Dying for ‘the patriot game.’
Medals belonging to a member of our family on my father’s side, surfaced when he died.
The young soldier from the heart of South Armagh who fought for Britain spent the rest of his life in hospital. It was always said he had not recovered because he suffered from ‘shell shock.’
Had I been brought up by different parents I too might have ended up fighting for ‘the cause’ in one or other army. An anti violence ethos obtained in our South Armagh home and my life took a different course and I didn’t join any physical force army.
I have written here before that the photograph of young Portadown man Neal Turkington, killed in Afghanistan is fixed on my retina. That face spoke volumes with its distinct jaw line. That could be my son or yours.
Dup Assembly man Stephen Moutray said:
“Lt Neal Turkington was an incredibly brave young man of enormous ability. He laid down his life in the cause of a better future for the people of Afghanistan and on behalf of a more secure future for us back home.”
Neal’s family needless to say must feel an immense sense of pride in their son because he followed his star and pursued his dream.
The first words of a latin saying taken from an ode by Horace may well rest easily with the Turkington family.
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” (it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country).
Having come through an educational system which familiarised me with the notion of ‘blood sacrifice’ on the back of listening and reading about the Rising and about the poet Padraig Pearse, I have a sense of the deep raw emotions nationhood can stir.
The former deputy first minister Seamus Mallon once remarked ‘the oppressed always cling to romance.’ It was a broad generalisation but Mallon got his point across.
When it comes to war my approach to the application of violence outside of absolute self defense or the protection of another human being’s well- being, no injustice real or perceived merits taking up a gun to kill.
I am in war poet Wilfred Owen’s camp.
He wrote before losing his own life in the First World War:
‘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.
Obscure 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. Dominic Behan’s
‘Patriot Game’ also resonates this when he sings of young Fergal O Hanlon; ‘Come all ye young rebels and list while I sing.
For the love of one’s country is a terrible thing.
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame.
And it makes us all part of the
patriot game.’ All this begs the question; is the patriot game worth a penny candle? Tony Blair, George Bush, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and David Cameron should all ask – is the war in Iraq, in Afghanistan world a penny candle?. We cannot get the victims of IRA,UDA,UVF,Dissidents, or of the LVF back. The same goes for Neal Turkington he is not coming back.
Eamonn Mallie
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.
Obscure 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. Dominic Behan’s
‘Patriot Game’ also resonates this when he sings of young Fergal O Hanlon; ‘Come all ye young rebels and list while I sing.
For the love of one’s country is a terrible thing.
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame.
And it makes us all part of the
patriot game.’ All this begs the question; is the patriot game worth a penny candle? Tony Blair, George Bush, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and David Cameron should all ask – is the war in Iraq, in Afghanistan world a penny candle?. We cannot get the victims of IRA,UDA,UVF,Dissidents, or of the LVF back. The same goes for Neal Turkington he is not coming back.
Eamonn Mallie
I have never understood how tired insults, used repetitively, add impact to an argument, particularly those borrowed at third hand, and a decade on, from the Trots. Perhaps Pippakin @ 11:50 pm can explain.
Equally, wee buns rips out of its context in the penultimate quoted paragraph what The Economist writer says about Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Anglo-EU relations. Were the first two of those not worthy causes? Is the UK’s position in the EU improved by europhobia?
Finally, the WMD issue, while significant, is not the only justification for allied involvement in Iraq. Even so, the Supergun Affair, bacteriological operations, use of chemical warfare, the nuclear experimentation, the missile technology, the braggadocio were not fictions. Despite wee buns‘ assertions, even the sainted Dr David Kelly, in his final public utterances, asserted Iraq possession of WMD. But, hey!, let’s rewrite history to suit our prejudices!
Saddam managed, uniquely, to engage in aggressive wars against most of his neighbours, to commit genocide against his fellow Iraqis, used rape as a terror device, forced polygamous marriages on war widows, denied medical and nutritional help to children as a publicity vehicle against UN sanctions … and let’s not neglect his admiration for and deliberate imitation of the late, unlamented Adolf Hitler and Nazi practices. Would we liberal Europeans countenance the continued existence of such a bellicose and murderous tyrant on our own continent? But just outside our immediate sphere of influence is OK?
Malcolm Redfellow
I ‘borrowed’ no arguments. I merely reiterated those already out there!
I would hate anyone, particularly Tony Bliar to think they had gone away.
Malcolm
Saddam was not a pleasant fellow. Tough neighbourhood and all that. But he was Britain’s ally and America’s. And htye have had osme pretty unsavoury allies. To pretend that politics is not governed by rank hypocrisy is to deny reality.
Pippakin: What questions did the Daily Telegraph answer for me? The DT is a major British Legion supporter. I very much doubt that they would rattle that cage.
I am not objecting to BHritish or other people supporting the RBL; I think anyone would feel sorry for ex squaddies or their dependents in need. But, in Britain, the RBL is more untouchable than HM the Queen. And it is not run by a Michael O’Lesry type figure.
Alan Maskey
The Daily Telegraph were asking the same questions you posed, they may be supporters of the RBL but they are no supporter of TB
I don’t consider it a republican/unionist issue. TB caused his country to go to war on, to say the least, dodgy grounds, everyone is entitled to an opinion on that. If the RBL benefit in some way from what may be his guilty conscience, well done them.
The one aspect of this donation by Blair that seems to have been overlooked is that of the taxation effect upon his actual income after this donation is made, assuming that it has been made under Gift Aid which is a reasonable assumption given that it woiuld be foolish in the extreme were it not.
A donation of, say, £5m ( calculating Blair’s advance +anticipated royalties) under Gift Aid would net the charity £6.25m (the donation representing an assumed 80% of Blair’s NET income after deuction of tax at standard rate Plus the tax on the calculated gross income at 20%), which is very nice for the charity.
However, since Blair would have expected to pay tax of 40% Higher Rate on that £5m in 2010/11 his net return in that year from the sale of the book would have been (assuming a £5m income) 60% of £5 m = £3m. So the net loss of income to him as a result of this donation would appear to be £3m.
However (again), that will not in fact be the net loss because, as the Revenue donates to the charity only that tax paid at the Standard Rate of 20% and the actual taxation would have been at the Higher Rate of 40% then the donor is able to reclaim the difference, which in this case would amount to 20% 0f £5m, which equals a nice tidy £1M.
Which sum many of you may consider not to be a bad little whack at all for a load of ghost written self-serving tosh.
Of course if the figures are calculated on the Additional Higher Rate of 50% which will apply from 2011/12, the net result for Blair will be even sweeter – i.e. 30% x £5m = £1.5m (although this will not affect the charity’s take).
I don’t give a shit about Tony Blair/Bliar. I am asking about the RBL. And there is abosolutely no way the DT would challenge them. They would attack the Queen first.
So who governs the RBL? Who do they answer to? How efficient re thye in collecting and dispersing funds? Are they transparent and accountable. Are they independently assessed or are their auditors etc ex armd forces personnel?
Well, last time I looked, the RBL Annual Reports and Accounts were available in .pdf form, free for all. Lists all the officials and trustees. Not surprisingly, many are military (can’t think why that should be …)
Hint: there’s this marvellous thing called “Google”.
And, by the way, Rory Carr (above) might care to note that a substantial part of that expected income would be coming from overseas, especially US, sales. Any decent literary agent can advise on how to minimise tax on those monies.
It would nevertheless be all the more advantage both to the RBL and to Blair that he pay UK income tax on these earnings and therefore I would imagine that any decent literary agent or tax advisor would also advise him of the benefit of so arranging matters accordingly.
As USA combat troops withdraw from Iraq leaving just 50,000 non combat personnel behind plus a much larger army of subcontractors maybe it’s a good time to look at the before and after even if it’s a little premature .
Before the USA invaded Iraq in 2003 was ruled by Saddam. The country was in the control of the 20% Sunni minority with the 60% Shiite majority and the 20% Kurds getting it in the neck whenever they ‘objected’ to Sunni domination . The country was a basket case following years of sanctions and anything which could get into the country went to those who favoured the regime .
In 2010 as the USA leaves Iraq does’nt have an agreed government . The Shiites control Baghdad and overall power and the Sunnis have been ‘ethnically cleansed’ from their former Baghdad neighbourhoods in one of the biggest population movements in the region since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 . The 20% Kurds have established virtual self autonomy in the north and have remained a cohesive group to provide some ‘balance’ to Shiite dominance . The Sunni’s are in disarray and despite a brief accomodation with the Shiite governing majority they are now in limboland with the USA ‘gone’.
When the bodies are added up we know that some 5,000 Americans and several hundred British and others gave their lives for this ‘creation’ . The number of Iraqis who have been killed by the Allies and in sectarian conflict mainly between Shiites and Sunnis is not exactly known but it must run close to half a million .
Iraq is now a basket case economy and state and probably even less capable of defending itself than in Saddam’s time.It will take decades for the country to get on it’s feet assuming it’s regions can still hold together. The Iranian Shiites will be naturally drawn to ‘support’ their ‘Shiite’ co religionists . This is a part of the world where ‘religion’ can be literally a matter of life and death either in the public market square or by frenzied sectarian mobs .
Was it worth it ? What would have happened had there been no invasion ? The Sunni’s answer would be they would still have a country to live in . The Shiites would still be getting in the neck from Saddam or his successor and the Kurds would still be far enough away from Baghdad to eke out an existence.
I suspect that if the western leaders could be transported back to 2002 and given a second chance to make a decision on an Iraqi ‘invasion’ or no they would choose the no . They might then have had a better chance of stabilising Afghanistan and providing that chaotic land with an alternative to the Taliban, instead of being forced to hand that country over to a regime that is as corrupt as Saddam’s was .
Regional destabilisation continues apace with the Israelis now reputedly on the verge of ‘bombing ‘ Iran .
Armageddon anyone ? Thanks George and thanks Tony
Malcolm: I have RSL’s accounts and enjoy going through them. I am simply trowing it out here, hoping people would think about such matters. The RSL is a special case and even the Queen would not (hypothetically of course) take them on. They are untouchable.
Financial figures of outfits like Greenpeace, Goal and Oxfam make spicy reading if one, like me, knows one’s way around a balance sheet.
Though I wish Tony B had have given his dosh to a more deserving cause (ex Irish POWs, me), as a British “patriot”, he did the right thing.
Ex squadides need all the help they can get. Certainly the chap next door does (I have not yet figured out the source of his income, but watch this space, I will)
Personally, if I was an ex squaddie down on my luck, I would prefer to have a good firm of auditors/accountants in as the trustees, not the Col Blimp type figures who may have bug-ered me when I was their batsman.
British charities seem to have some regulation on them. An old buddy in Kroll named several US “charities” based in the Dublin Financial Services sector which stank to high heaven.
Malcolm
Au contraire, I ripped what the Economist writer says about Blair’s beliefs INTO context, you know, the one that you complained about this thread being subverted from: ‘Is the patriot game worth a penny candle’….?
I say it is not, because in the majority of cases you have men like Blair, whose beliefs are his only justification for declaring war, leading the testosterone laden to be willing cannon fodder. Women simply get annihilated as a by-product to these decisions, and yet unfailingly, our welfare is constantly trumpeted as the justification for war, by the very whores of war. Without getting into each instance & it’s worthiness or lack of, I was not aware of proof of WMD prior & stand corrected if that is the case. However given Britain’s long & bloody involvement with Iraq, it’s previous invasion, not forgetting Thatcher’s support of Saddam in ‘90’s, effects of the west’s sanction etc, it is fair to suggest that the west to a significant degree has contributed to the suffering of the Iraq people even prior to it’s last invasion.
Furthermore, and importantly, a substantial section of the public and civil society opposed the Iraq war, precisely because they understood the hidden agenda.
This is the only possibility of the rules of ‘the patriot game’ being forced to change.
For the above reasons, Blair’s appearance here for book signing: a party I would loath to miss.
As for the untold & as yet unknown numbers of dead in Iraq, perhaps you would care to explain, for what?
Also, since the British soliders chose to ‘serve’ in Iraq, indeed were not compelled to fight in defence of their own kith & kin, but went of their own free will, because of their personal beliefs; the proceeds of Blair’s book should instead go to the large numbers of Iraqi children who still suffer carcenogenic & mutogenic effects as the result of the use of depleted uranium ammunition by western forces.
Blair will burn in hell, if only i believed that, wee buns some join their army because it the only good job going.
lamhdearg the arse might be hanging out of their trousers but that’s a poor, poor reason to go reap death on a people who are even worse off than us, for a stupid pittance.
Thatcher left Downing Street on 22 Nov 1990. The first Iraqi War was Jan-Feb 1991. Why, then, should we be not forgetting Thatcher’s support of Saddam in ‘90’s? Or is this another of your “improvements” of history?
For what it’s worth, Thatcher explicitly endorsed the Bush II administration’s strategy on Iraq, and Britain’s support thereon:
[Source: New York Times, 11th February, 2002.
Can you source , the IF about WMD please.
In all honesty, lamhdearg is right. Many young English boys grow up, don’t do well at school and have very few employment prospects. They see an advert on tv offering a “career” in the army and it seems like a good way out. They offer fitness, a wage, a family… but don’t advertise so well what they’ll be expecting you to do. Once they’ve got them trained up, kitted out and rifle in hand, they’ll push them out to “do their duty” without any background of the situation they’re being put into. Sure, some will be clued up and fully knowing what they’re doing, but alot of them will have signed up and then found themselves told what to think and do. I don’t pity them, but they really are conned into it. The British government does a very good job at filling its ranks at whatever cost.
wee buns @ 3:30 am:
Can you be more specific? As I read it, you are asking for a complete dossier on Saddam’s armament policy.
Mc C Óg
CONNED into it…..meaning they were not rspomsible for….what?
Everybody is being manipulated btw. No such thing as free will, responsibility.
Proof as you claimed that NMD was in existance prior to latest war.
They are ultimately responsible for what they sign up for, but you can see the appeal the army might have to an unemployed 20 something whose life is going nowhere. Economic conscription. Not many will join for political reasons.
It doesn’t help when England is constantly drenched with emotional pro army propaganda such as Help for Heroes, and saying a bad word against “our boys” is considered extremely offensive. Amidst that sort of atmosphere, it’s unlikely that many would consider joining the army controversial in the slightest with regards to the way the government uses them.
Lofty sentiments mcCarthy. But let us remember the last time there was unease about serving was during the terrorist attack on Vitnam. That was because rich kids and, commendably, M Ali, did not fancy getting their nuts shot off with no one but Rambo to save their asses.
Though “Our Boys” may be criticised a very little, the RBL is beyond criticism. Also, I see blokes in Para headgear and wheelchairs rattling boxes for Save our Heroes or some such shit. Is the RBL not giving them the price of a few pints?
Malcolm
No improvements on history, just brain fag in the wee hours. Of course I meant the 80′s, when Raygun & Thatcher supported Saddam as the only secularist in the middle east & selling him anything he wanted & encouraged him to attack Iran (satelite information on troop movements, weapons including chemical weapons, and reflagging Iraqi oil tankers as Amerikan so as any attack on them would be deemed an attack on the US)
To get back to proof for WMD, when Bush & Blair used that phrase, it was always to infer that Soddom had atomic weapons, which they claimed could be launched in 45 minutes, the important phrase which Kelly objected to in the sexed up dossier.
Kelly said it was deliberately misleading. As is your tendentious mendacity on the subject of WMD.
There is only one true weapon of mass destruction, that is nuclear weapons, of which Israel has over 200 deliverable warheads. Kelly in his statement to the BBC was referring to chemical & biological weapons (of mass death), and the west kmew this, because they kept the receipts…….remember that charming photo of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Soddom after a particularly large sale of ‘fertilizer’ manufacturing equipment. aka toxic chemicals?
‘So that’s where Tony Blair’s famous ‘journey’ was heading. Days after he announced that he was donating the proceeds of his autobiography to charity, the Sunday Times has learned that Tony Blair has set up his own “finance boutique” for the super-rich.’
Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/67525,people,news,tony-blair-laughing-all-the-way-to-his-own-bank?DCMP=NLC-daily#ixzz0xQgWEXnF
Wee Buns
The Times is a right wing Murdoch rag. Blair is free to do anything he likes though the British working class (sic) is not high up on his to do list.
Criticising him for sonating a huge amount to the RBL is silly in the extreme even if one is not an ardent RBL groupie.
Now here is a job for my Loyal friends. Go buy a door mat on ebay. http://www.ebay.co.uk
You wil see a large proportion of th doormats on sale are Union Jacks. Wiping one’s feet on a flag is a gross insult. Who buys these things? Is that why we fought at the Som,me and at McGurk’s Bar? So that :@)(*&^% could wipe their feet on the Union Jack?
As I understand that implication:
The service sector is about the only part of the UK economy to have burgeoned over recent decades. Indeed, it is still the best hope of an “export”-led economic revival.
Meanwhile, several members of Team Blair (notably Jonathan Powell, Jo Gibbons and Catherine Rimmer) found themselves unemployed after the Boss stood down from Downing Street in 2007. They are marketing their services through a nexus of companies, at least one of which operates as TBA, but others were bought off-the-shelf as permutations on “Firerush” and “Windrush”.
Meanwhile, celery stalks at dawn. Margaret Cole is Director of Enforcement at the Financial Services Authority. Even before the General Election Ms Cole was getting a reputation for aggressively prosecuting City misconduct. And quite right, too.
Since some of the TBA, Firerush and Windrush activities come under FSA scrutiny, several names in those companies have registered with the FSA. And quite properly so.
This provoked a story, by-lined to Jon Ungoed-Thomas, in yesterday’s Sunday Times. Ungoed-Thomas has been known simply to “make it up”. And, of course, we are dealing with the Sunday Times here, and in the “silly season”. The deafening silence which which most reliable news-sources have welcomed this not-quite-block-buster of a story is quite telling.
The First Post does not immediately spring to mind as the most “reliable news-source”. The author of the piece to which wee buns directs us is one Eliot Sefton, “a London-based freelance journalist who has also worked in marketing. His interests include archaeology and opera.” Obviously, then, a prime authority on things financial and political.
Tsk! SImples! We have a toxic admixture of two words: “Blair” and “money”. So it must be proof positive that the Rt Hon A.C.L. Blair is a chancer, an opportunist, a bloated capitalist, a blood-thirsty grinder of the downtrodden poor, an arch-imperialist, and personally went out and topped the sainted Dr David Kelly.
Who could not be convinced by such a chain of logic?