Wearing Poppies..

[DB1100]

Right folks who out there is all wearing their Poppies.....and has anybody had any hassle for wearing one..?

Not me, I'm not interested in that sort of stuff, I don't need to show something to 'remember', I can remember without putting on a show for others. I don't need to go to a place of worship to worship, when that which I worship is all around me and 'hears me'. Also tomorrow, I don't need to burn things in order to 'celebrate' the foiling of an attempt to commit a crime more than 400 years ago.

I wear a poppy out of respect,and I am proud to do so,it means a lot more to people who have lost loved ones or friends,or who have served in the Forces.I too will stop at 11.11 next Tuesday and think about absent friends with a smile.

[gaza1968]

I am wearing my WHITE on as ido rember the fallen but belive the there is no need for war and its the working classes the pay for the bosses conflicts

[darth]

Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

[DB1100]

I am wearing my WHITE on as ido rember the fallen but belive the there is no need for war and its the working classes the pay for the bosses conflicts

There should be a special day for the white poppy,the red poppy is for Remembrance Sunday and the day should not be used to try and make statements.The red poppy is not worn to glorify war but to honour those who have paid the price.People should respect this and keep their white poppies for another day.

[k979aaa]

I am wearing my WHITE on as ido rember the fallen but belive the there is no need for war and its the working classes the pay for the bosses conflicts

There should be a special day for the white poppy,the red poppy is for Remembrance Sunday and the day should not be used to try and make statements.The red poppy is not worn to glorify war but to honour those who have paid the price.People should respect this and keep their white poppies for another day.

How about 6 of august when the first atom bomb was droped on the inocent of a nation at war!.

[Big Daz]

How many of you on RMC had family fighting in the two world wars, especially World War One?

Ive got photos of my maternal grandfather on manovoures in WW2 (Home Guard) my paternal grandfather was a Army/RAF charge nurse.

My maternal grandmother's father was in WW One and was discharged due to injury. I have manged to obtain his medal card (copy) and copies of his war record using http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/rectyp ... aspx?rt=39.

If you had family in WW 1 then finding there records can help you appreciate/understand their time at war even more.

[BELIAL]

Shouldn't worry too much about remembering the old wars,if the system continues true to form we'll soon have one of our very own. "ridiculous" - yep that was the general consensus in 1912 and 1937

[NWpostie]

I am wearing my WHITE on as ido rember the fallen but belive the there is no need for war and its the working classes the pay for the bosses conflicts

There should be a special day for the white poppy,the red poppy is for Remembrance Sunday and the day should not be used to try and make statements.The red poppy is not worn to glorify war but to honour those who have paid the price.People should respect this and keep their white poppies for another day.

How about 6 of august when the first atom bomb was droped on the inocent of a nation at war!.[/quote]


I don't think the Japanese were so innocent, they all committed or is indirectly responable for support the war and all attrocities committed thereof which has plagued Japanese relations for years and still do round the Asian rim, the USA and the UK, the rape and murder of Nanking, Hong Kong, Singapore, "Comfort women" aka forced Sex Slaves, POW treatment, Medical experiment on prisoners, indsicriminate slaughter of innocent Civilians including babies, the Atomic Bomb was PAYBACK time and they knew it, I have been to Hiroshima and saw the museum and the dome, the Japanese admitted as much that they deserved it and bear no bitterness to us for it, they knew it was the fortune of war.

If the Japanese had refused to surrende, pretty soon the place would be one big wasteland and there would be no Japanese race left, if the Japanese had possession of the A-Bomb before us,they would have used it quite indiscriminately without a doubt.

so no guilt over that, I would have dropped the bomb as well had I been the pilot and not looked back.

[BELIAL]

Lets hope the Irish never get the bomb then cos by your rationale They would be quite within their rights to barbecue the lot of us. s**t just remembered the Indians have got some,oh well guess we all deserve it

[DGP1]

On a purely tactical level it was right to drop the A-Bombs on Japan because the American casualties would have been unbearable and the Japanese people would have died in their millions if the Allies were to launch a conventional invasion of the home islands. I know it's not nice but there was a war on and the best way to minimise casualites in a major conventonal war is to finish it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I'd personally like to avoid a war but if I had to fight one then I'd use every weapon in my arsenal to win it as fast as possible and to try to make sure I didn't have to fight over the same thing again in a few years.

Wearing a poppy doesn't mean that you are pro or anti war it just means that you salute those who are willing to make a bigger sacrifice than you are every likely to.

[BELIAL]

History written by the victors. Hazard a guess that you are thinking along the lines "it shortened the war" "they'll fight to the last" "our losses would have been massive"
Funny thing is ,that although both cities had been well within easy range of Superfortress bombers for almost a year,and were of vital strategic importance(being home to the vast bulk of Japanese armaments and aircraft production and major army HQ's too)they, unlike almost all other Japanese urban centers,went largely unbombed!
I'll bet it would be a surprise to you to learn that the Emperor had instructed his government to sue for peace more than a year before the atomic slaughter of mostly innocent civilians.So many attempts were made to surrender they ended up asking Sweden to talk to the US on their behalf ,and when that fell on deaf ears they became so desperate they even pleaded with the Russians to intervene.
Wonder why it's not like that in the movies or even the schoolbooks?

[DGP1]

I would agree with you that history is written by the victors but all you have to look at is the way the Japanese people reacted to the invasion of Okinawa and if they were prepared to go to that extreme to defend an outer island then they would have fought even harder on the home islands.

The reason why Hiroshima and Nagasaki where chosen was because they hadn't been bombed into the stone age and the Americans wanted to know the full destructive capibilites of their new weapons. If the Allies had've had atomic weapons in 1943/4 they would have used them in Europe against the Germans because they didn't know the full ramifacations of atomic weapons.

We could argue forever about the rights and wrongs of it but it happened (I think rightly and you think wrongly) and there is nothing we can do to change that but we can learn and hopefully not repeat it again.

[baldrick]

I do wear a poppy, and we have a Rememberance Service every year at 1100 on Rememberance Sunday at my MC,
which I always attend. I do remember particularly those who fought fascism in WW2, like three of my uncles.
But I was disturbed by the racist views expressed by some serving soldiers and recruits in the 'Undercover Soldier'
programme a few weeks ago.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

History written by the victors. Hazard a guess that you are thinking along the lines "it shortened the war" "they'll fight to the last" "our losses would have been massive"
Funny thing is ,that although both cities had been well within easy range of Superfortress bombers for almost a year,and were of vital strategic importance(being home to the vast bulk of Japanese armaments and aircraft production and major army HQ's too)they, unlike almost all other Japanese urban centers,went largely unbombed!
I'll bet it would be a surprise to you to learn that the Emperor had instructed his government to sue for peace more than a year before the atomic slaughter of mostly innocent civilians.So many attempts were made to surrender they ended up asking Sweden to talk to the US on their behalf ,and when that fell on deaf ears they became so desperate they even pleaded with the Russians to intervene.
Wonder why it's not like that in the movies or even the schoolbooks?

IIRC you are correct in all the above. However, the confusion was caused because the Allies wanted a complete or absolute surrender with no pre-written or agreed clauses. Japan who had effectively lost the war at the Battle of Midway and at the Marianas Turkey Shoot, wanted confirmation that their Emperor would not be held accountable for causing the war, and wanted him to remain in power after the war. The 2 sides never did agree and so the war carried on. The ultimately wasteful and in my opinion criminal waste of lives that continued till the Japanese did finally surrender, and when they did, what they wanted guaranteed actually came about, should be blamed entirely on the politicians (civil and military) on both sides.

[DB1100]

I am wearing my WHITE on as ido rember the fallen but belive the there is no need for war and its the working classes the pay for the bosses conflicts

There should be a special day for the white poppy,the red poppy is for Remembrance Sunday and the day should not be used to try and make statements.The red poppy is not worn to glorify war but to honour those who have paid the price.People should respect this and keep their white poppies for another day.

How about 6 of august when the first atom bomb was droped on the inocent of a nation at war!.

How about Holocaust day,which remembers what the German did to the Jews.The list is endless,I for one think the Atom bomb saved many of our and American service men and women from death,it's a well forgotten fact that the Japanese committed more than their fair share of atrocities