Hmm, yeah, I’ll give you that. 😐

As regards flapping under fire, some are surviving injuries they have no right to due to the modern medical techniques being applied immediately by their mates while still on the front line.

My Wife is a medical professional in the Forces and although i’m told little, in part due to patient confidentiality, what does come across often is their dignity and lack of complaint. Yes, they were not forced to join and knew the risks, as in every modern conflict, but they are not IMO reasons for our boy’s and girl’s not to have our full support as individuals doing their job.

You could do us and the human race as a whole a great service and follow the Bobby Sands diet plan for a period of no less than 66 days though

Oooft, you cut me there, how will i ever recover from such wit..

I think possibly calling you a clownshoe or something similar, probably on the same level of humour…

No muppets in the Army lol!

I strongly disliked what Seosamh wrote on the Old Firm thread but have to agree with his sentiment here!

They don’t even have proper kit, hardly get phone calls home – family need to pay to send parcels out to them.

Then, when you get blown to bits and come back a shell of a person you have to rely on charity to have a life because the MoD don’t give a ****.

Really, anyone going over there is a bit of a muppet.

why are they the muppets for the fact that our Gov doesn’t give a shit? we are the muppets for letting our gov take the p1ss out of our servicemen.
The problem of poor/non-existent equipment and aftercare would still be there if it was a war we all agreed on, but because the majority of the British public don’t understand why were are in Afganistan, that makes the guys out there the muppets? Get real, we voted, Labour shafted the MoD and the ConDems are doing very little to fix the shortfalls their predecessors left them with.

There are always issues with kit but I believe the vast majority have now been solved; chat to a serving soldier and I am sure they will tell you the same. Clearly more issues will arise but thats because the nature of the conflict is currently changing.

As far as I understand soldiers get at least 30 mins of calls a week to home; not bad really.

The aftercare in the Military is quite simply amazing and quite rightly at a highter standard than for others. I chatted to a bloke who had come home wounded and he was extremely well looked after both by the military and the various charities that are doing sterling work. There have been military charities for centuries and they plug a lot of gaps. Incidentaly he was far from being a shell of a man dispite severe life changing injuries.

And I know you can send as many parcels as you like for free as long as they are under 2kgs.

Dogsby

What gets me is what are they actually achieving there, the terrorist training camps are gone, the british Army play there war games, in the example in the documentry, the staus quo had been kept for months, the army went into that village to find trouble, a young soldier is killed and for what, the Afghans have been fighting foreigners for centuries it is there national pastime, this is a war being fought for ideological reasons and will achieve nothing longterm.

why are they the muppets for the fact that our Gov doesn’t give a shit? we are the muppets for letting our gov take the p1ss out of our servicemen.

Because they signed up knowing this was the norm.

you may think they are muppets for dojng it but I happen to think they are brave, much more brave than you or I

Same for firepersons, paramedics, police etc?
When a paramedic is killed by a drunken lunatic or a fireperson falls off their ladder, do you take a sharp intake and say “well, they knew what they were getting into”?

Because they signed up knowing this was the norm.

I think your words say far more about you than those who serve in the forces.

Same for firepersons, paramedics, police etc?
When a paramedic is killed by a drunken lunatic or a fireperson falls off their ladder, do you take a sharp intake and say “well, they knew what they were getting into”?

what planet are you on? I don’t see many firemen, polis or paramedics going into combat in foriegn lands.

I think your words say far more about you than those who serve in the forces.

In your head and others like you, i’m more than comfortable living with that. I mean ffs anyone here understand the word propaganda at all, listen to yourselves.

I’m on earth although I’m not sure about you. you say that soldiers join knowing the risks. Well so do paramedics, firepersons etc.

In your head and others like you, i’m more than comfortable living with that. I mean ffs anyone here understand the word propaganda at all, listen to yourselves.

Do you know anyone who’s served? Your son? Friends? Family?

You seem to have a very clear view of what motivates them.

what planet are you on? I don’t see many firemen, polis or paramedics going into combat in foriegn lands.

Maybe you should take your head out of your a*se then, ever heard of the territorial army? lots serving in Afghan, many come from the emergency services. Idiot.

Interesting programme.
The guys and girls are there to do a job, they don’t have a choice as to where they are sent. Is it something that will get sorted I doubt it very much. The problem has been there for years. War will always be political. But we have to be thankful to those guys who do join the army to defend this country. They have a choice in previous wars you didn’t have that. So we are luckier now.
The worst place to live must be Wootten Bassett.
The programme is good as it shows us what happens when they are at war, their fears, sadness, being homesick and comradeship.

They are children and grown men playing cowboys and indians.

Do you know anyone who’s served? Your son? Friends? Family?
You seem to have a very clear view of what motivates them.

i know plenty of people who have been on the receiving end of the british army, don’t know what that has to do with the price of cheese?

Maybe you should take your head out of your a*se then, ever heard of the territorial army? lots serving in Afghan, many come from the emergency services. Idiot

Aye guy from my work went of to afghanistan about a year ago, called up from the territorials, told him i thought he was off his nut.

Other civilians go and work alongside the Regular forces and TA. Family/troop liason and medical staff, for example.

Other civilians go and work alongside the Regular forces and TA. Family/troop liason and medical staff, for example

I know how the army works, i don’t need a lesson.

It’s a job, call war, job creation if you will.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning, especially when it’s dropped on an Afghan village in the name of western ideology, it smells of victory.

Muppets is a poor choice of word but I kind of agree with the sentiment. A lot of these lads are economic recruits who are trying to make something of their lives. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is particularly admirable to do that at the expense of the lives of others in a far-off land.

Not to mention the BILLIONS that have been spent laying waste to Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya when people in this country struggle to get on the housing ladder, will need to work to 70 then subsist on a poverty-level pension, will struggle to fund their kids’ higher education and we’re all being told we need to suck it up and take the shafting because the country is broke.

If the aftercare is so great then what is ‘Help for Heroes’ all about then?

Army housing would be condemned in any other walk of life.

a lot of the attitudes on this thread are very much like Dubya’s “you’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists”.

what gets me is they seem quite happy until one of their mates die.

From what I’ve got they’ve killed lots of Taliban/Afgans but it does seem to register until one of their mates get killed.

Im not having a go at them for that, they would nt be very good soliders if they got all teary everytime they killed a man. But I’d expect them to have more respect for their enemy and their lives too.

Both weeks it has surprised me that they dont seem to realise how serious the situation until one of their mates dies.

I would expect them to be pretty sober or at least have some thought about the killing they are doing too. I could be wrong but I’d guess alot of the taliban are just young afganistany lads who basically dont have any work and have to sign up to get money same as the british lads.

I mean they were all getting worked up about the guy who died in the first week and seemed very surprised it had happened . But they said they’d just laid down 5 guys in the same confrontation, I’d be more surprised considering the number of taliban/afgans they were killing only one of them had got killed.

Maybe they are thinking things like this in their head but I suppose you cant say it to your fellow soliders as it would erode group moral.

Struggle with house ownership? higher education?
Do you feel that these are entitlements?

I think you will find a lot are just Afghans trying to rid their country of foriegn invaders, similiar to Iraq in that regard.

backhander – Member
Struggle with house ownership? higher education?
Do you feel that these are entitlements?

What does that have to do with the armed forces?

read the f***ing thread.

Libya when people in this country struggle to get on the housing ladder, will need to work to 70 then subsist on a poverty-level pension, will struggle to fund their kids’ higher education

I think you will find a lot are just Afghans trying to rid their country of foriegn invaders, similiar to Iraq in that regard.

This.

Struggle with house ownership? higher education?
Do you feel that these are entitlements?

Did you just turn into a debt agency or something?

Yes, you owe a LOT of oxygen.

backhander – Member
read the f***ing thread.

Apologies.

Higher education should be free.
House ownership not an entitlement.

Yes, you owe a LOT of oxygen.

Who to, you? Apologies O god of oxygen i’ll settle up tomorrow! 😀

No, house ownership is not an entitlement. Alternatives? a nice council house on a nice estate? where?

Education should not be the preserve of the wealthy.

Working and middle class kids will come out of uni burdened with crippling debt. How do they fund a mortgage and a pension and service their education debt on graduate pay? (If they can find a job in the first place).

But the government can fund the destruction of these other countries at the drop of a hat and then private companies will make a ‘killing’ in reconstruction contracts and new ‘opportunities’ under sympathetic governments? But it’s ok, cos these companies will be ploughing millions back into the exchequer in tax revenues won’t they? oh, wait…

Rule Britannia indeed

How the hell did the personal experienced of serving soldiers end up as about mortgages and schools?

I’d volunteer that the homeless, mistreated/abused and mentally ill are more deserving of help than average ability middle class kids with illusions of grandeur wanting a foot up or middle class adults wanting a house on a plate personally.

didn’t say they aren’t more deserving.

middle class kids with illusions of grandeur? house on a plate?

how about kids wanting to enter a profession where a degree is a pre-requisite?

house on a plate? lol!

you’re deliberately missing the point I was trying to make.

They don’t even have proper kit, hardly get phone calls home – family need to pay to send parcels out to them.

Really, anyone going over there is a bit of a muppet

My kit is good, I got free phone calls home, my family didn’t pay to send me parcels. I’m a muppet, thanks for that, and you are?

From what I’ve got they’ve killed lots of Taliban/Afgans but it does seem to register until one of their mates get killed

It does register, but not in the tear jerking hand wringing way you seem to expect. There is grudging respect at what the insurgents do and the way they do it, however you live/work/play with you mates and that is why they show emotion. Imagine a close member of you family dying, or some bloke you bump into occasionally in the pub dying, how would you react?

I think you will find a lot are just Afghans trying to rid their country of foriegn invaders, similiar to Iraq in that regard.

The majority of Afghans do not give a stuff about foriegn forces in their country, they are too busy trying to survive from day to day. Over 45% of the population is under 15 years of age, life expectancy is in the low 50s, infant mortality is huge. There are so many pressing issues for them like simple medical care/clean water, that the “baying dogs of war” are addressing. It is not all about killing, it is also making Afghans life better for them by removing opression and introduction things that we in the West don’t even give a second thought about.

If only governments monitored this forum, all the worlds problems would be solved with experts we have here.