h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

https://twitter.com/PoppyLegion/status/396308596461273088/photo/1

It's an image from the official British Legion Poppy Appeal Twitter account, showing pictures of children dressed in t-shirts reading "future soldiers."

I thought that Remembrance Day was about honouring the sacrifices of those forced to fight in two world wars, not a recruiting tool for the modern professional armed forces?

It just doesn't sit well with me.

I don't like it either.

Whether we should have soldiers is debatable. That we should honour those who fought and died is undisputable.

Agreed. But have we crossed the line from honouring the dead to revering them and holding them up as the ultimate example to aspire to?

Dead soldiers are regarded far more highly in the media than (for example) dead police officers or firefighters.

Are they? Seems to me we've seen hundreds of soldiers killed and thousands maimed in recent years, the press coverage doesn't amount to more than a line or two usually. Unless it's an officer, a woman or a photogenic squaddie with a pretty wife and young family.

They deserve our respect because policemen/firefighters are not told "Go there and do this - you *will* be attacked and some of you *will* be injured, possibly fatally". H&S reps would have a hissy fit.

As to the OP, yes I think that's unsettling. I disagree with children being used to front campaigns it's unlikely they understand fully.

agree with swl's previous post.

As to the kids in the t-shirts, even having been a soldier myself, there is NO WAY I would let one of those near either of the Gruesomes and I wonder what the parents were thinking.

I think we should remember our military fallen - no matter where they fell or how long ago - the occasion and the poppies are for that. It might help if the police/fireservice other public organisations of that ilk had their own too?

I do get a bit fed-up with all this "heroes" stuff. Because I know soldiers and they are regular people like the rest of us. Occasionally some of them are heroes - but mostly they burp, trump, grumble and moan like the rest of us. They do have a great sense of humour for the most part though.

I believe that in America they got rid of Remembrance Day and instead celebrate Veterans Day. That's more about celebrating people who are (or were) soldiers than people who died needlessly.

I couldn't believe the pro-soldier culture in the US. When we went to see the orcas in Sea World in Florida, the show started with us all honouring the "heroes" and their families, that is, anybody working in the army.

pfft, when i was an Army brat people couldn't have cared less that I was without a dad for 6 months of the year. In fact whenever we moved to a new place (especially when it was with the regiment and there were lots of us) whenever we started a new school there was mild to downright hostility (one PTA asked the head not to let us in. I'm glad to report that out of the ones in my class we all passed the 11 plus...)

I mentioned a while ago that this phenomena was occurring in the context of Cameron appropriating the memory of the war dead of WW1 to renew a sense of nationalism to which he laid claim to be representing through conservative policy - and I was told to get lost from the thread. But I suppose jumpers on kids is unsettling.

"I couldn't believe the pro-soldier culture in the US. When we went to see the orcas in Sea World in Florida, the show started with us all honouring the "heroes" and their families, that is, anybody working in the army." [Gnomon]

There are pockets of pro-soldier culture, notably in the southern states, where enlisting tends to be a family tradition. Interestingly, Native Americans tend to have such traditions as well.

I'm neither hostile to nor overly impressed by soldiers. It's a big world. There's a place for everyone, even if I can't figure out what the place is. Veterans who have come back from combat with physical injuries or Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, deserve good medical treatment. Whatever anyone thinks of the validity of the war[s] they fought in, the government that sent them there owes them.

Interestingly, the American Government spends more on supporting its veterans than on education.

Which government? Federal, State, or Local? The federal government is not the primary source of funds for education. Cities and towns usually pay for schools and teachers through property taxes. There may be supplementary money coming from states or the Feds as well, but they aren't the main source.

The VA hospitals, which provide medical care for veterans, are funded by the federal government. I've heard horror stories about inadequate care at some of them.

I agree with the basic ideal, respect the fallen and the broken, but let's not create any future 'heroic' images. Like the man said 'War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing' except the undertaker.

"Which government?" I don't know. It was just a pie chart I saw with "Government Spending". I think about 60% of it was spent on the Military, and another 10% on veterans. So that would probably be Federal Expenditure.

"War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing" - unfortunately, both the US and the UK are of the opinion that war is a valid way of dealing with other countries that aren't behaving the way they should.

Cutting off our oil supply? Let 'em have it!

It was apparently federal

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_education_spending_20.html

For Fiscal year 2014, the federal government was budgeted for $141 billion in education, and $152.7 in Veterans' Affairs.

When you add the state and local expenditures, education spending amounted to $985.4 billion.

Absolutely! The fact that the US and GB screwed everybody when they had the power and then object to getting screwed when someone else gets the power is only laughable because I am so old that I will hopefully be gone before all them chickens come home to roost.

Although my experience living in India suggests that just maybe they will buck the trend and actually make a difference. Can't answer for Brazil or China sadly.

The attutide of most WWI and WWII veterans that I have met was/is I went there so your generation did not have to stay out of the services.

Interestingly many wore white poppies on remerance day, however the higher the acheived rank the attitude of many of the WWII veterans was "If I knew Koera was going to happen I would have stayed in, I cant stand peace time soldiering".

There is another point of interest was the body count was much higher if the mood of the individual was in the annoyed to enraged spectrum. But there was a universal respect and admiration for the men they fought and killed. (with the exception of long term POW,s)

Thousands of U.S. veterabs of the Vietnam War have gone to live in Vietnam in order to build bridges between the two countries and clean up some of the mess that was left there [Agent Orange that had leached into the soil, unexploded bombs that need to be found and destroyed, etc.]. This is according to the latest weekly issue of the Christian Science Monitor. Some Vietnam veterans have found that Vietnam so affected them that they had to return there in order to make sense of their lives.

I can beleive that, I have yet to talk to any veteran who hate the people or the ordanary soldiers of the other side, once the conflict was over.