Forse's sweethearts section

[Pan]

I know I've been away for a bit, but where did this come from in my absence??

tbh, I do find it a bit distasteful to have it there.

not wishing to be controversial at all. But v. curious.

It's been an amusing thread.

I liked NN's
'if you lot werent in their country blowing their families up, they might not be in our country trying to blow us up....'
The British army is blowing up Pakistani-born Yorkshiremen?

but even better:
'll, it makes me uncomfortable that none of you ever seem to think that there are mumsnetters whose loved ones/relatives/friends might be out in Iraq or Afghanistan fighting on the other side.'
Indeed. Where is the 'TaliWaG' section on MN?!

Hey, I'm sure they have to put up with the same long separations, bad housing, temporary single-parenthood and worry that we do - bring 'em in!

the fact that you treat it as a joke speaks volumes about what you dont know.
We know that the military belittle "the enemy" - how dare you mock their families as well, most of whom live in far worse conditions that you do.

Oh naff off. Sometimes the only way to deal with something is to joke about it although my husband knows more about living in a warzone than you ever will and at least he's trying to make it better.
And no, I don't think facing the fact your loved ones could be killed every day is a joke. I doubt it's something you've ever had to seriously think about.
Now go back to your nice safe little life and let us get on with ours.

And it wasn't a joke anyway. I don't care whether someone's partner is British, American, Iraqi, Iranian or Martian if they're going through the same stuff that I and the other forces wives are. After all, we're the same nationality (although that's an assumption) and we're miles apart ideologically.
It's supposed to be about supporting each other, I thought.

Not mocking their families,
mocking you, NN.

Mocking the idea that we should not support
our forces for fear of offending our enemies.

Having a bubblebath, are we?

You're a piece of work, aren't you, NN.

Please. What do you know about Afghanistan, Iraq, anywhere?

Or the six million Jews who were slaughtered during WWII. Men, women, children.

That's what we fought for. That's why some of them, God love them, were eventually liberated from their torment. By British and Allied forces.

You didn't answer that one, did you? Because you don't think it happened. You think it was British government propaganda.

Don't you?

scootergirl, that was my original unease - we are not all the same nationality. my family are not all the same nationality as yours, I am fairly sure.
"safe little life" - what a joke.

daddyj, if you said one thing that was deeper than a puddle, I might be tempted to respond.

desiderata your understanding of the world is so fundamentally different from mine, that we really have little to talk about. I am not going to start educating you about why WW2 was fought, or what life is like in the middle east for people who were born there.

Hmm..not one drop of Anglo Saxon in me either.

maybe we need our own topic to worry about our loved ones in Guantanamo?

that was a flippant remark, but maybe the thoughtful among the FS will understand that there is a genuine issue here.

Yep, I'm thoughtful, and you can still eff off.

desiderata...am being a bit playful...but doesn't the poem speak of remembering the peace there is in silence???? telling someone to eff off isn't really 'desiderata' is it???

did I miss the bit where it said that you had to be partnered to a British serviceman/woman in order to be allowed to post on this topic?

no, that was never mentioned, squonk. I don't think, and Justine was specific about it. I think someone muddied it a bit by assuming (self-confessed) that we are all the same nationality. We obviously aren't...not that that's important.

Just to clarify what I meant by sayinh NN and I were the same nationality...

What I meant is that even if we were, we would still be miles apart ideologically and facing very different things in our day to day lives.
I might well have more in common with the partner of an Iraqi soldier than I do with him or her.
And if by mentioning Guantanamo, NN is implying what I think (s)he is, then that explains much of the agression directed at the FS on here.

ll, I have supersensitive antennae for any giveaways about a particular nationality, therefore I am reasonably sure that none of you are of the nationality that I am speaking about. (although at least one other mumsnetter is...) So I dont think that I am presuming anything.

my "educational superiority complex" is nothing more than reading the quality of the posts on this thread.

squonk - maybe you dont realise how one sided the FS section comes across as? (by the way, please read this in a very non-aggressive voice [little flowers emoticon]) My reservations about FS are merely that - it makes me feel uncomfortable, because it is the acceptable tip of a very unacceptable large iceberg of aggression towards Iraqis and other people in the middle east.

NN - I can appreciate how you, and a lot of people may feel about the British forces, however, they are here and there is nothing we can do about that.

This topic is merely for the partners of servicemen/women to whinge/chat about things that affect them specifically.

I don't think that it is a topic about the job that the forces do.

I am maybe being naive, but I think it is a worthy topic for a talkboard like this to have.

EffiePerrine - are you American? Just asking cos judiciary and executive/legislature are indeed legally and constituionally separate in the US, but this is not so in the UK. Indeed, they are intertwined at many levels.

Sorry for the supreme (and tardy) pedantry...

well, we will just have to agree to disagree about your last line, squonk

just popped in to say hi to squonk [waves]

NN - please feel free to ask MNHQ for a thread of your own to complain about the forces.
We fully appreciate that not everyone agrees with the role of the military, particularly given the current climate, which is why a special topic was requested so people wouldn't have to acknowledge it if they didn't want to.
And FYI, there are Muslim soldiers serving in the British Army - one, Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi, was killed in Afghanistan last year.

NN, you seriously expect me to sympathise with the Taliban?
You feeling a bit hot under your tent, I expect.

Pan, if you have an issue with armed forces per se
ask the Bosniaks, the Palestinians, the Tibetans
what life is like when you don't have a powerful military to protect you.

daddyj, you are clearly a person who judges by rude stereotypes. Yes, everyone from muslim countries lives in a tent. Are you a racist by any chance?

scootergirl - when have I said I wanted a thread to complain about the armed forces? there is quite a history of doing that all over mumsnet, if you look. as I said, I ignore the FS section as much as I can in the circs, considering that it is the first thing that you see when you open the talk.

Complain away - I, and the other fs on here, know our loved ones are doing a really hard job as well as they can and that's all that can be expected of them.
I'm now assuming that religion comes into this hatred of the armed forces somewhere. Still no comment on the Muslim soldiers in the forces then?