Am back. i know i said i was goin 2 sleep and i will. just need 2 drop a few lines. i was catching up on my nightly news and just saw, once again on BBC news about Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, the soldier who lost both his legs in Afghanistan. His mom has been fighting to get the maximum compensation for injured military personnel from MOD and that hasnt actually been successful yet. I can't help but talk about the military, it just sort of feels to me like we are failing them in a lot of ways.'WE' here refers to the nation as a whole(politicians and individual citizens).
I was at the Lord Mayors Show this year, which is a show that has quite a large display of military bands,soldiers etc. what i took out of the show is overtly stated below:
Lord Mayor’s Show 2007, what can I say! hmmmm it was simply brilliant. My favourite part of the parade was when the Royal British Legion float passed by and each and everyone of them had a poppy on. Leading the float was a surviving world war hero in wheelchair. That sight truly pulled at my heart strings. I must say the Royal British Legion do a mighty darn good job!
I am sure like me, a lot of people would have noticed the lack of concern or should I say the nonchalant and indifferent way the British troops are treated on return home after active service abroad. At the show though, it was a different atmosphere. I gathered the show has the largest display of military parades in United Kingdom. The crowd received the military floats in such a positive way and it was damn gratifying to see that!
I had a brief moment of sublimity, in which I wondered if the happy reception was just due to the cheerful atmosphere of the show or maybe finally people have realized or should I say come to accept the fact that the military are fighting an unpopular war in Iraq and maybe to an extent Afghanistan but it is not their fault that they are there but that of the politicians. It is funny how a political decision can so damage the image of an institution such as the military.
Since the war on Iraq began, their has been a decline of public support for the military. In fact some might even go as far as to say the decline started when the war on Afghanistan commenced. For me I particularly find it heartbreaking to see the troops treated with such contempt on their return home. I fully understand why individuals choose to oppose the war, the right to choose or support a political agenda lies with each of us as a person but to let our dislike for a cause over ride our sense of sympathy and support for our fellow human and citizens is just beyond my comprehension. We are talking about individuals whom have undergone physical dangers, a lot of time leading to all manner of psychological and mental illnesses, to then come home and be totally ignored and treated with apathy is just appalling! YES APPALING.
I read a couple of week back in the daily mail newspaper that an employee of BP refused to serve a military personnel, reason being that the customer was still dressed in his military uniform. Of course when the issue blew up it was claimed that the reason he refused to serve the customer was due to misunderstanding of licensing laws but witnesses insisted that the employee snubbed the soldier because of his anti war views. Belief it or not, stories such as this exist.
On the other side of the world in America where also the war on Iraq is equally unpopular, the story couldn’t be any more different Troops come home and are regarded as heroics figures. If for nothing else this definitely boost the moral of the soldiers. In life the little things count, just knowing that people understand and care about their plight gives them an intrinsic benefits.
I personally belief that just generally observing the support the public shows to their plight, In some cases is just the extra jolt needed by some to try and get the life back on track. The sad thing about UK is that the public ignores the troop and so does the government which is suppose to take care of them on their returns home. Tell me life is not sometimes unfair.
Military accommodations are in deplorable conditions, even lacking proper function of basic amenities such as heating! Even politician couldn’t afford to turn a blind eye to this, Liberal Democrats former leader, Menzies Campbell once attacked the Labour and conservative party for not doing enough to provide decent accommodation for the military. Royal British Legion, an organization that represents the interest of past and present military officers claimed on a BBC programme that Britain has failed to live up to its duty of care to its servicemen and women and are in danger of not fulfilling their part of the bargain. Really is this the way to treat people who put their life on the line to protect and serve their country? Maybe we as citizens are not directly responsible for laws and regulations concerning our military personnel but our politicians are and if there is going to be an improvement in military care, the public has to lobby for change and more importantly change their attitude towards the military as a whole. We need to remember these are men and women contractually bound to the whims of our politicians and must act in the way they are instructed to irrespective of their personal or political views.
In retrospect I hope the show wasn’t all about lovely parades of well coordinated military display but that it also serves as a reminder that our prestigious military still exist and the difficulty of the job they do protecting the nation. It is time we change our attitude. In my book, anyone who parts with their life as a result of protecting a fellow human is definitely a hero.
I was at the Lord Mayors Show this year, which is a show that has quite a large display of military bands,soldiers etc. what i took out of the show is overtly stated below:
Lord Mayor’s Show 2007, what can I say! hmmmm it was simply brilliant. My favourite part of the parade was when the Royal British Legion float passed by and each and everyone of them had a poppy on. Leading the float was a surviving world war hero in wheelchair. That sight truly pulled at my heart strings. I must say the Royal British Legion do a mighty darn good job!
I am sure like me, a lot of people would have noticed the lack of concern or should I say the nonchalant and indifferent way the British troops are treated on return home after active service abroad. At the show though, it was a different atmosphere. I gathered the show has the largest display of military parades in United Kingdom. The crowd received the military floats in such a positive way and it was damn gratifying to see that!
I had a brief moment of sublimity, in which I wondered if the happy reception was just due to the cheerful atmosphere of the show or maybe finally people have realized or should I say come to accept the fact that the military are fighting an unpopular war in Iraq and maybe to an extent Afghanistan but it is not their fault that they are there but that of the politicians. It is funny how a political decision can so damage the image of an institution such as the military.
Since the war on Iraq began, their has been a decline of public support for the military. In fact some might even go as far as to say the decline started when the war on Afghanistan commenced. For me I particularly find it heartbreaking to see the troops treated with such contempt on their return home. I fully understand why individuals choose to oppose the war, the right to choose or support a political agenda lies with each of us as a person but to let our dislike for a cause over ride our sense of sympathy and support for our fellow human and citizens is just beyond my comprehension. We are talking about individuals whom have undergone physical dangers, a lot of time leading to all manner of psychological and mental illnesses, to then come home and be totally ignored and treated with apathy is just appalling! YES APPALING.
I read a couple of week back in the daily mail newspaper that an employee of BP refused to serve a military personnel, reason being that the customer was still dressed in his military uniform. Of course when the issue blew up it was claimed that the reason he refused to serve the customer was due to misunderstanding of licensing laws but witnesses insisted that the employee snubbed the soldier because of his anti war views. Belief it or not, stories such as this exist.
On the other side of the world in America where also the war on Iraq is equally unpopular, the story couldn’t be any more different Troops come home and are regarded as heroics figures. If for nothing else this definitely boost the moral of the soldiers. In life the little things count, just knowing that people understand and care about their plight gives them an intrinsic benefits.
I personally belief that just generally observing the support the public shows to their plight, In some cases is just the extra jolt needed by some to try and get the life back on track. The sad thing about UK is that the public ignores the troop and so does the government which is suppose to take care of them on their returns home. Tell me life is not sometimes unfair.
Military accommodations are in deplorable conditions, even lacking proper function of basic amenities such as heating! Even politician couldn’t afford to turn a blind eye to this, Liberal Democrats former leader, Menzies Campbell once attacked the Labour and conservative party for not doing enough to provide decent accommodation for the military. Royal British Legion, an organization that represents the interest of past and present military officers claimed on a BBC programme that Britain has failed to live up to its duty of care to its servicemen and women and are in danger of not fulfilling their part of the bargain. Really is this the way to treat people who put their life on the line to protect and serve their country? Maybe we as citizens are not directly responsible for laws and regulations concerning our military personnel but our politicians are and if there is going to be an improvement in military care, the public has to lobby for change and more importantly change their attitude towards the military as a whole. We need to remember these are men and women contractually bound to the whims of our politicians and must act in the way they are instructed to irrespective of their personal or political views.
In retrospect I hope the show wasn’t all about lovely parades of well coordinated military display but that it also serves as a reminder that our prestigious military still exist and the difficulty of the job they do protecting the nation. It is time we change our attitude. In my book, anyone who parts with their life as a result of protecting a fellow human is definitely a hero.
