Dead Soldiers

[faceless]

These dead soldiers who were killed doing a job which they chose to do, understanding the risks and accepting that they would kill any amount of foreign citizens (or even UK ones depending on the orders), are getting more coverage than anything or anyone else.

It offends me that the media and government are trying to impress upon us that we should care. These people are trained killers who, by their choices, are directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of many thousands and we're supposed to praise them?

This is why I despise patriotism. It removes the requirement in any moral person to speak the truth and allows murderers to pass by unchallenged.

[luke]

we get a lot of it down here in the local media, either because they came from here or were based here.

what i find interesting is the lack of coverage of civilian deaths, like the media will go on is the war costing to many lives - but they mean troops lives, civilians don't seem to count - they're 'unpeople'. way more civilians have died but the media never ask the same question they do as when troops die ... to me the deaths of civilians are more important than the troops who signed up - civilians don't have any choice, they live there.

[faceless]

Anyone who supports the idea that we are helping to promote democracy in Afghanistan must, by definition, not only support, but encourage, people to speak out against the troops. That's democracy after all.

But you try telling these people on the streets, welcoming back corpses, that...

[SpursFan1902]

I agree, Face, but they should only speak out if that is how they feel. Protesting just for the sake of protesting is a waste of resources. Democracy gives you the ability to protest what you don't like, but you can't overuse the tactic or it becomes ineffective.

[faceless]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone on a protest who was there just for the sake of it. Occasionally you'll get hangers on who just join in because they were nearby, but that's a very small percentage.

There were protests against the troops in Glasgow a few weeks back, but the media just portrayed them as thuggish louts. The irony that they were protesting against paid killers was deliberately ignored of course...

[SpursFan1902]

I was thinking in more of an overall sense, not individually. I just meant overall, society has to pick their battles and not protest over everything because it will result in "the boy who cried wolf" mentality and no one will pay any attention.

I have to disagree with you to some extent (gasp horror!) in the fact that I think there are people who fall into things just due to the mob mentality. Things start to snowball and people get swept up into things without really thinking about what they are getting into or having any real affinity for what is going on. They just want to be part of a mob. Again, this is all just generally speaking of course.

[modern]

A protest against the Afghanistan war is certainly due, and not just for the sake of it...

[faceless]

103 YEARS OLD AND STILL MARCHING FOR PEACE

The Time of Their Lives is an inspiring film about two centenarians Rose Hacker and Hetty Bower whose commitment to peace and anti-war activity puts many activists a fraction of their age to shame. Both of these remarkable women are testament to the view that political commitment keeps you young. As well as participating in the protests against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, they campaigned tirelessly over decades in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

The Stop the War Coalition features in the film because 103 year old Hetty Bower has been a consistent participant on our demonstrations and protests, her only complaint being that our marches were "too slow"! She estimates she has marched on 89 peace demonstrations.

Rose sadly died during the filming of the documentary.

The film will be shown on BBC Four on Monday 20 July at 7.30pm. It is moving and inspirational and not to be missed.

CLICK HERE for a full feature on Rose


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[SpursFan1902]

Wow, I want to be her when I grow up!