http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011p5hj/The_Choice_Joe_Glenton/
Have a listen to this for one account of what modern (British Army) soldiering is like.
I listened to this and thought it was a very honest account of pretty much what goes on.
This soldier represents one of the milder case imho. In the spectrum of suffering some come out vegetables or rotten because they are unable to reconcile emotions and go off the rails beating up other pub goers up and down the country because they hit the bottle.
Others like the SAS soldier who can handle killing but found the death of 18 civilians sent him over the edge and he hits the bottle.
Those who survive and manage must be made of very strong metal to be able to deal with it all.
I once experienced big canons being fired when as in the radio account approx 10m away. I literally crapped in my pants and instinctively my knees buckled and my whole body lunged forward to dive for cover. Ears hurting and knees shaking it took good 2/3 minutes to come back to my senses.
I should add that I knew the guns would be fired at some point but had forgotten. So it was a deafening shock to my system.
Finally, not knowing when they were going to go off and the random nature of those unbelievably loud guns is very nerve jangling. I think I would be one of those people who turn to jelly if they were aimed at me.
So I don't blame the soldiers but I do find the lies to get young men out of towns with unmployment with a future in the army to defend ones country and then to send them across to world to fight wars is plain ol wrong. Very very wrong.
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I also think it is wrong to wrap them up in the national flag giving it the full ceremony as if they died defending the country and our freedoms. They died doing a job for the war mongers and politicians playing war. It is all a political spin advertisement to brain wash us. No disrespect to the soldiers or families but I just see our governments and politicians bunch of lying ******s. It may give a meaning to their deaths but its all a pack of lies.
To this day I have no idea what we are doing in Afghanistan other than training their troops. Let the Afghan soldiers patrol all those routes. I have never felt threatened by Iraqis or Afghans. However, I have felt threatened for the best part of my life in the tubes and in London parks from IRA bombs. Number of times I've had to get off the tube for some package to be removed is probably in 00s. Crazy stuff.
I do think people and parents are wising up though as both the US marines and UK are having recruiting people for the army. Just shows they are losing the media war.