close
more_vert

It's an apolitical charity set up to help the victims of conflict. My opinions of Afganistan or Iraq are irrelevant, but no one in their right mind can compare those conficts to WW1 and 2. Earl Haig is widely refered to as the man who won WW1, or the man who killed over 100,000 Commenwealth troops with no real gain. Take your pick, there are cases for both.

I am sure the squaddies and lower ranks (like your grandfather) who were critically injured in Afganistan and Iraq (what about Korea, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Balkans, Kosovo, and NATO assigned British troops just about everywhere) agree that they should not be given any charitable doanation as the war they fought in was not a popular one.

The fact is these persons still fought as they were ordered. They did their job. And believe me, to the vast majority, the military is exactly that, just a job. It makes me sick to see people directing their comments at individual soldiers. I cannot remember where I saw a particulaly lothesome individual instructing soldiers to abscond as it was an illegal war, and if they didn't they were just as responsible as the politicians. No they are fucking not.

Regardless of the conflict, any person who is seriously injured in the field of conflict is as worthy of support from a charity.

I understand the controversy surrounding Haig, but my dad (not my grandfather - I was a very late baby!) didn't have a choice, it was conscription time. Each and every one of these soldiers in these conflicts do. OK my dad could've languished in a jail for however log, but what sort of life would he have had after that? Would they even have kept him alive? His choices were shat.

The thing is, I don't think people are making a conscious choice these days, they buy poppies becasue of the sentiments they evoke, hardly anyone I think considers what they're supporting in buying one.

I know there will be service for the wars and so there should, but it seems a bit tainted to me. It's all conflated; all wars, all worthy, all sacrifice. Not to me.

The army does take care of soldiers who are injured these days, compenastion claims run in the thousands I hear, although it might not be too easy to get what yer 'due'.

My dad got a burst eardrum when smacked by a prison guard - he got a shiny new suit and £10 or something for it.

EDIT: I haven't heard the term 'unpoular war' applied to Iraq for ages, thankfully. Almsot suggest we're a bunch of unthinking malcontents!

x