Don't pick a fight with a squaddie

[sasguru]

The only ex-"squaddies" around here seem to be colonels and lieutenant-colonels.
Absolutely charming gentlemen.

[Mich the Tester]

I can think of several instances where the pikeys won.

Maybe it's time to 'embed' SAS members among groups of squaddies that go out for drinkies. Just to eliminate the scourge of the chav, you know.

[SupremeSpod]

The number of ex-forces living on the streets is testament to how we prepare our soldiers for a life in civvies.

[Troll]

MP Eric Joyce has been arrested after police were called to a fight in a bar at the House of Commons. (again!)

Joyce resigned from the Labour Party after headbutting Tory rivals Stuart Andrew and Ben Maney in a different Commons bar last February.

On that occasion the 52-year-old also punched Tory councillor Luke Mackenzie and Labour whip Phillip Wilson and insulted police officers.

After leaving Mr Andrew with a bloodied nose, Joyce told police: "He deserved it."

Joyce, who accepted he was "hammered" on red wine during the brawl, launched into a frenzied attack after shouting that the Strangers' Bar "was full of ******* Tories".

The former soldier walked away from Westminster Magistrates Court with a fine and pub banning order after admitting four counts of common assault.

He was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £1,400 to victims after he entered early guilty pleas.

[sasguru]

The number of ex-forces living on the streets is testament to how we prepare our soldiers for a life in civvies.

Personally I think it's an absolute disgraceful scandal.

[Ignis Fatuus]

why offence taken? I fail to see how suggesting they are less capable than those that never served can be anything other than glib and ill informed.

I'm getting the feeling you didn't read what I wrote, or didn't understand it because you have decided what I must be saying. I will accept that that is my fault. I will only add that the entire thread is in effect about their being less capable in some ways. If that were not so, there would be nothing to discuss. That is not insulting to those who have served. Obviously.

[Mich the Tester]

The number of ex-forces living on the streets is testament to how we prepare our soldiers for a life in civvies.

Personally I think it's an absolute disgraceful scandal.

what they said +1

[Paddy]

I would put a different slant on the problem. My parents and extended family were active either in WWI or WW2. Some were killed, grandfather lost both legs and others had various injurious (none of which were compensated for BTW). None of them wanted to talk about their experience other than saying the war had a purpose that they believed in it.

The difference today is that the forces recruit personnel who think that warfare is the same as playing video games. Reality comes as a shock to them.

Speaking with ex-army guys for Iraq and Afghanistan they were spending their time defending themselves against a population that clearly does not want them yet they cannot lash out at them. They obviously get very frustrated and I believe when they are demobbed they take out their frustrations.

The use of Hero is now over used to describe anyone who is in the forces who has gone on active duty, it is an insult to those who fought in the two great wars.

[Mich the Tester]

The difference today is that the forces recruit personnel who think that warfare is the same as playing video games.

Do you any real evidence for that?

[Ignis Fatuus]

I would put a different slant on the problem. My parents and extended family were active either in WWI or WW2. Some were killed, grandfather lost both legs and others had various injurious (none of which were compensated for BTW). None of them wanted to talk about their experience other than saying the war had a purpose that they believed in it.

The difference today is that the forces recruit personnel who think that warfare is the same as playing video games. Reality comes as a shock to them.

Speaking with ex-army guys for Iraq and Afghanistan they were spending their time defending themselves against a population that clearly does not want them yet they cannot lash out at them. They obviously get very frustrated and I believe when they are demobbed they take out their frustrations.

The use of Hero is now over used to describe anyone who is in the forces who has gone on active duty, it is an insult to those who fought in the two great wars.

My family too. My dad was shot at from Normandy to Aachen. His dad served in the trenches at the Somme. Neither talked about it much, but both seemed well able to get on with civilian life after the wars.

But I suppose there were 2 critical differences for them:
1. they didn't volunteer, so they didn't define themselves as soldiers. They were just doing their duty like everybody else.
2. when they were ex-service, so was everybody else, so they didn't feel isolated.