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?

I think 'hero' has always been used to validate the war of the time, yes.

What I find incredible is how little the rhetoric changes.

Our Brave Boys, the heroes, fighting for Queen and Country vs The Dark Forces of Evil. It's like Star Wars but the thinking is less subtle.

i love it as a term. it fascinates me. (must do lol, that's why i wrote 100000 words on it )

i'm more interested in what it's used to denote though - the whole masculinity piece and all the gender/ race/ class connotations. propaganda is a whole other aside. media coverage of returning soldiers (either in a box or not) is another pet interest of mine.

Another thing that really outrages me is the massive media attention paid to the bodies coing home, but the total silence about the seriously wounded and permanently disabled soldiers coming home. When do we hear about them - apart from when one of them manages to run a Marathon? And there are far more soldiers damaged in body and mind than are killed. But they are not as media friendly and politically acceptable than a flag draped coffin.

seeker Mostly you don't hear about them as there is a need to protect their identity because of medical in confidence issues. Any individual has to give permission for information about their medical condition/ healthcare to be released whether they be military or civilian. The MOD do release generic figures (i.e. not identified as individuals) on their website - I think monthly.

If nobody was prepared to FIGHT the actual wars.. then there could be no war!

Mrs Snaplags - and how very convenient for the MOD and the Government that none of them want to give their consent.

seeker I had tried to avoid this thread as I have strong feelings on this I will not articulate on a public forum suffice to say a patient has to be conscious to give their consent to release of information and also have psychologically accepted their injuries for that to be informed consent.

The British soldiers are viewed as heroes by their family/supporters.

Probably just regarded as cannon fodder by the Government.

The other side of the coin is that they are viewed as oppressors/invaders by the countries they fight in.

The sheer ignorance on this thread has me giggling - apparently we are fighting Al Qaeda/ taliban in Afghanistan because they are bad people who are trying flood the uk with heroin

Some people are just too thick too understand that it's all down to oil/money and power.

They hide behind silly excuses to justify sheep like behaviour.

Hell will freeze over before any of my children to fight on the behalf of thick greedy people. Their lives are worth so much more than that.

BTW I have great respect for anyone fighting to defend their property/country from foreign attackers as we did in the world wars.

In recent times the British Army have been the invaders creating wars and fighting to control nations that they have nothing to do with.

Well said, mistyop.

Mistyop that was a brilliant post. I agree with every single word.

lol mistyop. i think you'll find it's the government that makes the decisions where to go. we don't all sit round on our tea break polishing big guns and deciding who we fancy having a pop at next. you can't bleat 'sheep' and then give the forces the credit of starting wars. either we're lambs to the slaughter or we're war-mongerers - difficult to be both, really.

but thanks for (not) reading my post where i mentioned that i don't view any of my family or colleagues as heroes - but clearly i must, because you said i do in your first line. ho hum.

weirdly it struck me yesterday that i didn't mention the dc's godfather whose vehicle was destroyed by an ied in basrah either - he survived, but two of the others in the vehicle didn't. he's just a bit deaf and has a couple of scars from shrapnel. i don't view him as a hero either - sorry to burst the bubble again. (he isn't regular forces btw - he's a weekend warrior courtesy of that drinking club the TA. )

but like i said - i don't get offended easily - i just find other people's views fascinating. fortunately we're all different. what i do object to is people trying to tell me what i think lol. and being a bit, well, wrong.

no heroes round here - just men and women, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters getting on with a job they are paid to do.

i bet any minute now someone mentions mercenaries lol.

Madwoman, where does Mistyop's post say that soldiers decide who to go to war with.

I find your post a bit confusing lol.

i extrapolated a little from the 'the british army have been the invaders' admittedly lol. hardly a sheep-like activity

if she meant we were following the government in a sheep-like manner into foreign lands and blowing them to bits, my apologies. 'invaders' is usually more of a pro-active word.

(incidentally - i've never been in the army, so clearly the use of 'we' may also cause a little confusion.)

but she said they are viewed as invaders by the countries they are invading, and that she herself sees their behaviour as sheep-like.

I don't see that as contradicting herself?

'by the countries they are invading'... originally she did, not in the last sentence. i thought we had finished that discussion ('suicide bombers are heroes - the taliban are heroes, each side has their own hero and their own enemy' earlier - it's too obvious to debate really ) and thought she was expressing a new viewpoint. maybe not - i obviously got distracted by being called thick again. if it was just a re-run of the earlier stuff - my apols, i shouldn't have bothered posting.

i should probably not mn before breakfast. coffee might help comprehension and subsequent clarity.

coffee/breakfast at 14.49?

I don't get most of your post tbh.

I am aware that government foreign policy dictates who we go to war with and not individual soldiers.

What was I saying about thicko's?

i wish it was 1449 and i was just having breakfast though... those days are long gone