Re: [Marxism] British Service Personnel Abused By Members Of British Public

["Paul Flewers" <rfls12802@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is something that is being blown out of all proportion by British
politicians. To cite from the BBC report:

'Cambridgeshire police said they did not know of any abuse reported in the
city. The guidance was issued in January 2007 advising personnel to wear
civilian clothes in certain areas for fears of abuse. It followed a verbal
incident in December 2006. The city's Conservative MP, Stewart Jackson,
said: "The police don't have records of any serious problems. My
understanding is that it's a small number of incidents of verbal abuse."'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/7282943.stm 

In short, probably a minor altercation between a couple of people in a pub
after a few pints. I very much doubt if anyone I knew in the anti-war
movement would be abusive to a serviceman in uniform (or in mufti for that
matter); there's no point in doing that. However, if a serviceman were to
make derogatory comments about Iraqis or Afghans, he might well get a sharp
response from anti-racists. Whatever the truth, it seems like a minor
incident.

So why does Prime Minister Brown make so much of it, saying that we must
praise British troops, etc, etc, echoed by sundry Labourite MPs? Is it
because the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are increasingly unpopular with the
general public, and this is a means of trying to whip up support for it?
Pretty desperate, I reckon.

Paul F




________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism