Honouring the troops should never glorify war

My grandfather, who was a boy soldier in WW1, always told me that we should not have been involved in fighting that war as it was not about people but power, and I really believe that our involvement in some of the world's recent conflicts has been for the same reason: power and oil. WW2 was indeed about fascism and freedom, but was a conflict which probably would not have happened but for the outcome of WW1.

We owe a huge debt to all military personnel who have served, and those who continue to serve, in our armed forces. Sadly too often they are let down by Governments, and the politics gets in the way of the human issues they are faced with, such as injury, loss of limbs, blindness, PTSD, and more. And for those who lose their lives, the families pay an even bigger price.

I am firmly behind our serving personnel, many of my family are ex-military - and I do not want to see our troops being used as a political football by either side. And I really do not want to see any more of our troops die in any conflict, especially in ones where we really should not have been involved in the first place.

I disagree with some of the things our troops have been ordered to do by recent governments, and it appears that the actions they have been ordered to undertake has made the situation worse for lots of people. This is nothing that the troops are to blame for but it is fulfilling a wider political agenda in which they, and we, are pawns.

I want to see a world free of conflict, but sadly it's not going to happen whilst big businesses make mega-millions out of the arms trade. I want to see a world where wars don't happen, where armed forces are unnecessary, and where all humans live in peace, but as a race humanity isn't yet ready for that, so until it is there will always be a need for people willing to step forward and put their lives on the line keeping others safe.

So much of what our armed forces do is important in peace-keeping, in rescuing refugees, in providing aid in disaster areas, as they have the skills and the training to work effectively in those areas, and without them we would be much poorer as a nation.

On Remembrance Sunday and on Remembrance Day itself we should remember and honour those who serve and who have served in defence of our freedoms. We should respect those who still serve. What we shouldn't do is glorify the *process* of war for its own sake. Our soldiers, sailors and air force deserve better than that.