Armistice day

[Goatse]

I looked for threads on this, but couldn't find any.

If all the people who died "for their country" could see what the world was like today, and what they'd really fought for, do you think they'd be impressed?

[Ownthink]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2005, 03:33 PM
I looked for threads on this, but couldn't find any.

If all the people who died "for their country" could see what the world was like today, and what they'd really fought for, do you think they'd be impressed?
Considering the fact that American servicemen died for Imperialism, Sure, they'd be impressed.

Same goes for Britain and other superpowers. But, I wouldn't know about other countries.

[Goatse]

Actually Armistice day is the Commonwealth name... but I guess I should have said Remberance Day.

The 9 people left in Britain from World War I pretty much agree it was a pointless cause.

It's important not to forget. However most celebrations/rememberances will just glorify pretty much every war since WWI as a fight against evil. Can you actually think of a war that was really a fight against the "bad guys" (other than some of WWII. Arguably it was against Nazism but much of the motivation for the involvement of various powers would just be for land or resources) that should be rembered gloriously?

Heap of crap.

[Ownthink]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2005, 03:50 PM
Actually Armistice day is the Commonwealth name... but I guess I should have said Remberance Day.

The 9 people left in Britain from World War I pretty much agree it was a pointless cause.

It's important not to forget. However most celebrations/rememberances will just glorify pretty much every war since WWI as a fight against evil. Can you actually think of a war that was really a fight against the "bad guys" (other than some of WWII. Arguably it was against Nazism but much of the motivation for the involvement of various powers would just be for land or resources) that should be rembered gloriously?

Heap of crap.
Agreed.

[The Grey Blur]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2005, 08:33 PM
I looked for threads on this, but couldn't find any.

If all the people who died "for their country" could see what the world was like today, and what they'd really fought for, do you think they'd be impressed?
What do you mean by "what they'd really fought for"? - Does this apply only to British soldiers and which wars do you mean?

Anyway, I don't mind the whole 'Rememberance Day' thing if in moderation and mourning, not when it becomes an excuse for Unionists in the North of Ireland to parade their 'British-ness' and provoke Nationalists by wearing poppies weeks or even months before Remembrance Day.

[Goatse]

Like I said I used the wrong word by saying Armistace, I should have said Rememberance Day.

Armistace/Rememberance Day is supposed to remember the victims of all wars between WWI and the present day. However when I said what they'd really fought for, I meant the first and second world wars really, but I guess all the others count too. Although in Korea and Vietnam I guess they knew they were there to smash the "commies".

[bolshevik butcher]

I just thought it was worht pointing out that what world war one really represented in amny senses was european social democracy falling to the levels of nationalism.

Oppisition to this was really from the radical left, and is how radical leaders like lenin, john mclaine and rosa luxemburg really emerged.

'A bayonet is a weapon with a working man at both ends'-John Mclaine

[Goatse]

Didn't the Second International break up over WWI?

Fishy.

[Tekun]

Speaking of WW1, I feel for all the Russians that Nicholas sent to their graves in a pointless conflict

Good thing the Bolsheviks killed him and the rest of his dogg face family! :angry:

[Fighter]

It's called Veteran's Day here in the U.S., but I think it was once called Armistice Day.

We have parades in towns throughout the nation. A lot of speaches and veterans get to walk down a street wearing their old uniforms (if they can still fit into them) and get an appreciation from the public.

It is generally non-political. A lot of flags.

[VonClausewitz]

When the 11th of November arrives, I don't think of it as rememberance for other wars (whether or not it is), but more a time of reflection on the greatest (in scale) catastrophy that human military and political history has ever seen.

The Vast parades, the veterans, the statues and the obelisks, all give the people something to see, something to remind them that giving monarchs and aristocracts any real power is a damned bad idea.

They aren't obviously planned with this in mind, but really, do you think that anyone left alive now would seriously celebrate the trenches as a glorious anything ? Millions of British, French, German, various Colonial troops, and American soldiers died in the mud in those days.

I think they least we owe them is respect, for standing up for what They thought was Right, and having the guts to be the working man behind that bayonett. Dismissing it as a heap of crap is just ignorant. If you think of the wars as glorious fights against evil, then that's your problem, because most people, even the most un-educated thug, will understand that machine-gunning men trained to fight in line and square, like they had for 200 years, is not glorious.

They just respect the enormous sacrifice, whatever it's motives.

[Goatse]

I never said I didn't respect their sacrifice. I said, would they be pleased if they saw what their sacrifice was for?