War- what is it good for?

The thirtieth anniversary of the start of the Falklands War brings back memories of that time and thoughts of modern day conflicts we are still engaged in.

I heard a guy on the radio ( a Falklands veteran) saying that he thought it was the last war which made sense to people in that the premise was simple -our territory had been invaded and we wanted it back. I suppose now with the wars in the Serbia and Bosnia , Iraq and Afghanistan it’s hard to remember the shock of actually going to war. The Falklands war was the first real war for the UK since the Korean one in the Fifties.

The BBC has tried to be even handed in its coverage and has had Argentinian veterans on.They even sent Sheelagh Fogarty to Buenos Aires ( nice for some) for what I don’t really know why.

In reality , it was a short brutal war( hand to hand combat) our soldiers were professional, their’s were mostly conscripts. We did bad things and so did they. That’s war. It’s better not to go to war unless you absolutely have to.

Which brings us up to date to Afghanistan. What the hell are we still doing there?

One positive thing the Coalition has done is set an end date to our fighting role there. I'm not convinced Labour would have done if they had retained power. Iran/Syria/Libya are the next battle grounds I think as no one is bothered about Sudan/Somalia or other non-strategic African countries.

There are now hundreds and thousands of the armed forces servicemen and women who have seen active combat and who are carrying the mental and physical reminders of this. What will be the long term personal effect of this on then and on us,our society?

We do seem to have got better at supporting them ( Help For Heroes has done a marvellous job in that respect)

At least we have moved on from post Falkland’s war celebratory parades where the wounded were hidden from sight or not allowed to participate for fear of upsetting people.

I have already posted the Faith Brothers Falklands War lament Easter Parade last Remembrance Day so I'm not going to post it again. Do go back to that post and download and listen to the song or look at Billy Frank's Facebook page where you can watch him perform it at the Brixton Academy in 1985.

Who today is going to write a song as chilling as that about the conflict in Afghanistan and why hasn't that depressing and wasteful war captured the public's attention like the Falklands one and Vietnam before it?