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?

This war has done nothing to make our country more secure - it has done the opposite. More Brits have died in this country as a result of terror since Afghanistan than had in the same number of years previous.

I can think of better things to end up with than a dead husband and an injured son.
I'll be honest I'd hit the fucking roof if my son wanted to go into the armed forces, in fact I'd pay him not to.

herbie, we are great thank you so much, he was 3 not long ago, I remember posting when he was not even one, how time flies. Are you still at cott? or was that saltire?

but if everyone thought like you mamatomany then we wouldn't have an armed forces would we?

Interesting thread. Why so many deletions?!

I am not a pacifist and I believe we need a strong well-trained professional army. I am glad that is what we have. I suppose they groom/glamourise to attract candidates of a certain calibre and not any old trigger happy dead-beat with nothing better to do with their lives. It must be one helluva tough job. I would do it if I felt I absolutely had to (i.e. a particular threat I believed in fighting against) or if my country were under attack. As a woman too, I would be prepared to fight.

However just some quotes, ideas that came up repeatedly:
"It doesn't matter where the war is or ..whether it started on dubious grounds."

It genuinely does matter to me though

"the men out there fighting this unjust war are heroes through and through. Under constant threat and doing the job because they have been told to"

I believe they have to be very strong and very brave to face active fighting in war. Anyone does in any war. It is never going to be clean and safe and easy to process mentally.
However, why are you a hero for fighting what you believe is an unjust war? If you do something you think is "unjust" because "you are told", I struggle to see the heroism. If your conscience is telling you it is unjust, you must not do it IMO

YABU. Braver than me, how many of us would put ourselves what they do for the pittance most get paid? All to be sneered at by those they are protecting because the pricks who sent them there are fighting a ridiculous war none of us signed up for? I know I wouldn't. Hell, I wouldn't even sit in an office for the starting salary of your average soldier, let alone risk my life in a hell hole.

herbietea - I would imagine because mama doesn't want her son killed

I think anyone who puts their lives at stake for the sake of their own country are heroes of some degree.

At the end of the day it's not our soldiers who decide where they are going or what they are fighting for and if and when our country ever did go to war again, its these same soldiers who will be there on the frontline performing their duty.

holy cow how time flies herbie. Any idea where you are going to end up, I did some time at Cott, feel for you guys, got a soft spot for JFH.

Or maybe if more mothers thought like me there would be less wars.

herbietea- I'm saying that I assume that is mama's reason for not wanting her son to join the army, that is the impression I got anyway.

Op do you think as soon as a soldier becomes a parent they should be made redundant then?!

That is a lovely, simplistic, unrealistic view mama. Religious fundamentalists will not stop killing people because you won't send your son to war.

come to brize we can have a brew and shoot the shit.

I think if the religious fundamentalists mother refused to send their sons to war, job done eh ?

That's all very well and good, mama, but how would you feel if your young healthy son was killed in a terrorist attack? Without the hard work of the forces, the police and the intelligence agencies I do believe there would have been far more attacks on British soil, so if all the people in "dangerous" jobs refused to do them because their mum said no, it would affect the safety of everyone

unfortunatley the mothers in those religiously fundamentalist countries you might be thinking of might not have a whole lot of say being women

.

herbietea - I would imagine because mama doesn't want her son killed

Or to kill anyone, my Grandfather used to work out the artillery ranges needed to maximise the devastation to the German factories, he never got over it to his dying day knowing people were killed in those factories.