... To ask why some of you are against the charity "Help for Hereos" ?

[Sheitgeist]

Just noticed this on another thread. What is the problem? My son has just joined the armed forces, so am particularly interested.
Thanks

I find it utterly bizarre that they are saying you're only a hero if you've served in the forces post 2011, and indeed you're a hero even if you've been serving in the pay corps and never seen a shot fired in anger. I strongly disagree with the whole hero concept anyway: my friend who works in a pub/restaurant in Aldershot will tell you there is absolutely nothing heroic about the behaviour they see from squaddies week after week. If they really wanted to help heroes, they wouldn't restrict help to the military but would extend it to the police, fire service, and lifeboatmen and many, many more.

But one of the main things that makes me particularly uneasy is the way it's been hijacked by the likes of the BNP and the EDL, so that they try to make out that if you don't support "our boys" in this way you're desperately unpatriotic, and use it as an excuse for yet more aggression. I just don't want anything even remotely to do with people with sort of mindset.

I'm just going to follow Meditrina around nodding sagely and agreeing.

H4H has such a small remit but a huge presence that you'd be forgiven for not knowing that SSAFA and RBL have been supporting people serving or who have served (including their families) for many years. And they support you if you have only served one day! They provide real and practical support - my grandmother was the secretary for an RBL branch in Kent and she was always going off buying things for people and berating councils and councillors to get action on behalf of people they supported. Small pieces of support that made a huge difference to lots of people's lives as opposed to large capital expenditure projects that make a difference to a select few' lives.

I know which I'd rather support.

As many others have said, I find the fetishisation of the armed services quite disturbing. Politicians (and charities) have wrapped the 1st and 2nd world wars into Iraq and Afghanistan so cleverly, that to voice any kind of disagreement about those wars is to 'not support those who laid down their lives so for you'. It doesn't seem to be possible anymore to support and respect those who died in the defensive WW1 and WW2, without supporting the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. So well done governments. The marketing has been so successful that I read this week that someone commissioned a survey about whether wearing a poppy should be a compulsory!! Surely what was fought for in WW2 was democracy, i.e wearing anything shouldn't be compulsory (about 45% said it should be). And a touching story of a little boy who'd never met his Dad laying a remembrance day wreath because his Dad was shot in Afghanistan while his Mum was pregnant with him. All very touching until you see that he was EX military and shot while working for a private security firm. Is that what charities should be supporting?

Wars happen because peace has been lost somewhere.

As a country we need a military force. If people didn't join up we would have conscription.

When you join up you sign away your opinion and go wherever you are sent irrespective of your view.

I don't like the 'Heroes' bit in the name but I support our military personnel.

The 'Heroes' bit is the bit the politicians love, most military personnel I know would hate to be called a hero, they are just doing their job whether they agree with the job they have been asked to do or not.

I don't donate simply because I prefer small, local charities.

I have no problem with the 'heroes' idea. There is so much good that our military do, and I am glad that they do it (and I did literally protest against the Iraq war). If it came down to it I'm not convinced I'd be brave enough to sign up and risk my life, though perhaps I'm underestimating myself.

Plus I went to London 2012 and the military personnel carrying out the security checks were lovely, even though many of them had had leave cancelled in order to ensure I was safe at that event.

I don't mind H4H, but I'm not a fan of the RSPCA or NSPCC.

Horses for courses and all that.

I couldn't possibly donate to a military charity, let the bankers and politicians whose wars they are fighting pay for them.

Individually I am sorry for injured, misguided soldiers but...

I'm not against it at all.

It's just another charity I feel pressured into giving money to. Usually money I don't really have to spare.