Lest We Forget

So it's Remembrance Sunday. I am writing this an hour after we held a 2 minute silence to respect, honour and remember those who have died to save our country.

I have strong objections to our military operations in other countries, to the idea of the military, and to the Governments use and control of other people to fight their battles, to make them look like they have power.

It is entirely an individuals choice whether to join the military or not, and you can't always hate the individual for making that choice - sometimes it is right for them. But the idea of going into another country to kill the people there to stop them...doing what? Having power in their own country? Having control? It is ridiculous. If we all only had armies to defend our country that would work...if only it was that easy, and I am not that naive. It would never happen. But attacking another country before they attack you? Or because you think that they have already attacked you - well, don't rise to it. You still have power, you just don't need to flaunt it by sending thousands of young troops to their death in a war that has won you nothing, only lost you lives on both sides.

I am forever grateful for the men and women who fought in the World Wars to save our country so we can have the lives we have now, but I just can't support the troops who have killed for our government, who went to war wrongly, and wasted so much life, and caused so much hurt. It is not the people individually, but the establishment, and the Government. I also really wish the military would properly and fully rehabilitate soldiers into living in normal society after they have left the army, etc. It is the least they can do after these people have risked their lives for you.

I have met a number of soldiers and some have said that being in the army was the best thing that happened to them, but they have still killed people they didn't even know. I don't know if I could ever feel right doing that, or join an establishment whose purpose is to train you to kill, and take you somewhere to do that.

A few years back, when the fighting was the worse in Helmand Province, a friend and I met young guy on a bus (his dad's friend had been talking to us, and had been a bit drunk, so the young guy apologised   and we got talking to him). It turned out that he was on his way to the army barracks because the day after he was being sent out to fight, in Helmand Province. When he said that, my friend and I just looked at each other, and both instantly knew that the odds of this guy surviving were not high. The poor guy seemed so positive, and I felt so disheartened at the fact that the being in the army was giving him such a sense of purpose and he was just being sent to his death. We wished him luck as he got off the bus. It still makes me cry whenever I think about that moment. He had no idea where Helmand Province was, or that it was the worst place at that time. And we knew that he might die.

I hope he survived.

So today we remember those who died, and probably wish they never had to in the first place. Why have we not learnt that you can't win a war, because no victory brings back all those who lost their lives in gaining it.