First of all, I will apologise for the manner a little bit, as I should have realised how many current and former squaddies we have on the board. It was an over-statement which certainly invoked the blub it was probing for in the context of a blubtastic day with blubs extracted by worse methods than I used. However, I will not apologise for the underlying belief, which I will try to explain. Hope you understand it a little better (put your Queen and Country hat aside for a few minutes). You don't have to agree with it.
I also have friends in the forces, although no longer in the British forces (a couple in the Dutch forces, a few US Marines and even one now inexplicably in the Serbian forces). My grandfather fought in the war. My great-uncle died in Japanese PoW camps. My grandmother was bombed out 4 times in London and, with my uncle who was 5 at the time, once had to dive into a ditch to escape a strafing ME 109.
I have no objections whatsoever if my money is helping people like those who were drafted or otherwise had no choice in ending up in such perilous and life-changing situations.
However, my opinion is that joining the armed forces by choice is a career decision. You know the risks and, like footballers, you know you have to invest in yourself for your life back in "civvy street" afterwards. I do not support charities which focus on a select group of people, simply because of jingoistic principles. Former servicemen receive help in getting civilian jobs (in excess of, and with better treatment than, other unemployed people), they receive their pension and military pension, and they have access to the same National Health Service as everybody else. If it isn't good enough for ex-servicemen, doesn't that mean it's not good enough fulls top ? If anything, they can blame the government for putting them in danger, and the government for the shortcomings in their current situation. Therefore, use your vote, protest, make sure the infrastructure in Britain is improved, but remember that every time you get special treatment, another poor person will fall down in the queue.
I probably feel especially strongly about this because never in my lifetime has the British Armed Forces fought a war or battle because this country was directly threatened. Even the Falklands, while I will sympathise more with that than other conflicts in my lifetime, was a lot to do with being a signal to the Soviet Union that Thatcher was a new breed and Britain was no longer a soft touch.
Yes, I want to support people with diseases, but then I would donate to a research charity for that disease. Yes, I want less waiting time on the NHS, but to do that I vote for parties I think will spend more on healing British people than on invading foreign countries. Why someone should be fast-tracked an operation, or helped into private care ahead of my grandmother after what she went through without choice, just because they made a decision which put them in danger, is beyond me (that being the emotional version but you know what I mean).
I really feel uncomfortable with the notion that every serviceman who gets injured being a hero. I've known enough ex-servicemen (and current ones) from all periods from WW2 to Afghanistan to know that while there are no atheists in fox-holes, there are also no heroes. They are all s**tting it.
If you want to look for heroes, look at Medecins sans Frontieres and aid workers such as a friend of mine who took two months off work (spending all his holiday and filling the rest with unpaid leave) to go and help pack parcels for those in New Orleans.
I donated to several charities with monthly standing orders. They include Artsen Zonder Grenzen (Dutch Medecins sans frontieres), an animal protection society, research for multiple sclerosis, and the international Red Cross.
The first and last are the two charities I am most fond of, and they are staffed by real heroes. When the US started the invasion of Afghanistan, I donated 100 quid to the Red Cross office in Kabul (you are able to choose a particular area if you like). The following day it was bombed..
Posted By: Steve in Holland, Nov 4, 09:18:57
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