On Saturday 26 June it is Armed Forces Day 2010 here in the UK. The lead event is in Cardiff with many others going on around the country. You can find out more about the day, the events and other activities on the Armed Forces Day website. The day provides an opportunity for members of the public to say thank you and express their support for the Armed Forces. There’s more detail here too. In the meantime this is a shot of me ca. 1974 on Armed Forces Day (or whatever we called it in Canada). The moment when my ideal career path crystallized in my mind…
Armed Forces Day 2010
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Very cute, bet you’ve been in departmental meetings where you wish you still had that…
The good looks or the machinegun? Actually both would be nice but if I had my choice I think the Browning is a bit cumbersome. This one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnKd6iXHTQg
would be much more practical.
Actually, I would have thought this more appropriate in terms of age:
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:EE8MXjJzdZxa_M:http://www.delsjourney.com/images/news/news_01-10-06/1-7241-Gatling-Gun-Firing.jpg
This picture explains so much…
Should we consider it a difference in politics and culture that a young African child holding a Kalashnikov is tragic but this is cute?
Not denigrating, simply pointing out cultural relatives.
On another note, is this the equivalent of the U.S’ Veteran’s Day?
The UK Armed Forces Day is the equivalent of the US Veterans Day. The US also has “Memorial Day” that is equivalent to the UK “Remembrance Day” and also “Armed Forces Day” that is to honor those one active service (actually part of Armed Forces Week).
Even with such a plethora of opportunities, I think the trend is increasingly (especially since the advent of the “All Volunteer Force” and sadly with the dying off of our WWII veterans) that the average American (without a family or other close connection to someone serving) spends very little, if any, time thinking about, much less worrying about or appreciating, our military.
I’ve noted that. The average person in the U.S I know does not feel as if they are at war. I have to admit that I think less of the soldiers and more of the cost/gain. Is it different in the U.K and/or is this consistent with insurgencies?
For me this raises the Great Big Question (aka the elephant in the room): are the US and UK really At War? Are they facing an existential threat?
Well they didn’t actually recruit me on that day. I had to wait a few more years. And I wasn’t compelled to lop off the limbs of my neighbours either.
Ed:
As they used to say in America back in the day when the first generation game shows were all the rage, that is the (or at least a) $64000 question. The answer I suppose depends largely on the extent to which one views the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as wholly separate “wars” or rather as “merely” the currently most visible manifestations of a much broader and deeper, and to use your term, existential, conflict.
This in turn implicates other factors such as the biases and assumptions of one trying to answer the ultimate question as well as the terms of reference and “field of view” being applied. For example, I happen to believe that “we” (again this will vary as well due to these and other variables but for purposes of my response I will characterize “we” as the generic “liberal west,” are indeed in such an existential conflict with what I will call (again generically) islamo-fascists. I realize the use of such a term is not in vogue at present and that those who better understand the religion and politics of Islam will have much to say about this “group” being a small minority who are using it as a cover for other more secular motives, have “hijacked” the true faith etc., but I will leave that for others. My point nevertheless is that even though the GWOT and other terms of similar sweep are “out” now (in no small measure I am sure due to that personification of evil, GW Bush and his cabal of neocon demons, used them), history and current events, tensions and threats tell me we are indeed in such a conflict, and using such ludicrous terms as ” man-caused disasters,” “overseas contingency operations” and the like and using incredible verbal gymnastics to avoid stating the obvious common denominators (men of Muslim background or belief) among most of the significant actual or attempted terroristic violence is a bit like whistling past a graveyard.