An Oath Is Still An Oath....

Much as it goes against the grain to pander too much to one person's opinion in my blog, (other than my own of course), I felt I should voice my opinions on a specific issue following my friend Shaun's pasting of this link in answer to my earlier post:

The Soldier Who Didn't Want to Fight...

Joe Glenton, according to the article seems to think that having made an oath to fight for Queen and Country, he then gets to pick and choose which conflicts that oath applies to. Instead of fulfilling his duty as agreed, under no duress upon commencing his role as a soldier, he thinks it's ok to wave his own personal flag and take him self off on a little holiday instead.

Here is the news. This man is not a brave figure standing up for the rights of the common man. He is a man who has chosen to let down his friends, his regiment and his nation by going back on his word.

An oath is still the same now as it was a thousand years ago. The meaning of the word has not changed, nor has the spirit in which it is intended when one swears it. You do not give up you right to free thought and individuality when you join the forces. However you do give up the right to decide on which conflicts you will take part in. That is the basic cornerstone of a volunteer military system. There can be absolutely no trust in a military force to defend it's nation if the individuals within that force cannot be trusted to act as one as they have all agreed to do upon signing up.

Joe Glenton has the right to complain. It is a soldiers right to do so as the old saying goes. He does not have the right to waste thousands of pounds of tax-payers money in training him, only to decide unilaterally that any particular conflict does not suit him or his politics.

Far from being a brave individual as my friend Shaun describes him, Joe Glenton is a deserter. Nothing more and nothing less.

Recognising The Cost Of Bravery...

Unlike our American cousins during the Vietnam war, we, the British public have always been decent enough (in the main) to recognise that, whilst we at home may not always support the principles of a conflict in which our servicemen and women are embroiled, we do not have the callousness to take that fact out on the servicemen themselves.

Whatever your political stance on Iraq, Afghanistan or even the Falklands war, we have generally accepted that those who have done their duty and served their country do so regardless of personal opinion, because we understand that someone has to be prepared to fight, be wounded and sometimes die for their country without having the option to make a specific political decision about the conflict as an individual. That is why we have the best troops in the world.

A combination of discipline and courage.

So it is particularly galling to see the MOD still conducting a court case in an attempt to reduce the compensation for two soldiers injured doing the essential job that most of us simply would not have the stomach to do.

Those responsible for continuing this insult to the bravery of every member of the British Forces should be thoroughly ashamed, as should we for allowing such a a circumstance to arise.

The Power of Prayer To Kill...

It will come as no big surprise to regular readers to hear my opinion of Dale Neumann, a Wisconsin man who stood around with his other God-bothering friends praying for his 11 year old daughter to be healed while she slowly died of diabetes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8180116.stm

This moron has thankfully been convicted of second degree reckless homicide, as was his wife last year on the same charge. They will both be sentenced in October and could face up to 25 years.

I think it would be a more appropriate sentence to re-introduce a trial by ordeal under such circumstances. Surely Neumann would have no objections to testing God's powers against his own life rather than that of a child? Perhaps a stake-burning? Thrown into a sack with snakes? Something along those lines?

Just think of the money it would save compared to 25 years of feeding this worthless waste of space.