brennon

I don't remember who said it...yes I do - good old Google!  The English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'

RAF personnel walking around Peterborough in uniform, have been verbally abused and spat at by civilians opposed to British military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.  As with my previous blog entry about UCL students, I wonder how many of these 'principled' yobs would dare to behave the same way to the politicians that actually sent the troops to these places?

They wouldn't - because they are themselves complete cowards.  Whenever a senior politician is out and about 'doing his or her duty', they are invariably accompanied by others, if not actual police officers.  Under such circumstances, these yobs would no doubt become far less principled. 

the question I want to ask is - where were the good people of Peterborough when this abuse of our service personnel was going on?  Looking the other way?  Crossing to the other side of the road?  If there were any other citizens around, they obviously choose not to get involved and therefore allowed the evil to triumph.

Unfortunately, the recent pleas by politicians and ex-military officers, for the military to be more appreciated by the public, are likely to be a waste of time and effort. 

I joined the RAF in 1967 when we were actually required to travel in uniform when posted to a new unit.  Also, as a trainee with little money, it was never a problem getting picked up when hitch hiking home at the weekends in uniform (although I think it was actually against the regs).  The IRA put pay to all of that, with service personnel being ordered to keep a low profile for fear of a lethal attack. 

Even after that threat had diminished, it was obvious that the public mood, previously increasingly lukewarm anyway, was now completely cold.  In fact it was disappointing to have people look straight through you - it's not as if they saw the uniform everyday!

Although one old lady did recognise it as a uniform of some kind when she asked if I'd come to fix her car - she thought I was from the RAC!  Another friend got mistaken for an ambulance man one day!  The ever decreasing quality of the uniform (along with the MOD's version of dumbing down by the removal of various badges to save costs) had a lot to do with this type of mistaken identity.  However, that's another subject in itself and goes straight to the root of this country's attitude to its armed forces - don't get me started on the MOD bean counters who controlled everything but never did a days service in their lives - just like most of the defence ministers theses day!

Anyway back to the subject - politicians you can always rely on them to find a tangent to go off on! 

At least those RAF personnel who are being subjected to public abuse know of a 'reason' for this happening, however pathetic and inexcusable it might be.  In contrast, what about the attacks that take place on our firemen and firewomen everyday?  What possible excuse can there be for attacking a group of people who have no other purpose in life other than saving life and protecting property? 

Again, the lack of public support when incidents such as these happen is shocking.  Why aren't local people out confronting the yobs and louts who are carrying out these attacks? As always I ask, where are the parents of these kids, many of whom are no more than 9, 10 or 11 years of age? - down the pub, or wacked out at home on cheap the same supermarket booze their kids are drinking no doubt!