same old celtic poppies

[dougiedanger]

I payed my respects yesterday as i always do - by raising a dram to Willie McBride. In contrast to the tabloid driven worship of the "heroes who fight for our freedom" (and consequent support of those wars) that has characterised much of this past couple of weeks, the song pays tribute to the dead soldier but laments the futility of the war which killed him.

The display by the Green Ultras may he have been crude, but i think it's been positive to have voices of dissent during a period that has increasingly become a commercialised "month-long drum-roll of support for current wars", as a group of veterans expressed it in a letter to the Guardian last week. The letter ends like this:

"The public are being urged to wear a poppy in support of "our Heroes". There is nothing heroic about being blown up in a vehicle. There is nothing heroic about being shot in an ambush and there is nothing heroic about fighting in an unnecessary conflict. Remembrance should be marked with the sentiment "Never Again".

The only person talking sense on this thread. Wars are not computer games and should be remembered with sorrow and regret and the commitment to never let them happen again.