Serving Your Country? Anyone here Serve for their Country? I know it's a simple and short question, but I thought I would ask anyway...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ooze Masculinity like some of us do, you have no reason to fear Pink...
"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is ENGLAND." - Sir Winston Churchill
No one? lol not even one person with plans in the future to Sign up?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ooze Masculinity like some of us do, you have no reason to fear Pink...
"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is ENGLAND." - Sir Winston Churchill
You have to point a gun at someone to serve your country?
Wow...lol!
What?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ooze Masculinity like some of us do, you have no reason to fear Pink...
"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is ENGLAND." - Sir Winston Churchill
Sup jack in the green So what's your Role/Trade in the Army then? British Army is it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ooze Masculinity like some of us do, you have no reason to fear Pink...
"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is ENGLAND." - Sir Winston Churchill
Originally posted by EnglishST: Serving Your Country? Anyone here Serve for their Country? I know it's a simple and short question, but I thought I would ask anyway...
Just to throw my tuppence into the mix, I served with the Royal Army Medical Corp for 12 years and I am for want of a better term a vetern of the 90-91 conflict in the middle east. And on the whole I am happy that I participated. However, I would not now serve with the British army nor urge others to do so. The plain fact is that now our armed forces are agents of aggression, the very reason cited for the 90-91 conflict in the middle east now pertain directly to us. The fact that, British soldiers are working in defiance of the UN and international law is a shameful reality. And to address your .sig England maybe a forgotten word, but then the armed forces in question to which you refer are the British armed forces, and the sooner that word is forgotten the better. I remember when it was a matter of pride to be British, but alas those days are gone and now being British is a shameful admission. Where it not for the lack of a suitable alternative, I would have surrendered my British citizenship. Perhaps one day there will be an alternative, given a choice I would seek citizenship of the UN an organisation our action I fear have relegated to irrelevance, and with it like the league of nations before it, our best hope for a world ruled not by force and the jack boot, but international law and moral precepts concerning the legitamate use of international action in the face of any hostile power.
Originally posted by Astragaal: Just to throw my tuppence into the mix, I served with the Royal Army Medical Corp for 12 years and I am for want of a better term a vetern of the 90-91 conflict in the middle east. And on the whole I am happy that I participated. However, I would not now serve with the British army nor urge others to do so. The plain fact is that now our armed forces are agents of aggression, the very reason cited for the 90-91 conflict in the middle east now pertain directly to us. The fact that, British soldiers are working in defiance of the UN and international law is a shameful reality. And to address your .sig England maybe a forgotten word, but then the armed forces in question to which you refer are the British armed forces, and the sooner that word is forgotten the better. I remember when it was a matter of pride to be British, but alas those days are gone and now being British is a shameful admission. Where it not for the lack of a suitable alternative, I would have surrendered my British citizenship. Perhaps one day there will be an alternative, given a choice I would seek citizenship of the UN an organisation our action I fear have relegated to irrelevance, and with it like the league of nations before it, our best hope for a world ruled not by force and the jack boot, but international law and moral precepts concerning the legitamate use of international action in the face of any hostile power.
A.
Excellent post Astragaal. I also served, 9 years in my case, and also went through the first Gulf War (at the ripe old age of 20). With hindsight, the world seemed a fairly peaceful place back then, and I remember well that a soldier with more than one campaign medal was a rarity. After nine years service, the Gulf, two tours of Bosnia, two tours of Northern Ireland and a UN holiday in Cyprus, I had well and truly had enough. I don't regret my time in uniform, and have no regrets about any personal actions in my army career, but would have to agree that now things seem a little different.
We are involved in wars all over the globe, and the reasoning behing the Iraq war is totally false in my opinion. We invaded on a trumped-up excuse of a reason, the real reason being that Bush wanted to finish the job his father left half done. We went back to Iraq because we stopped before we ousted Saddam back in 1991. I remember a conversation after the ceasefire with an WO2 with countless years service. He said "This isn't over yet, we're going to have to come back one day and finish the job." He was right. I would not consider joining up in these circumstances, because there isn't any honour in fightinf (and possibly dying) for a lie.
Backing B Block all the way! If Dale had like one more brain cell like, he'd be like an artichoke, like!
I heard on satellite TV t'other day that the Republicans were idealists (the Democrats realists). Within that American arena, the sad (perhaps catastrophic) fact of the matter is IMHO the entire Iraq 'adventure' was supposed to have been a glorious (noble) beginning of democracy moving across the entire Middle East and a subsequent end to major planetary conflict currently being perpetuated by an alarming divisiveness generally. The use of Pluto's noble lie did indeed lead the British people, and the Coalition, into an Iraqi conflict, that would appear to have been lead by sheer idealistic fervour, rather than the hard facts of Sunni and Shia etc etc.
Since the Iraq War Libya has been disarmed of palpable WMD, Syrian troops have withdrawn after a 22 year occupation of Lebanon and the Palestinians have seen the emergence of a two-party system (even if both parties are still pretty distasteful). Democracy seems to have some attractions, even in the Middle East. The Iranian regime seems to spend quite a bit of time and energy trying to suppress it. Btw, I think you mean Plato not Pluto. Plato was a Greek philosopher. Pluto was Mickey Mouse's dog.
Allan, I am not being facetious using the words I chose. In reply to the substance of your post however IMHO - I don't believe Libya capitulated for any single reason. Full Stop. The Palestinian conflict has been active since I can remember, so a change there might have been caused by some recent and specific event (such as the Afghan and Iraq Conflicts). But, I also think America, Europe and the World have been generally losing patience with Israel (and the Palestinians and their suporters over the last five or ten years). The Palestinians were moving towards the full formation of democaratic institutions of State from 1993!! (not 2003). Israeli tanks left Lebanon after a decade of occupation fairly recently. And the Syrians may have, not without some coincidence, left a little after that. I'm not convinced.
