An Anniversary

Yesterday was a significant anniversary for me because on the 18 December 1964 I took the Queen's Shilling. That was the day that I signed on for the Army and frankly it was probably the best decision that I ever made.

In those days joining the army was a career move because you could remain for 22 years as a regular soldier and draw a pension which today provides my wife and I with an agreeable addition to the state pension.

That is however not the point of this post. The army provided me and my wife with a wonderful albeit at times a stressful life. Yes I did my emergency tours of duty during which time my wife brought up the children on her own but in our day there existed our other family... The Army! We had many friends who became extensions of our family and remain today people who we love dearly.

I wonder however if I could have served under a NoLab government. The army today is so stretched because of the impossible commitments on it that it must be so difficult to maintain a family life. We will never know what drove Tony Blair and his crew to invade Iraq (apart from dishonesty) but we all know now that it was the wrong move.

So what about Afghanistan? I'm sorry but nobody has ever really explained to me why our army has to take on Helmand Province every day of the year. If, as the government says, this is a world problem to combat drugs and discourage Al Quaida then why are we the only country facing the threat? Where are our European allies in this?

Every week we hear Gordon Brown and his oh so insincere condolences to the famiiles of the dead soldiers that it is becoming monotonous. Frankly he cares not a jot for them because frankly Gordon cares very little about anything other than his own personal political survival. The soldiers all know this as can be seen by the comments on the army's own soldier blog.

I would find it very difficult to serve in today's army under our current PM and his
gutless Cabinet. One by one the cream of the crop are being slaughtered in a country where we have never won a war and where we are not wanted.

I am thankful that I am not part of it but I salute the lads who are carrying the fight to their enemy. It is such a shame that they have to serve such a despicable bunch of morons. When our troops are eventually pulled out of Iraq then the enquiry should start. I know that Gordo and his minions do not want this enquiry but if David Cameron has any guts at all then it will happen and at long last Blair, Brown, Campbell, Hoon and Goldsmith will face the charge that they are war criminals.

In my opinion they committed an illegal war against Iraq and should face said charges.