Making the news today....

[David Cropper]

2 hours ago, David Cropper said:

If that's not an incentive to get on target, I don't know what is. Oh, wait a minute, maybe the man himself stood downrange. No bugger would miss then. PC rears it's head yet again. Whoever released the clip needs the facts of life explaining to him.  

I don't know what the PC Brigade would have made of when the IRA  Slimmer of the Year, Bobby Sands, was doing really well on his diet and we in the Corporals' Mess decided to have a sweepstake as to when he would attain his Target Weight, or as we call it, death. How they would have laughed! 

[difflock]

Hunger strikers helpline phone no 808080, ate nothing ate nothing ate nothing

Edited April 3, 2019 by difflock

[Mark J]

[skyhuck]

Just now, Mark J said:

If the "stuff" is threatening my family and way of life, I think they are doing a fantastic job!

[felixthelogchopper]

5 hours ago, Ratman said:

.....means Fuckit.

[Conor Wright]

5 hours ago, David Cropper said:

I don't know what the PC Brigade would have made of when the IRA  Slimmer of the Year, Bobby Sands, was doing really well on his diet and we in the Corporals' Mess decided to have a sweepstake as to when he would attain his Target Weight, or as we call it, death. How they would have laughed! 

Strange. In the 40s around Germany there were surely army officials betting on just how long it would take some prisoners to die of starvation too, I believe that history recalls the general British public,and army, for that matter had a somewhat different view, or was the holocaust a laughing matter too?

   Comments like yours can undo a lot of hard work, upset families and loved ones of those involved and show a level of dehumanization and racism which belittles those in the army that serve with honour and respect, both for their own and for others.

In general your posts are of a high quality. Don't let yourself down here.

 

Any man who has the courage and discipline to die for his country should be shown some respect. ( to die solely for ones belief in a God I feel is somewhat different) You wouldn't question the bravery of a soldier shot in war, would you make jokes about him being a sandbag with boots? Doubt it. Would you bet on how long it took him to bleed out?

Yet when a man is willing to take his own life because he believes in his country he becomes the butt of a sadistic joke. 

 

You might just miss the likes of Sands, withering away in his cell, killing only himself when the Islamic fundamentalists are blowing themselves up outside your childrens schools. 

 

As for Marcus' comment.. you live there, you know talk like that benefits nobody. Plus, it's such an old joke it's practically died of starvation itself.

 

I guess I'll wait for the barrage of abuse now.

 

 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

17 minutes ago, Conor Wright said:

Strange. In the 40s around Germany there were surely army officials betting on just how long it would take some prisoners to die of starvation too, I believe that history recalls the general British public,and army, for that matter had a somewhat different view, or was the holocaust a laughing matter too?

   Comments like yours can undo a lot of hard work, upset families and loved ones of those involved and show a level of dehumanization and racism which belittles those in the army that serve with honour and respect, both for their own and for others.

In general your posts are of a high quality. Don't let yourself down here.

 

Any man who has the courage and discipline to die for his country should be shown some respect. ( to die solely for ones belief in a God I feel is somewhat different) You wouldn't question the bravery of a soldier shot in war, would you make jokes about him being a sandbag with boots? Doubt it. Would you bet on how long it took him to bleed out?

Yet when a man is willing to take his own life because he believes in his country he becomes the butt of a sadistic joke. 

 

You might just miss the likes of Sands, withering away in his cell, killing only himself when the Islamic fundamentalists are blowing themselves up outside your childrens schools. 

 

As for Marcus' comment.. you live there, you know talk like that benefits nobody. Plus, it's such an old joke it's practically died of starvation itself.

 

I guess I'll wait for the barrage of abuse now.

 

 

A thought provoking post - no abuse should be justified nor appropriate. 

 

 

[difflock]

Why would I respond with abuse?

Anyway, being TA, I only had very limited Army experience, but I did pick up on the black-dank Gallows humour common across soldiers across the world and down through the ages, it is simply a coping mechanism. Unfortunately someone with experience observed that Army life multiples personal traits, so the bad get worse and the good get better, plus the affects of PTSD.

Like a Parachute Regiment soldier that I met on an attatchment somewhere, who post Falklands recounted that after a mortar stonk, a soldier was lying on the ground screaming that he had lost his leg(and he had) whilst the medic was attending to him, a fellow soldier could not help correcting him by saying "no, no  you hav'nt lost your leg mate, cos I can see it lying just over there".

Boom Boom!

I will be a long time of regarding murderous IRA volunteers as bona-fide soldiers btw, seeing as they specialized in the slaughter of the unarmed and innocent, by and large.

 

Edited April 3, 2019 by difflock

[David Cropper]

9 hours ago, Conor Wright said:

Strange. In the 40s around Germany there were surely army officials betting on just how long it would take some prisoners to die of starvation too, I believe that history recalls the general British public,and army, for that matter had a somewhat different view, or was the holocaust a laughing matter too?

   Comments like yours can undo a lot of hard work, upset families and loved ones of those involved and show a level of dehumanization and racism which belittles those in the army that serve with honour and respect, both for their own and for others.

In general your posts are of a high quality. Don't let yourself down here.

 

Any man who has the courage and discipline to die for his country should be shown some respect. ( to die solely for ones belief in a God I feel is somewhat different) You wouldn't question the bravery of a soldier shot in war, would you make jokes about him being a sandbag with boots? Doubt it. Would you bet on how long it took him to bleed out?

Yet when a man is willing to take his own life because he believes in his country he becomes the butt of a sadistic joke. 

 

You might just miss the likes of Sands, withering away in his cell, killing only himself when the Islamic fundamentalists are blowing themselves up outside your childrens schools. 

 

As for Marcus' comment.. you live there, you know talk like that benefits nobody. Plus, it's such an old joke it's practically died of starvation itself.

 

I guess I'll wait for the barrage of abuse now.

 

 

You'll get no abuse from me. You have a perfect right to say what you said, it was a situation were wrongs were done on all sides. To put my view in perspective.  I've said before that I left school, joined the Army and went to Ireland as  a naive kid, knowing nothing of the world in general. 1969 was a year of eye opening for me. If you remember, the Belfast Protestants were burning Catholic houses, the Army were sent in to try to restore some order and HELP the Catholic minority.  There was a piece written by a well know journalist of the day which to me summed it up. The Rev.Ian Paisley had rolled up at a flashpoint and said in earshot of the journalist to one of my Regiment, "Don't worry son, were on the same side." To which was quoted by the journalist " The Lancer said back "We're on no bleeding side." I also remember being in the Guardroom just before a patrol and a group of the B Specials came in, big farmer types, jolly uncle's going out on a jaunt, to search a Catholic farmhouse, all because it would amuse them to do so. That opened my 17 year old eyes to injustice. We tried our hardest to be neutral , they were strange times for us. We didn't realise although we spoke the same language, worshipped the same God, maybe differently, were predominantly the same colour, yet things were not what we thought life would be like in another part of the UK.  You wonder why squaddies have a sick sense of humour? I read your reply to me, had a bad night's sleep working out my response, it's took a lot of thinking on my part. It's too easy to rant about the atrocities: Omagh, Belfast, Manchester, Warrington,  Birmingham,  Eniskillen, the M62 coach bombing, the list goes on. Killing soldiers is war, fine, that's accepted, but soldier's families, civilians having a quiet drink after work in a city centre pub, paying respect to the war dead and being blown to pieces, can anyone justify this? Ireland is an emotive subject. My mother's family came over to Oldham during the Famine as did a lot of people, it's a very diverse and sometimes divided town, but generally plods on regardless. Don't think I'm an ignorant,  bigoted ex soldier, I'm not, I try to see other folks views, generally respect them, but as to what happened in Ireland , please don't try to excuse the terrorist activities, on both sides. 

[Conor Wright]

30 minutes ago, David Cropper said:

You'll get no abuse from me. You have a perfect right to say what you said, it was a situation were wrongs were done on all sides. To put my view in perspective.  I've said before that I left school, joined the Army and went to Ireland as  a naive kid, knowing nothing of the world in general. 1969 was a year of eye opening for me. If you remember, the Belfast Protestants were burning Catholic houses, the Army were sent in to try to restore some order and HELP the Catholic minority.  There was a piece written by a well know journalist of the day which to me summed it up. The Rev.Ian Paisley had rolled up at a flashpoint and said in earshot of the journalist to one of my Regiment, "Don't worry son, were on the same side." To which was quoted by the journalist " The Lancer said back "We're on no bleeding side." I also remember being in the Guardroom just before a patrol and a group of the B Specials came in, big farmer types, jolly uncle's going out on a jaunt, to search a Catholic farmhouse, all because it would amuse them to do so. That opened my 17 year old eyes to injustice. We tried our hardest to be neutral , they were strange times for us. We didn't realise although we spoke the same language, worshipped the same God, maybe differently, were predominantly the same colour, yet things were not what we thought life would be like in another part of the UK.  You wonder why squaddies have a sick sense of humour? I read your reply to me, had a bad night's sleep working out my response, it's took a lot of thinking on my part. It's too easy to rant about the atrocities: Omagh, Belfast, Manchester, Warrington,  Birmingham,  Eniskillen, the M62 coach bombing, the list goes on. Killing soldiers is war, fine, that's accepted, but soldier's families, civilians having a quiet drink after work in a city centre pub, paying respect to the war dead and being blown to pieces, can anyone justify this? Ireland is an emotive subject. My mother's family came over to Oldham during the Famine as did a lot of people, it's a very diverse and sometimes divided town, but generally plods on regardless. Don't think I'm an ignorant,  bigoted ex soldier, I'm not, I try to see other folks views, generally respect them, but as to what happened in Ireland , please don't try to excuse the terrorist activities, on both sides. 

A respectful and balanced post. 

I'm not excusing the wrongdoings of either side, nor would I. 

I'm a lot younger than you and grew up hearing more about peace talks, marches and sporadic violence. I can only imagine what it was like on the ground 20 years before that. 

It's all too easy for somebody to kill for their country, not quiet so easy to knowingly die slowly and painfully for a country you believe in..

Had the hunger strikers been British soldiers held in an (for arguments sake) Iraqi prison and refused to cooperate/recognise their captors and therefore died for their country they would be heroes. Not so for sands and co. Unfortunately for them the IRA made too many monumental fuck ups to ever be considered an army or any sort of force for peace or unity.