I was at Arhem and oosterbeek lask week and it was a moving site. Paid my respects to the guys there, said a tearful hello to my great uncle, donned my Beret and saluted the colours at the monument and toured the museum there. While there I was moved by the vets touring the place, two or three breaking down because the pain they felt had returned. We have to remember what these guys went through, the savage fighting and the conditions they endured at the whim of those in charge. I walked with them, cried with them and I remebered some of the friends I've lost in NI.
Was on the way home that I had a thought, and I dont want to sound callous in any way shape or form but in thirty years time, who will remember the guys lost in "The torubles"?? I will, always will but who else? Who will remember the guys from Desert Storm? The Falklands confilct passed its 20 year commemeration with bearly a whimper, so that boads well for the current Iraqi confilct, Afganistan, The Balkans, etc, etc.
On the "Patriotic" stance, I have fought for the rag on a pole, I've done patrols with a wee Indian lad of Kenyan desent, belter of a laugh he was. Was more patriotic than the rest of us, think it may have been him trying to prove a point, didnt stop him from finding a snipers pound though, THATS when you discover that all this flag waving and stuff is utter bollox's. When the brown stuff hits the fan and your lying there bleeding to death, it dont matter where they are from, blood is the same colour.
"Proud to be English" eh? So your proud to be of Italian, Norsk, German, French desent? Then good for you, I'm proud for you too. I'm proud to be Scots, very proud in fact but I will not shove it up peoples noses and try to re-educate the masses cos it just dont work. But this contry has alway been a MultiNational country anyway, the empire saw to that. BTW, curry has been on the armed forces menu since the early 1900's! If you taste it, I think its STILL the same curry!
The former Eastern Bloc and african nations see us as a soft touch and, IMHO, the more we open the flood gates the more people will try to clamber in, but I think we have to sort out our own house, address the problems within our own borders before opening up our arms to another boatload of Albanians.
Anyone for a cup of hot water poured over dried leaves from a former country of the empire??