British soldiers

[jamessavory]

Why do people demonstrate against british soldiers? when they are not happy with what they are doing, but if they neded them they would be the first to call upon them!

[WaldoMcFroog]

If you're talking about people protesting about the abuses (not getting into the argument about the veracity of certain of the claims for now) by certain soldiers, then I would have thought that was perfectly clear. I must say I wasn't aware of people formally protesting about this. The revulsion of most of the British public is clear, regardless of their support of the war or not. I have no doubt that most British soldiers are probably equally sickened by the abuse of prisoners.

If you're talking about something like people on anti-war marches, these are not demonstrations against (although some people on such marches doubtless might harbour feelings in this regard), but anti-British policy.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Missing 'soldiers' from last paragraph! Sorry!

[Quizmonster]

Click http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology
/Kipling/Tommy.htm James, and have a look at Rudyard Kipling's poem 'Tommy'. It says pretty much what you do. I especially like the lines:

"An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints:

Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints."

If they don't become saintly in barracks, how likely is it that they will in a war-zone? After all, they are not taking a stroll in the park at Tunbridge Wells, to hear the Sunday concert at the bandstand!

Granted, in a perfect world, Iraqi prisoners would not be abused, but none of them seems to have had his head sawn off. The British press is, by and large, despicable, as witness the almost-certainly fake photos in the 'Mirror'. Even if genuine, why publish them rather than present them to the Government and/or the military authorities for investigation and action? The British 'Tommy' is still despised by some, I'm afraid.

[JohnPPotts]

Quizmonster, I find it odd that you argue that you can't expect soldiers to act like Sunday school teachers but then turn around and expect the (ex-)editor of a tabloid newspaper to act responsibly. Piers Morgan published the photos because he thought they'd sell more newspapers - did you really expect him to do anything else?