General Chat

Kevin given what they must of seen done by men in uniforms in their own country is little wonder they are highly suspicious of the word soldiers, it must have been horrendous for them, it must be terribly confusing to them to see how we treat our troops to what they have witnessed by many of theirs .May be if you asked them why and explain to them why they are doing what they do, maybe they would be a little more understanding.

i live in London its not supportive.Where i work in London we have a lot off people from somalia.you hear them talking and they are not supportive off our troops

Hand on heart Kevin I have never heard a service men or women be insulted in my company and god forbid if anyone would of dared insulting my son I would of ripped their face off and still would, I dont think we live in a bubble but then again it may depend on which part of the country you live in, where I live we are very supportive of our troops.

i agree i get very angry with people when they snarl if they hear that your family member is a soldier.They live in buble in this country.What those heroes have to put up with we will never now our want to now.God bless them all

Thats not strictly ture Kevin they are on more than that and earn every penny and yes I do agree they are worth more than that, however the point I think Susan is trying to make is .....they didnt sign up to be full time barmen they signed up to serve their country., and if the government decides they should serve in a country then so beit....

6 years ago when my son was sent to Iraq I was heart broken I was in my sisters pub and one of the customers asked if I hadheard from him, the mention of his name near brought me to tears, an old man snarled at me that he was a solider not a mummys boy if he didnt want to be there then he shouldnt of taken the Queens shilling, I had to walk away before I forgot my manners, now it was me that didnt want him there, to my son he was doing his job.

Harriot Harmen said a few months back when asked why are we in afgans she said its because we want girls to back to school i hope to God we are not just there for that reason so many lads giveing there lives for that reason

maybe susan we should pay them more.They get same money as full time barman

are heroes are paid 14.000 pound a year its a disgrace when MPS get 55.000 plus a year and they still moan they dont have much to live on.They need swap the wages round as are troops are value for money mps are not

Good Idea Joy......but......What would the military job description be then. Would they be obsolete?. Perhaps we shouldn't train any more.

This may be a war that no-one agrees with, but did any of the troops go into it without knowing they could be called to fight? Were they given false information as to their job?

Did their parents try to stop them? Would they have been able to? Were the parents proud?

I think the feelings of those not out there are feelings of worried parents, friends onlookers and are completely understandable, but until there are no wars whatsoever there will always be young men and women who want to serve their country and will be proud to do so.

As someone has already said, they enlisted and were not conscripted. It was their choice.

i agree they need to be back here .they,ve done enough bless um.send the ruddy polititians there instead .

Sweeping statements Rita, naming, not naming, who did you mean then? me, all of us, who?

No matter, not worth getting in a fuss over. From what you have written you must be well and truly occupied with more important things.

Good luck with your charities. They must bring you much comfort.

Beautifully put Hayley. :-)

I agree with everything Susan with numbers has said, when I see random threads with “Bring our soldiers home” it makes me wince, of course I pray for world peace and respect everyone of our service men and women fighting over seas, and more so my heart goes their families waiting for news back home, the sickening feeling when you hear a news announcement that another one our soldiers has been killed. I know from experience what every parent or family member of a solider will be thinking every moment of every morning noon and night he or she are away.

I am not well educated in fact I received a very poor education. However I do credit myself for having common sense, and common sense tells me not to blame every human being who seeks Asylum in this wonderful country of ours or every race that isn’t English for the state of foreign affairs or terrorism. I witness in the 1970’s a family terrorised for being Irish, second generation I may add as well. So with drawing our troops from Afghanistan in my opinion just isn’t the best possible move on our and every nation that wants peace at this moment in time.

Rita I have said this before to you and I will again, I think you are a very thoughtful and wonderful person and are doing a wonderful job.

hi rita your doing a grand job i wish a lot more people where like you to send parcels to are brave Troops take care God bless xx Kevin

Rita my heart goes out to your nehews and your Grandson i hope they keep god bless them.Its a shame that we have people in this country who wish them harm and thats some off are own.I find that we should get behind are troops give them support i went to a charity do and i asked if i could raise money for my charity Help the heroes.Well i was looked at as if i had said something wrong never got a reply.

Hi Rita,

I understand your point but hope the following sentence was not aimed at me

*I knew someone would come back with leave them to fight it out they signed up for the army so should expect it.and are out there for a cause*

If so perhaps I can suggest that my post is re-read and taken for what I actually wrote and in the manner it was written. If not I apologise for getting shirty.

We are a Military family too and the suggestion that we don't care is offensive.

I spoke to my son tonight and he agrees that some parents and sons/daughters are not prepared for what the job entails.

He also says that he and others he enlisted with would like support from their parents and the rest of the country, but would wince if parents were to go on television or speak to the Press and bemoan the fact that their children are in war zones and could Jimmy/Johnny have a sick note ( so to speak).

As for others who don't want to fight....Good on them too for having the guts to say so......I am afraid I am too much of a Scardy cat to be as brave as those who fight for our country no matter what.

Yes it may be a frutless task or one we will never understand. But let us not do the job of the enemy and dishearten our brave Military or embarrass them by our fears.

My Son, as I have already said, was fully aware of what he was letting himself in for. Luckily he came away in one piece. And Yes I would still have been proud that he served his country because he wanted to, not because he was forced to.

Good on you Lads and Lasses who fight, have fought and will fight. Without you we would be nothing.

oh Kevin...we've moved on from hanging ...too many innocent people hung by mistake, too late to do anything about them... and if you're suggesting it just for terrorists, then I'm afraid all that does is make a martyr out of a criminal, and encourage others to follow.

The problem is how can we fight wars abroad when we cant fight on own streets they need to bring back hanging then we dont have to deal with these people when they get out off prison after serving little time in side for grimes that should carry the death penatly

ok Rose

I accept your reasoning of that terminology. I have had my say in this debate anyway, I have no more to add.

Gill

would you have preferred Gill , that I didn't use the word silly...and substitute it with 'lacking in forethought and compassion'? because I am happy to do so...

I use the word 'silly' in the way I would use it to someone in general conversation if I thought their reasoning was at fault in an argument..I use the term to friends ...have you never told a friend that they were being 'silly' if you disagreed with them ?

Not selfish at all when you weep, Rita. But I, too, weep, and one of your posts implied that people with my view don't, and that is wrong. You made an assumption about me that was just not based on fact, but based because I had an opinion that opposed your own.

I have lost a couple of personal friends, in Afghanistan, NI, elsewhere too... people who have sat at my table and had meals with us. Every time I hear of another, I get that cold clutch of fear again... just like when my husband was away, and when I heard the news that another soldier injured/dead. I learned how to dampen down my fear, and pin a smile on my face, and get on with bringing up our boys with positivity, to believe in what their daddy was doing.

So care? Too right I care.