To post this for the anti Poppy brigade?

[Jakebullet]

Just posted on Facebook by a poet friend of mine

The whistles could be heard
Along the trenches below
The young men weren't ready
But they had to go
Some held photos
Of loved ones back home
They charged together
Yet died alone
The bulkets n bombs
rang loud in their heads
Yet forward they ran
Running over the dead
A war against tyranny and for freedom they fought
A price was to be paid
Yet could never be bought
But their actions
Should be remembered
Even tho with regret
By wearing The Poppy
LEST WE FORGET

By Billy Isherwood

Love this poem......it's been in his head several days and this morning was finally written down.

I choose to wear a red poppy for personal reasons. I defend to the hilt anyone's decision to wear a white poppy or to not wear one at all.

I do object to people who deliberately spoil the silence as a political statement (I had a row with someone at work over this)

Geckos48 "I posted a similar opinion on here 6 days ago and was slated for it."

You know perfectly well that that was NOT why you were slated last week. Nor why many of your posts on a similar thread were deleted yesterday, followed by you receiving an email form MNHQ and your thread being locked down.

The threads are there for people to read and come to their own conclusions clam I have at no point personally attacked anyone.

Many of the threads you post on are so littered with holes where you've been deleted that they resemble Swiss cheese. I think that tells its own story.

My GD fought in WW2...and was injured while saving his fellow soldiers from a Russian attack.
He NEVER spoke of it, never. We only know this because of some documents found after his death in 1999.
I don't wear a poppy and Remebrance day doesn't mean that much as think of my GD and others who had to fight in the wars.
The modern day 'war' is difficult...career soldiers, political reasons.

My GF died in WW2, just after DDay, i've been to visit his grave in Normandy.
I was brought up to remember all the war dead on Remembrance Sunday, including civilians and we were always told to "pray for the Germans". I always wore a poppy until recently.
This is because now we only seem to want to remember British service personnel. When we start to commemorate Iraqi civilians, victims of the Taliban and those killed in drone attacks I will wear one again.
Until that time I reflect privately.

I wear the poppy to remember and honour the sacrifices of all soldiers british and not, on all sides who are slain

And this is one of my problems with it. Should we not also remember all the civilians that were killed? All the widows? All the children who lost their fathers?

Flora, did your grandfather fight on the German side in WWII? That would be the only circumstances in which he would save his fellow soldiers from a Russian attack. The USSR, the UK, and the US were allies in the war, they didn't attack each other.

i had no idea that the only nations fighting in the second world war were germany, the uk, ussr and usa, paperseagull

well you do learn something new every day.

her grandfather, for example, may have been polish. they most certainly were attacked by ussr soldiers.

whatever. the people who hoot loudest about remembering are all too quick to forget the sacrifices of others.

the russians changed sides!

not quite. they signed a non intervention pact with germany which they later broke.

they were never part of the axis.

I wear a poppy to remember everyone who dies in conflict.

my dm had a friend who was killed in the blitz in WW2 she was 7.

it's showing respect. but that's my choice. each to their own.

my sons are out tonight remembering a friend killed in Afghanistan. he was 18.

sadness. oh sorry op I hate the poem. pure smulch.

Goodness, chibi, why so aggressive? Of course the USSR, the UK, and the US were not the only allies. Since this site is UK-based and English-speaking, I assumed the poster above is English or possibly American. But of course she (and her grandfather) could easily be from anywhere. Which is why I asked which side he fought on. If he fought on the German side, fair enough. If he fought for the allies, he would not have been attacked by Russians.

The USSR didn't break the non-aggression pact, BTW. Germany did that when it invaded the USSR in June, 1941.

i suppose after being in the country now for over ten years i should be well used to the british myopia when it comes to anything that doesn't directly involve or impinge on themselves.

i guess i find it ironic considering all the wheezing by some posters about how important it is to remember. i suppose as long as you are remembering the right things.

If that was directed at me, I should point out that I'm not British. It was probably careless of me to assume the other poster was from the UK. But I was genuinely interested in her grandfather's history.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "wheezing by some posters about how important it is to remember."

Sometimes I think there is a real difficulty in remembering that the soldiers who sign up and take wages to fight are not only going out to make the potential sacrifice of their own lives (whether we want those sacrifices made or not): the principle aim, what they are actually paid for, is to go out and kill other people. And that some of those other people will invariably be civilians with no chance to defend themselves. There are only very limited circumstances under which I could approve of that.

trish5000 Sat 09-Nov-13 22:29:45

"But that then leads me to think that if no one chose to go, what then?

• I realise that that stance would suit some people, and maybe they are on this thread, but I think that the majority of citizens in this country definitely want some defence of this country."

Can you remind me when this country last fought a defensive war? It wasn't recently, was it?

If noone chose to go, then this country could not have attacked Iraq. Or got mixed up in Afghanistan. But absolutely nobody would have tried to invade the UK if we hadn't.

It is your last sentence which lets your post down.

I agree with you, cory. The "support the troops no matter what" ethos makes me very uncomfortable. I don't support what the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have done/are doing. Of course, I hope that all the members of the armed forces who are sent overseas by misguided governments make it home safely. But it would be far better if they weren't sent there in the first place.

I was out shopping today with DD. i was really surprised (but in a good way) to notice that compared to last year they were far fewer people wearing popies.
I wish there was something i could wear that would honour the bravery of those concientious (sp) objectors who refused to fight.
I guess the nearest thing would be the white poppy.

I totally agree that the school of thought that 'they are all volunteers etc', but there does have to be something there (like the Poppy Appeal), which helps the wives and children left behind when the servicemen die.

You could argue that the wives were volunteers too, knew what they were marrying into; but the children weren't.

Actually, there are also quite a few who don't really appreciate what they're volunteering for. You can join up at 16; how can you possibly appreciate what you're volunteering for? A lot of them don't really have many other options open to them (not all, but quite a few), and just fall into it a little bit.

I am a servicewoman currently leaving the service, btw.

YABU to use the term anti poppy brigade (implying that no-one has then right to object to the political hijacking of the supposedly non-political poppy) and to imply that the only valid way of honouring the memory of the men used as cannon fodder by the ruling classes of Europe in 1914-18, is to go along with the militarism and hypocrisy of the imposed poppy wearing orthodoxy.

^^This