Words fail me, you make me sick!

I'll tell you what, lets have no armed forces and let the terrorists run wild. You'd be the first one to complain if someone you knew got blown up by a terrorist bomb. Theyre there trying to make the world a safer place for idiots like you. God knows why.

If they were actually doing that, then they and their governments wouldn't be invading sovereign nations and causing global havoc, indeed almost creating WW3 in the process, and religious rifts which will probably not end in my lifetime.

i.e. Iraq/Afghanistan - "not in my name".

You swallowed the red pill, it should have been the green pill.

R.

There's no reason to suppose that if there were no troops in Afghanistan there would be terrorists running wild in the UK. Even if the troops were effective in combating terrorism it's what they've chosen to do, their claim on the gratitude of the public is a weak one compared with that of people conscripted to fight in a conventional war.

Sovereign nations who are in cahoots with Al Qaeda. What sort of sovereign nation is that? Yes, lets just lay down our arms and hope they don't come calling. Maybe we could shout at them or poke them with sticks.

I don't see why you need be so melodramatic. I'm only expressing indifference to your occupation, I`m not saying you're doing something directly harmful to society in the manner of a crack dealer, lawyer or investment banker.

Or maybe we should enter into discussions with people who are willing to blow themselves up. I'm sure that would be hugely sucessful.

No mate you are just telling the world what a <abuse> you are!

Not sure which people you mean but, yes, that's how the war in Afghanistan will end. The Americans will negotiate a withdrawal.

There's no call to be uncivil. You choose to make a living by invading foreign countries and hurting the inhabitants, I'd rather you didn't, but so long as it's legal I accept that there's nothing to be done about it. Asking for gratitude is a bit much though, like foxhunters asking the public for expressions of appreciation.

Maybe if people actually tried to understand why these peoples religion motivates them to undertake this kind of fundamentalist approach, they would have got to the conclusion that they couldn’t win a ground war with western troops a lot earlier

Still they didn’t, or maybe they did but some still thought that deep deep down they really did want to be westernised and if we shot a few they might change their minds

Wasn’t the approach called Shock and awe

Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight

It really wasn’t a very well though out approach to a group based on a fundamentalist religious foundation, in fact in hindsight it looks rather stupid

Please don't post abuse, disagree respectfully or the thread will be closed.

[QUOTE=MikeUK;6963043]Maybe if people actually tried to understand why these peoples religion motivates them to undertake this kind of fundamentalist approach, they would have got to the conclusion that they couldn’t win a ground war with western troops a lot earlier



Understanding why people are willing to blow themselves up. Sounds like a contradiction in terms! How do you go about understanding that then?

I should show this opinion and your others to the 8 yr old daughter of my close friend who was killed recently in Afghanistan. Whilst out there he made a small difference to your daily life from a long distance. The local dealers where you live and many other towns in the western world are effected by the deterrence of the drug trade from the poppy fields in Afghan to your neighborhood hood - of course you will have an opinion on this, that you have read in a newspaper whilst drinking a hot coffee over your homely comforts. I suggest that my friends opinion was formed when sweating to bring to bear his weapon against the enemy in the arid heat, the constant tension of patrolling in a hostile enviroment only known to a soldier in combat would be somewhat different and still I know that he believed that he was doing this for people just like you, sadly I know he would do it all again for people like you. Yet you can slate this and many other soldiers from all conflicts when all they ask is 1 minutes silence for the freedom they have chosen to allow you to enjoy whether a volunteer or a conscripted man or woman. I hope that the Americans do withdraw from all conflicts and a diplomatic solution is found, if for nothing else just so children can have there parents with them as they grow up!

He made no difference to my daily life, we are adequately supplied with a variety of drugs. Anyway, I thought they were claimed to be saving us from terrorists, not from recreational drug use.

If he wanted to go charging around in the wilderness at the risk of making his child an orphan then that's his choice but he should not assume that anyone is interested in whether or not he does it. I think it's a bit irresponsible on his part.

The troops of today are not asking for a minute of silence for them. They are seeking to usurp someone else's minute of silence. They seek to cash in politically on the sacrifice of people who did not take up war as a career but as a necessity.