Remembrance Day

[tommyshanks]

remembrance day
today is remembrance day, a day to honour our soldiers who fought and died in the the two great wars and the Korean war.
It saddens me to know that many of our young no longer understand nor respect the sacrifices that our young soldiers made to protect us.
A litanny of educators brought up in the civil rights movement of the sixties and seventies have focused on the ills and blunders of our militaries.
Our history courses are taught be educators either whom have never fought in the service of their country or have been vocal opponents of military intervention in other parts of the world.
I for one have experienced too many liberal educators fuelled on the "make love not war" mentality heavily associated with the American experience in Vietnam. Our generation and the younger generations no longer respect the sacifices that our soldiers made to keep us safe.
Too often we only focus on the blunders, the carnage of war, the political propoganda. But we forget these soldiers died in upholding their beliefs in freedom, in democracy, and safekeeping our future generations from tyranny.
We disrespect these soldiers by blatantly claiming they were dupes of their respective governments, of big business, of political zealism.
The fact is these soldiers who fought and sacrified with their lives were not thinking of big business or colonial explotation.
Let's not dishonour their sacrifices in the name of "enlightenment

I agree with much of what you have to say, Tommy, but let's not lose sight of the fact that many of those who fought and died were conscripts who possibly had no idea what they were fighting for. Particularly in the First World War or Great War where my grandfather was one of the "ladies from Hell" the poor bloody infantry were indeed lions led by donkeys. Many died senselessly. But that is not to diminish their sacrifice. We shall remember them.

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The man o' independent mind,
He looks and laughs at a' that.