Remembrance Sunday

[andygates]

This is why I'm some sort of pinko peacenik:  Because war is not glorious, it's a pile of corpses that stretches to the horizon, a nation of mourners whose lives are diminished, a territory blasted into rubble and filth, veterans with scars visible and invisible, it's a generation tainted with the propaganda.  It's fucking hideous, and anyone who starts a war for frivolous reasons, who lies and manipulates to get that war started, deserves the most harsh of punishments. 

Comments

[despaer.livejournal.com]

Make all politicians watch the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Or be in it; I swear Blair wouldn't have been so gung-ho if he'd either served or had been in office for the aftermath of a war. It's an argument against young leaders, that.

[simoneck.livejournal.com]

It an argument for requiring that some members of the cabinet have children in the armed forces.

Small professional army means most people don't know anyone in that army. Most people don't have skin in the game, so to speak.

And Blair was in office for the aftermath of the war. We (as in the electorate...I don't know how you voted) returned him to office 2 years after the iraq war started. That was after kelly and the lack of WMDs were known.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Aye, we did - which (I'd argue) illustrates your point that we don't have skin in the game, it's just some news stories. Too remote to get people angry (and, let's face it, the opposition weren't much cop either: you couldn't vote for the tories on an antiwar footing, and the libdems were busy messing around).