Two minute silence

[ciphergoth]

At 12:00 BST today, London and many around the world observed a two minute silence for the 48 people who died in the terrorist attacks on London on 7 July.

During those two minutes, approximately 42 children worldwide died due to poverty.

We are not going to let terrorists cause us to lose perspective.

Comments

[narnee.livejournal.com]

It is important to be aware of PR tactics; all militaries use them in modern warfare.

What do you mean by some of the US soldiers in Iraq being "nice enough" up to a point? Please don't confuse all soldiers (or all Americans, but I know you don't do that) with the actions and opinions of the Chimp-in-Chief. Some of them are incredibly nice people; some of them are my friends and partners of my friends.

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

I mean that I personally cant imagine being a close friend of anyone who would willingly join the military. I have had clients who were soldiers and were lovely. However I suspect that if I had got to know them as friends sooner or later we would have discovered a massive difference in our politics/philosophy/ethics/whatever and been unable to sustain a friendship. I guess the "point" for me is the point where they have to kill someone "for their country" I would rather go to prison than be conscripted and have to do that.

I realise that such killing is viewed in many ways, including self defence and the defence of others. I just dont trust politicians and governments enough to let them decide for me who is the enemy. Sometimes the issues are relatively clear. I would have fought in a war against fascism for example, but times are very different now.

I also realise that for some the military is a way out of poverty and ignorance but quite honestly if that or crime were my only options I would choose crime.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

The military is marketed far differently in the States than it is in the UK. The GI bill and college tuition help are heavily promoted, as are the training and later ease in job market. Ads tend to be toward skill and leadership rather than imagining oneself in combat or controlling a refugee situation. "Be all that you can be! You can do it, in the Army reserve!", for example. The first time I saw a recruiting commercial in a British theatre I was stunned.

My friends and I tend toward the progressive end of centrist, and I have a number of friends who were in the military at one time or another. Most got there through ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps), I believe, and some are stil in the reserve. National Guard are another group which for most of the last couple decades have been deployed to assist in natural emergencies rather than to shoot at anyone.

The news may not have made it there from over here, but now that there's a shooting war on, and people are over in Iraq for quite long periods of time with insufficient armour the military have been falling short of recruitment goals by close to 30%. The reserves and guard are also having recruiting difficulties, given that deployment pay tends to be rather lower than what many of the folks commanded in civilian jobs.