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CraigR C
CraigR Oct 31, 2007 11:37:11
Replying to shanshee_allures

I think you are a bit confussed! You keep coming back to Iraq? Here's the most recent poppyScotland report which may give you some solid facts on where money goes;

http://www.poppyscotland.org.uk/docs/PublicationAndDownloads/Annual_Review_2007.pdf

I think you may need to seperate the British Forces from the US ones. While I abhore the current war in Iraq, the two are seperable in their activites. I am in no way justifying our involvement, but there is good to be found in what we are doing there (cue much abuse I'm sure);

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/InDepth/UkMilitaryOperationsInIraq.htm

Obviously, this is a defence website - and no doubt will be slaughtered as complete bias and essentially lies by some.

Fair enough, you have explained why you personally don't buy a poppy, but I completely disagree with encouraging others not to, based on Iraq. You have, in my opinion, a contraversial view point, and I do not agree with it.

More and more I think that HH is no longer a place for me. Which is a shame, as I've been around these parts since it's inception. But maybe it's time to Foxtrot Oscar as the military say.

S shanshee_allures
shanshee_allures Oct 31, 2007 12:11:41
Replying to CraigR

As usual on this board in particular, quoting and sub quoting can lead to going off on tangents that are impossible to fully thrash out, and the original idea gets lost!

I began with my gripe that my dad was shunned by an organisation that had been his only compensation for years after WW2, and it became difficult to keep to it. I mention Iraq because I think it was brought up somewhere else, so off it went that way. Kosovo I think was going on when he got his refusal, and it broke his heart a bit, and therefore mine.

I'm sorry, but I'm sure many British soldiers are with the best intentions trying to train Iraqis to become policemen, and to properly deal with security etc, but after centuries of becoming brutalised, it does seem futile to me. The Middle East in general is about 1000 years behind many parts of the world when it comes to justice, or what's considered fair and acceptable. It utterly informs the mindset of the population. I even heard reports that many women in Afghanistan won't remove their Burkhas now, even though they 'can'. They have been conditioned through fear.

That's me now, and I hope you do stay:)

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