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if you dont like the fact tony blair can send you to war then dont join up! weve got some lads in my troop and i honestly think they dont realise they are training to go to war!!!!!

I wont fight for f**king tony blair, but for what i believe in and freedom etc

The problem over Iraq is that Bush made Blairs decision for him. Blair wasnt going to turn around and object to Bush's authorisation. It was Bush who decided when we went to war, Blair simply followed suit.

Wilky wrote:Especially as we're just about owned by america now. We have to ask America permission to launch cruise missiles or nuclear weapons now and they can even launch our own nukes without our permission? Im sorry does this not seem a little worrying to anyone else?

Yes it does, quite a lot and has done for quite a while now. I've met some good Americans during my time but I've also met some complete idiots which seemed to have absolutley no grasp of the impact of mismanaged foreign policies at all - rather disturbingly this ignorant outlook isn't confined to the lower levels of US society but transgresses all levels. I've never ceased to be amazed by so called US educated people's simplistic view on world events. Once had a NI friend who was asked by a yank "what he thought the UK was doing to those good people of Ireland", the guy was just completely lost when my oppo informed him he was Irish and the UK wasn't doing anything it shouldn't be doing and the only people of Ireland the UK had a problem with were the terrorist organisations on both sides of the wall. Poor guy didn't know what the hell to think as it went against everything he'd been told.

One thing I've picked up along the way is that the Americans that do have a good grasp of the world are the ones who have done a bit of travelling outside of the US, don't know if this is a conincidence. Unfortunatly though it is estimated that only 30% of US citizens own a passport and a lesser amount actually use it for overseas travel, so the chances of the educated influencing the ignorant is small.

Sorry, didn't want this to sound like an anti US tirade (which admittedly it has) but I have concerns for the way the west and this country in particular is going. I'm no fan of the EU but I'm beginning to wonder if it's the better of the two evils.

Dont even think that far ahead, pass out of training, join a unit then worry about whether or not you'll get sent to war.

Why join up if you aren't prepared to do your job. Or am I being naive?

As far as I am aware no one fights for a politician, or a Royal family or any one else in authority for that matter.

You tend to fight to look after your oppo's because you all joined up and spent a lot of time together and realised that no one else is going to give a sh*t about you in the long run so you'd better make a good job of doing it yourself.

if your a soldier your employed to fight, simple as. Your employed to protect and fight for the country and its intrests, even if you dont agree. If you dont like it dont join.

RDC wrote:if your a soldier your employed to fight, simple as. Your employed to protect and fight for the country and its intrests, even if you dont agree. If you dont like it dont join.

Since when has anyone liked going to war for Tony Blair, the Queen, or just going to war for that matter? I dont think anyone has ever gone to war because they have agreed with what the politician has to say... and if they ever did, their opinion would have changed after they had started fighting for their lives

I think alot of people here are missing the point. Gash-Hand is right here. You dont go to war because you like it, which some people here are suggesting really "If you dont like fighting for Tony Blair, dont join up"... you go because its your job. And whilst you are there you couldn't give a damn about Tony Blair, only your friends who are sitting in the same hole getting shot at with you.

When the build up to the war in the Iraq was at its most "critical" point all the people out here in Germany got a letter from some German peace protester people through our letter boxes. This didn't actually concern me as my dad isn't even in the army just SCE. It said something like
" If you are asked to go to war by your superiors then refuse to go as it is wrong. " Basically it just dragged on about that for a while.
I asked myself this- What is the point of being a soldier if you don't do what a superior tells you and don't fight?
Surely this is the whole point of having an army?