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

["gary.maclennan@xxxxxxxxx" <gary.maclennan@xxxxxxxxx>]

I would say that Paul is right here and there is an air of desperation
around the British public's reaction to the Iraqi and Afghanistan
wars.  It is interesting how the strategy of making Afghanistan the
"good" war has slowly but inevitably failed. The principal factors
involved include of course the fact that the war is being lost or at
least not being won. Secondly the Karzai Govt is increasingly seen for
the farce that it is.

Here in Australia the commitment to Afghanistan has not come under the
same scrutiny that the Iraqi venture has, but that too will change.

regards

Gary

On 3/8/08, Paul Flewers <rfls12802@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
>
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