Militarisation of our society

So why is it called military service?

Cyprus is equally as difficult. It remains a divided country part of which is occupied by the Turkish, and it is still monitored by UN forces. It has a huge military presence altogether so might understandably want to have its own contribution.

They never wore any form of uniform, never wore their medals even on Remembrance Day and never really spoke about their experiences.
I have a photo of my father laying a wreath on Remembrance Day; he wasn't wearing a blazer but was wearing a suit and his medals. He didn't speak about his experiences to me but he did to my DB and to my DH.

ps that would have been in the 1960s btw

I was talking about all the men I knew Jalima-I didn't know your father. We did have a Remembrance service in our school every year. None of the masters wore their medals, although at least one of them had evidence of being wounded.
I do wish people would understand that what this thread about is the increased militarism that is being fed to our young people as being the norm and the fact that this is closely linked to the proliferation of the arms industry. Add to that the propaganda we are fed about removing selected 'tyrants' who we have previously supplied with arms and we have a situation that should not be tolerated in a civilised democracy

I agree, trisher. I never heard anyone talk about the war, apart from the fact that that was how my parents met. My dad and his brothers never talked about what they did in the war.
My brother sent for my dad's medals, as he was in the army. My dad didn't want to know. My dad joined the Burma Star Association when he was in his late 70s because he had heard there weren't many of them left. He went to meetings, but never went to any cenotaph parades.

I think there is a clear divide between those who are or were conscripted into military service and those that join as career military.

Although most of those conscripted for the WWs went willingly in a belief to serve it was not a choice for them. They did not have extensive training and many had absolutely no idea what they were going to. Therefore I think that could be one of the reasons they were less willing to talk about their experiences.

Also WW1 & 2 were really the last 2 wars where a great deal of the fighting was face-to-face. The experiences of that would certainly have been traumatic.

Much more of todays warfare is done at a distance with more limited hand to hand combat. The experiences are very different.

My dad wasn't conscripted. He joined well before the war, as his dad and grandad had both been soldiers, and he followed them.

As far as fighting is concerned I wonder how many people know about the development of land mines. They originally killed anyone who stepped on one, but were redesigned by arms manufacturers to only badly injure. The idea being that if you killed a soldier his mates carried on fighting, if you badly injured him his mates and several other soldiers would be tied up caring for him. I have heard that the person responsible for this innovation kept a model of the land mine on his desk, he was so proud of his invention.

Oh, nice, trisher. Which company is making lots of money out of that one?

There is no evidence of the UK becoming militarised at all, think that this may only be something pacifists would come up with.

People can see and hear it though, rosesarered.

I was talking about all the men I knew Jalima-I didn't know your father
You never know though trisher, it's a small world full of coincidences!