... but what did he expect?

He KNEW before illegally invading Iraq that the public were against it (hence the biggest ever demos ever seen on British streets).

The fact that the public now sees them all as war criminals is hardly surprising, is it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7006720.stm

"When a young soldier has been fighting in Basra or Helmand, he wants to know that the people in their local pub know and understand what he has been doing and why." So says General Dannatt.

Well, this is the problem, isn't it? We do know. We know it has been an illegal and destructive campaign which has achieved nothing good.

That said, I wouldn't want to see the ordinary soldier met with any sort of animosity from the public. That would achieve nothing either.

I have a problem with soldiers anyway.

Anyone whose purpose in life is to kill people is odd. And to obey other peoples' orders unthinking - even odder.

Takes all sorts to make a world JK,and like it or not we do need defending against people who may be even nastier than we ourselves...is that possible;)
Saying that I wouldn't like to be a soldier and having to kill people.My father and grandfather were the same.While I can wander the globe having fun their globetrotting was orchestrated for them,courtesy of conscription during the world wars.I'm lucky I never had to make that choice.
There are however two sides to soldiering.There must be many who just do it for cash,while others are enjoying being paid hooligans at the government's expense.
I've seen all types of soldiers during my journying around Iraq.I'd hate to be there full time on a squaddie's wage,then get ridiculed back home for simply following hors d'oeuvres..talking of which we've not had a recipe post in quite a while:P

Solihull Exile wrote:
Takes all sorts to make a world JK,and like it or not we do need defending against people who may be even nastier than we ourselves...is that possible;)


Such as .... ?

People who our former PM claimed had WMD and we now discover that they didn't ?

Can you perhaps explain to me how Afghanistan is a threat to anyone in the UK (or Europe) ?

Think you lost my plot on that one;)
I was refering to the necessary evil of needing one(an army),but not applauding the actions of either those who serve in her,or lead her.
The necessary evil being that if you don't have one others will trample all over you.And in some extreme instances they can be a force for good,eg against Hitler,or to a lesser extent WW1.
While the current bunch of leaders can be grossly stupid and warmongering,I fear they'd be nothing compared to the Germans of yore.
I live in Ukraine,I work as a civilian for the Ukraine Army,and without our strength and resolution the Soviets would have been into the west like a shot.We would have been the Iraqis of today,an occupied country.
Really needs us to move on,and try to use our armed forces as a source for good.The Scandanavians and Dutch are going in that direction,and have been for a while.Time we looked at that option ourselves.I've been working in Iraq,it's not fun,except for the Kurds the whole lot of them are much worse off than before.I've not yet made Afghanistan,but do work with some Military engineers who've done contract work there,and while it did get better,it's going rapidly backwards again.Both of these countries must either fracture into governable units,or install a dictator with a complete disregarde for the individual.
Here endeth the first lesson..