to wonder what's so heroic about being in the British army?

[poppylongstocking]

Both my brother in laws are in the army and spend 6 months at a time away from their wife & kids in a country we are under no direct threat from fighting a war which was started on dubious grounds. They are risking their lives, yes, but I don't see it as heroic, I see it as a bit stupid to be honest. I could understand the label 'hero' if we were under direct threat and having our homes bombed as in WW2, but it's very different nowadays, aibu?

In all honesty Doodling, I actually think doing fuck all would be less damaging than what we have done.

What have we actually achieved, other than death and destruction?

We will leave Afghanistan eventually, having achieved nothing. Only it will be called a 'tactical withdrawal' or similar.

YANBU.

I feel the problem here is the word hero....no-one can deny that the armed forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are brave, but heroes? The charity "Help for Heroes" has somewhat demeaned the word in a lot of peoples eyes. The lads that signed up and fought in the trenches etc in the first WW were heroes, likewise in WW2 defending our countrty against Hitler and the very real possibiblty of invasion. But now they are fighting against an invisible enemy, a war on terror.Are we going to win this "war"- unlikely. There is no doubt that some heroic acts have taken place in Iraq and Afghanistan but the term hero has been bandied about too easily.The charity maybe should have called itself "Aid for Armed Personnel"....but that's not such an emotive title is it? So YANBU to question the word hero, but please don't class our armed forces as stupid either, they are doing their job.

Really, LeQ?

It may be a pipe-dream, but imagine how many people would still be alive today if everyone in the UK army had said 'I'm not going into Iraq without a mandate from the UN, because right now it's an illegal invasion'.

For those people who don't see how fighting in Afganistan helps protect us do you happen to recall 9/11?

Very clearly, chofleur.

Your point?

Imagine how many MORE Kurds would be dead if the British Army hadn't gone to Iraq...

YABVVVVVVU I am utterly shocked at this!!!

The reason we are still fighting in Afghanistan is a direct result of 9/11 and the UN mandate which authorised force in the country and "welcomed the United Kingdom?s offer to take the lead in organizing and commanding such a force."

"Never get involved in a land war in Asia"

The issue of why we started fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq is totally irrelevant to the issue of if we should carry on or not.

We are withdrawing from Iraq now.

Can we not forget as well that Our Service personnel are also protecting helping and treating the local people and children of Afghanistan as part of their role out there.

Every day our Service people risk their own lives to get medical care to the local afghans. Every day Afghans are treated for injuries and illnesses not all caused by the war but that are untreatable due to the poor infrastructure of the country. Despite being shot at and the risk of ambush every single day our personnel go out of their way to help these people.

Whilst doing this some of our service personnel have been killed. Others have been maimed and lost limbs. Most if not all have witness shocking shit that will probably stay with them for a long time to come.

They are not just fighting out there, they are trying to make a difference.

And get off this idea that military personnel can just pick and choose what conflicts they want to be involved with or not. Its just not a workable solution. Its against the rules they sign up for to sit out on something they just dont fancy. Get real in the real world. The fluffy idealogy is lovely in Eutopia but not in the real world where it is simply just not workable.

MummyMyfanwy - that's the point, they shouldn't be signing up for the armed forces because it means they agree to murder innocent people without any justification other than "I was following orders".

You say some of them have terrible physical and mental scars - why didn't they think about this when signing up to take the paycheck?

You say some of them are trying to help the local people - are they really making a difference or are they interferring somewhere where they are not wanted on the basis of a PR campaign and oil rights?

I did ask earlier but it was conveniently ignored.

What do people think our soldiers are doing on a day to day basis in Afghanistan?

Killing people Midori

Well, that's probably where the problem lies then... people talking about something they know nothing about...

midori1999 - mostly they are being somewhere they aren't wanted and trying to intimidate people.

Not really the most heroic thing is it?

Well 7,000 people died in Afghanistan since 2006 Midori.

SO I suspect I'm not completly wrong. Maybe they walked in to the bullets?

You asked and I answered, no need to be rude.