Is it right to keep waving the flag?
17/07/2010
In our June edition we covered the Armed Forces Day celebrations - a day to honour those who have served our country over the years. Not all of our readers were impressed. Here are some of the letters and emails we have received - and we would welcome your views on this important issue too.
Tony Watts’ very patriotic interview with Simon Weston, ‘Time to wave the flag!’ does warrant a response. Simon, personally, has been admirably courageous in dealing with his own war wounds, from the ‘Sir Galahad’. But he doesn’t mention the Argentinian servicemen, who lost their lives on the ‘Belgrano’ during the Thatcherite years.
At least the Falkland War was fairly brief, as opposed to the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The article states that Simon is scathing of the role played by ‘Svengali’ Blair, in persuading this country to go to war. Yet, to my knowledge, he never speaks out against our servicemen fighting in Iraq. Is it a case of ‘My country right or wrong!’?
The depicted banner reads: ‘Armed Forces Day - Show Your Support!’ Why not add: ‘Remember to be Critical’? Staff of the Forces are, sometimes, quite heroic. We might also appreciate those compassionate people who work for justice, for instance, in Gaza.
Bert Gedin, Birmingham
I am a pacifist and hence I hate war and the celebration of war. This ‘Armed Forces Day’ will be utterly abhorrent to me, for it will be a hideous, jingoistic ‘celebration’ of British military might and imperialism. Even as a pacifist I am prepared to grant that there may have been justification for World War II – and for British people fighting in that war. But there is certainly no justification whatsoever of all the wars that this country has fought in since.
Simon Wormleighton, Northampton
My problem with supporting Armed Forces Day is that I opposed our participation in the Iraq war, and I was right. And I oppose our participation in the Afghan war, and I believe I am right again. I am sorry for those of our armed forces who are there, because I believe that our country’s active participation was and is against Britain’s national interest and that they are dying for nothing, and know it. How do I reconcile support for their plight with opposition to a mistaken policy (to put it no more strongly) of the former Labour government?
John Parfitt, Bristol
Your correspondent Simon Wormleighton grudgingly concedes that there may have been some justification for Britain fighting the Second World War. Considering that we were seeking to prevent a genocidal regime from imposing its will on the whole world, while exterminating vast numbers of those it considered inferior, I feel that that no reasonable person could find any reason to doubt the need to defy Hitler by force of arms.
As far as his contention that there was no justification for any of the wars we have fought since 1945 is concerned does Mr Wormleighton think it right that we should just have left the Falkland islanders to the mercies of a fascist regime or that we should fail to respond when theocratic fanatics attack us, with the declared intentions of inter alia, forcing us to adopt Sharia law, downgrade the status of women and destroying homosexuals?
It is anyway true that those who declare themselves to be pacifists cannot allow justification for any war, even one against a monster like Hitler, so Mr Wormleighton is, like so many who express similar opinions, merely expressing his view of some wars, not advocating a consistent philosophical position. Those of us who recognize the realities of the world know that evil must be resisted, where necessary by force.
Colin Bullen, Tonbridge
YOUR VIEWS? email editorial@maturetimes.co.uk
In reply to Simon Worleighton, Northampton, in his remarks concerning rememberance services. As usual he and his kind misrepresent them. When will such stop doing this? These services are not celebrations but memorials of those who gave their lives, their all, that we might have the freedom we have, which is not recognised by the white poppy brigade who do not know what it is to give one's life for their country, but are willing to enjoy and abuse the benefits of those that have.
A J Mountford, Birkenhead