The better part of valour
Baby Jesus and the orphans, it gets worse. If the Taliban have been watching British news channels today they know what fiendish new weapon to bring to bear on our brave boys during the Spring Offensive: harsh language.
If I was an RAF servicemen I’d be absolutely livid tonight. British politicians have rallied round today and worked hard to paint the flyboys as a bunch of pansies frightened of a bit of name-calling.
Listen to Tory Liam Fox, shadow minister for something or other, subtly painting our armed forces as pussies:
We cannot have our armed forces personnel intimidated for wearing the uniform they are so rightly proud of.
Intimidated? These guys are trained to face bullets and bombs, to kill or be killed. Have any of them been crying themselves to sleep or frightened to leave the barracks? If they have, I’d dare to suggest they’re in the wrong trade and should try something else with alacrity. Being a Member of Parliament perhaps?
Why didn’t Fox go the whole hog and send the servicemen’s mums into Peterborough to have it out with the bullies? You know, if he’s bent on stripping these men of their dignity entirely. I’d say that Fox is in politics because he’s too weak to carry furniture but he’s clearly incapable of carrying an argument either.
To be honest, I think discretion is the better part of valour in this instance and the commander has made the right choice in banning RAF personnel wearing uniforms outside their base. Like I said earlier, when you bear in mind what some servicemen will do in a provincial pub at the slightest provocation, I wonder if the commander didn’t have the public’s rather than his men’s interests at the front of his mind.
Defence minister Des Browne is doing his utmost to protect his men from verbal slurs will all due ‘urgency’. Whether this involves body armour and if Des can get it into theatre in a timely manner before someone is hurt or killed isn’t clear.
(See Philip as well.)
Posted on March 7th, 2008 at 6:40pm under The home front
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• 9 Comments |
I know two squaddies and one military intelligence guy who have done tours of Iraq, and none of them have ever struck me as being easily intimidated. It could be that I’m not scary enough to elicit the fight-or-flight response, though.
On the other hand, perhaps there’s some new species of WWF wrestling hippy roaming free in merry Albion, smashing our brave boys with fold-up chairs, barbed-wire-wrapped planks and giddy tie-dyed abandon, in a brutal smackdown combination.
Hey, I don’t live in England. You could have an infestation of brontosauruses*, for all I know.
*Or brontosauri, my Latin sucks too.**
**On the other hand, my German is fine, and I know what Der Dolchstoss means just fine.
Ein Weiser prüft und achtet nicht, was der gemeine Pöbel spricht, and a damn good thing too.
You bastards are just showing off now.
‘PM’ on Radio 4 said the original incident(s?) was a broken car window, a broken house window, and a keyed car, and happened to a nurse at the military unit in a Peterborough hospital in 2006.
Friday’s PM audio – about 4 minutes 30 seconds into it
These guys are trained to face bullets and bombs, to kill or be killed.
But threaten to take away their iPod and they blub like a two-year old
I’m not impressed by any of this but if anybody can convincingly demonstrate that they know what “my Latin sucks too” is in Latin, then I promise to change my mind.
Latinum Meam Quoque Combibant would be my best stab, although conjugation was never my strong suit and Quoque might be Etiam instead.
That’s state school standard, mind.
Pussies are actually tougher than most of the armed forces – child birth ain’t no picnic you know. Let’s not use mysoginistic insults, hey?
Yes, sorry. I agree. It’s not a word I use in every day speech or very often on this blog. I use it very sparingly – it’s one of those words that has a specific and strong effect on those on the receiving end, I find. It’s a word with strange power over the feeble-minded.