One again the yearly charade of concern for the UK’s war dead and wounded is upon us. Whether you wear one or not it is difficult to argue with the fact the ‘Red Poppy,’ and those like the British Legion who stand behind it, glorifies war in all its putridity. It is bad enough the ‘red poppy’ emerged after WW1* as a front for a charitable organization when the government of the day had all but forgotten the military victims of WW1. That such a charity exists today to meet the needs of the UK’s military dead and wounded is a national disgrace. For it means those who serve their country militarily, still have to rely on some form of charity if they are killed or badly wounded as the State and politicians who sent them to war have all but washed their hands of them.
This ‘charity,’ status just about sums up why one should not wear a red poppy, it sends out all the wrong messages about warfare and those like David Lloyd George and Tony Blair who send young people to war on a wicked lie.
If you doubt me I suggest you go along and watch the Central London remembrance parade on Nov 11, and you will see the great and good, the heirs of those who glorified WW1, troop out in all their hypocrisy. They will prattle on about 'our lads' dying for the rest of us in places like Afghanistan to protect our freedoms. When in reality this is absolute hogwash, as these young squadies are having they're lives stolen by the greedy no good human garbage who send them into other peoples countries, where they are not welcome, on the lie of combatting terrorism at home.
The important thing about war is to remember the living, those who survive, that is what the war dead would want. It was not a coincidence in the three decades that followed WW2, when there were hundreds of thousands of ex service personnel living, remembrance parades were often sparsely attended. The best thing we could do is push the charity collecting tins down the toilet where they belong; and demand of our politicians they stop sending the UK military overseas to engage in hopeless wars, that cost a kings ransom of tax payers coin; and bring absolutely no benefit to the ordinary people of the UK and cost young men and women their lives.
The government should also be forced to fund the widows and orphans they have created, plus give adequate medical care for those who returned as broken beings. Instead of wearing their heart on there’re sleeves, perhaps those who attend this Sundays remembrance parades would have done better to have travelled to London last weekend and marched alongside serving solders to bring the troops home from Afghanistan.
I will be blunt, those who wear the red poppy and attend any of these remembrance parades are glorifying war, the military life and encouraging todays politicians to steal other peoples sons and daughters lives. True this may not be what motivates them to attend, but without a doubt this will be the outcome of their attendance at a parade, not least because this is how the media will play it out. Let the families remember their dead, the living need to look to the future.
It is impossible to be neutral over this ‘thing’, the more so as whether you like it or not, the UK is once again involved in what can loosely be described as post imperialist wars. If we are to pay respect as a nation to any peoples, we should bow our heads in shame towards the graves of 600,000 Iraqi’s and god knows how many Afghan’s
Another reason why it is impossible to be neutral on this; is because the British State and its institutions are not, they push the poppy every were, to the extent that no one can appear prominently on UK TV during this period without agreeing to wear the wretched symbol of war, the red poppy.
As to charity, the very word makes me want to spit, if the British Legion is so good, how come they fail to help so many former squadies who end up sleeping rough, or fill the jails, often for comparatively trivial offenses, or suffer from drug, alcohol and mental health problems.
There is far to much of,
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool—you bet that Tommy sees!
* Probably the most unnecessary and obscene war in history.
** The photo above and others can be found here
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7 comments:
Well said, Mick.
One wonders how long the Welfare/Warfare State will triumph. Probably just as long as "the People" accept the propaganda--has done so since the time of Thucydides to now!
Every year the British Nation gets ready to celebrate WAR and DEATH: it is the most important day in the national calender. 91 years after the lives of hundreds of soldiers were wasted it still represents the death-loving culture of the British Empire. Send a message to the government, 'Bring the troops home from Afganistan'.
Jon Snow called it 'poppy fascism', this need for every individual appearing before a TV studio camera (and some outside broadcasts) having to wear a poppy. If we could just see one person without a poppy I could accept that there was no coercion involved, and that the wearers were sincere in their demonstration of support for the fund; that they weren't provided with the poppies as part of an advertising stunt.
I see that the poppies are made by the Lady Haig Factory, Limited. Is there such a thing as a limited charity?
I think it is fair to point out that the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq volunteered to be soldiers, presumably knowing what the job would entail and that politicians are fallible and often dishonest - I don't really buy that the glorification of war can trick these young men and women to the degree that they did not realize that they might be sent to unjust wars, and if this really is the case, they surely have only themselves to blame and should have become conscientious objectors if they changed their minds?
I agree about the Remembrance Day farce, but would not feel sorry for soldiers who have voluntarily joined the army, unlike than the innocent conscripts of WW1. Without these people joining the military in the first place Tony Blair would not have had soldiers to send to war in the first place!
If we had 'education' in our schools, not 'state indoctrination', and people left school able to think for themselves, then I would agree that it was entirely the soldier's descision to fight wars and their fault if they were killed. They are usually young and only with the experience of war realise the reality.
Paula
I have some sympathy with the point you make, the majority of Squadies have left school at 16, often with only the most basic of eductions. This does not make them stupid but it does mean they are easy meat for the Military recruiters. Who I doubt tell them anything about the sheer boredom and terror of war, etc.
Besides how could a young person have any real understanding of a country like Iraq, let alone Afghanistan with its countless clans, languages, political and military groups. The bloody government clearly does not understand the place so how could these youngster?
It has crossed my mind when watching on TV the parents of a very young solider killed in combat, whether they signed the papers which enabled their child to join the army, if so what a burden they have to carry.
Thankfully few of the parents of todays soldiers had to go to war, thankfully Harold Wilson kept my generation from the Jungles of south east Asia. I'm sure Wilson's generation, that of my own father, were so anti military due to having they experienced WW2 and they only very rarely talked about their experiences.
Although I do remember talking to a friend of my Dad who was a Chindit fighting the Japanese in the Burmese jungles. When as a teenager I asked him what it was like, he replied with a withering look of contempt.
"Not bad if you like shitting yourself with fear."
Perhaps we need a little less flag waving and a bit more blunt old solder talk.
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