I have always detested Bush, but I did not know that he had sent Blackwater into New Orleans. Why did our [British] news not reveal it, [ we are supposed to have a quality news service] or do I know already? Our government claimed to be progressive, but was in cahoots with Bush and his gang.

However, I think that many soldiers like doing good and would be happy to morph into it full time, even while they are serving in the forces. My late uncle was a sergeant major, and one of his most happy memories of twenty five years service was rescuing civilians in the 1953 floods in the Netherlands.

Here in Canada there is a big thing about how we "Support our Troops". we just despise the war criminals who send them out to die in their war of political convenience...

I agree .

I think it is important to separate out the "Support the Troops who have been damaged/need help/ended their tour and have been left in the lurch" message

from the " I despise the politics/politicians who sent them there because they couldn't be bothered/wanted the oil/uranium etc etc etc ...."

I support the former, but marched about the latter

I worked for the MoD for many years, in case anyone was wondering.

I did too,

I will give 4 initials,

P T S D

is something that I am interested in at the moment, for varying reasons, I am reading into it...

Rhetorical question: It has been known about since the first world war, why in the U.K. is it still not accepted by the MOD & treated properly?

The figures from the Falklands conflict is already horendous & increasing daily ...

With something that can take many years (15 - 20+) to manifest is it realy fair to be sending so many of our people into "theatres of conflict" without the full support needed when they come home...

I am now coming up with my theories & I am hoping to prepare something to submit to somebody through the right channels at a later date, but already I believe the problems will get worse...

Thank God that the ex service charities are becoming proactive about it, because with the modern conflicts we are sitting on time bombs.
Why should charities have to provide the research & treatment that the MOD tries to brush under the carpet & shirk all responsibility for...

That turned into a rant, I'm not sorry, I am too often seeing & hearing of the adverse effects on individuals & society at the moment with a lack of help & understanding...

sparhawk wrote:Rhetorical question: It has been known about since the first world war, why in the U.K. is it still not accepted by the MOD & treated properly?

Sorry, I don't believe in rhetoric.
It is simple. If they admit it, then they admit liability for their negligence in failing to properly address it.

I think that soldiers really like doing relief work. My uncle was a sergeant major, and one of his greatest pleasures in the job was rescuing people from the 1953 floods in the Netherlands. [Does this reveal me as old?] My father was an assault trooper, trained to kill, though he would never say whether he had killed anyone. But after the war he never used his skills and training wrongly. He was too gentle and kind for his own good, despite the fact that he could have killed people who crossed him. The import of what I am saying is that it is not military training that does harm, it is what you chose to do with it that matters.