Yeah, it seems like they're always "fighting for our freedom" while alive and "dying for nothing" when dead.

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"Stop making up quotes and attributing them to me" - Voltaire

That's a very good way of putting it.
And it all does rather strengthen my belief that the soldier worship from the British public has nothing to do with supporting the cause, believing in a real threat to our freedom and safety, understanding the reasons for us been there, or even respect for the troops.

The way they change their oppinion of our military presence at the drop of a hat; support our troops they are heroes one minite, bring them home the brown people aren't worth it the next - tells me that for many it has always been about been seen to support by others, as opposed to the actual support you are giving to the soldiers.

They do not take a stance and stick to it, rather whatever happens they adjust their calls accordingly. Whatever the current situation they change their meaningless outrage to form a pro-soldier argment.

Against the war, or for the war. They are heroes, they made their choice. Most people form an oppinion and stick to it, even if it puts them in the unpopular position of saying that the soldiers made their choice to join up when more bodies are been sent home.

Not for these blindly pro-soldier people. As long as everyone sees them "supporting our troops", they will say anything.

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"Now get those trousers off before someone dies!"

I don't get this "fighting for our freedom" stuff anyway and suspect it is a kneejerk repetition of the mantra about people who fought in WW2 from Mailite types whose minds simply run along that groove whenever they start thinking about Our Boys. It's not as if we are in danger of being overrun by the Afghan army, is it? And it's a bit dubious that they are doing a whole lot for the anti-terrorism cause, given that there are few better aids to the recruitment of terrorists than the UK and US military dropping bombs on Afghan villages.

Unfortunately, the issue has become so emotive, it's impossible to rationally discuss it.

However, it's very true that both the rise of the EDL and homegrown Islamic Militancy (up to and including 7/7) are byproducts of the Afghan and Iraq wars.

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Ten seconds... the pain begins.

Fifteen seconds... you can't breathe.

Twenty seconds... you give up and turn off the Jeremy Vine show.

The 'heroic' aspect is keeping prices down at the pump. That's the bottom line. One suspects if you show an average British squaddie this picture, you'd get a blank stare.

150 years ffs

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"...now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness..."

When I briefly taught on Uniform Services courses a couple of years ago, most of the students destined for the army had no knowledge or interest in military history. For many, their motivation was excitement at the prospect of getting to legally shoot someone. I expect it was ever thus.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

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"...now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness..."

No comments? Strange...

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"Now get those trousers off before someone dies!"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... iform.html

Several sites have mentioned this and in all reports (bar this one). iT SAys the bar staff were not aware of the funeral , so in that case the staff have my sympathys, also you have to think of the reasons why the ban was issued , (had they had problems in the past with punchy members of the public ?). I feel bad for the guys who were refused service , but I do understand why the bar took the action they did. I fully expect an EDL mob to protest outside the bar imminentley though.

An we all no wot thee blak dogs' name is doesnt we??....tho weir not aloud tosay anymorr. NFSE

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

Wonderful. 50,000 people protest about a shit pub in Coventry they threaten to boycott; if even 1% of them had ever been near the fucking place it would be a generous estimate.

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Ten seconds... the pain begins.

Fifteen seconds... you can't breathe.

Twenty seconds... you give up and turn off the Jeremy Vine show.

An unusual policy... maybe brought in because of an incident that happened in the past.
As it happens I live in a town with a large TA base. On Friday/Saturday nights you get a lot of squaddies out in town in their fooking uniform. Probably use it to pick up women.


Still, I fear for this pub now. I will be shocked if it isn't attacked in some way.





My brother is a Prison Officer, and through peer pressure he has been forced to buy some 'Help for Heroes' wristbands by his colleagues. He said people would often ask him why he wasn't wearing any.

Just like with poppies, it's not about supporting the charity. It's about people seeing you supporting the charity.

I spent my teenage years in Guildford 30 years ago and many pubs around there barred soldiers because they would get pissed and start fights. The significance was that Guildford was the first town along the rail line from Aldershot which wasn't patrolled by the MPs and the civilian police didn't want to get involved.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

I was a student in Farnham, but lived in Aldershot due to cheaper rent. Due to having a Northern accent, I got into a couple of scraps with locals who had a beef with squaddies. The fact I was a rake thin guy who wouldn't pass a basic medical with a mop-top haircut didn't seem to matter. Took a couple of good kickings for my trouble.

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Pointless thoughts can be read at http://www.thetediousworld.blogspot.co.uk/

I had the opposite problem, a few of my mates were hospitalised by squaddies who singled them out simply for being civvies and male. There was a good bit of North/South divide going on as well as most of the squaddies seemed to be Northern or Scottish. The Paras were the worst, but only the young ones who'd just finished basic training and thought they were hardmen. Once they were a bit older they'd calm down and weren't a problem.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...