A complete cock!!

[daviejones]

Did the Iran hostage issue not demonstrate this in spades?

That was a governemt decision, nothing to do with the guys on the front line...

[BrilloPad]

Remind me...what was the mission in Afghanistan for?

Can I ask the audience?

[sasguru]

I meant the UK. Was agreeing we have gone soft

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1626726.ece

From that article:

"The MoD bracketed the hostages’ 13-day captivity in Iran — including appearances on state television by some to admit straying into Iranian waters — with winners of the Victoria Cross"

[Moscow Mule]

I meant the UK. Was agreeing we have gone soft

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1626726.ece

Oh, those Iran hostages.

TBH, I think they were screwed over by their command.

IIRC the ship's Lynx was on the deck, rather than in the air providing top cover.

Asking a lightly armed dinghy to take on a gun-boat is a bit much.

[daviejones]

Can I ask the audience?

You could try 50:50...I don't trust the audience here...

[BrilloPad]

My Grandad was in the Paras*.

Absolute f'in nutters the lot of them - they will fight at the drop of a hat. But that's what happens when you train blokes to be killing machines.

* He calmed down a bit when he got to into his 60s

Indeed. It is my view (based on what I see of my brother) that paras should not be allowed near civilians. I think Bloody Sunday was fairly predictable really.

[TheBigYinJames]

I don't think most soldiers are whiners, most of them just get on and do their job. A few vocal ones give that impression. The difference is perhaps that in Victorian and WW1 and WW2 years, soldiering was seen as a neccessary and honorable vocation - the true horros of war were hidden from society back home.

These days we see the nastiness of it on CNN, and the 60s onwards pacifist movements have demonised soldiering and wars to a point when even neccessary conflict (and I'm not arguing that Afghan. or Iraq were neccessary in the same way that WW2 was) is seen as avoidable and if indulged in, an evil.

Soldiers haven't changed, society's attitude to soldiering has.

[sasguru]

Can I ask the audience?

Wasn't it to remove the Taliban who had provided support for the 9/11 crew?

[Churchill]

Oh, those Iran hostages.

TBH, I think they were screwed over by their command.

IIRC the ship's Lynx was on the deck, rather than in the air providing top cover.

Asking a lightly armed dinghy to take on a gun-boat is a bit much.

You want to try telling the Yanks that...

[Troll]

Asking a lightly armed dinghy to take on a gun-boat is a bit much.

Asking 150 lightly armed soldiers to defend against 4000 zulus is also a bit too much