Time to 'think the unthinkable' and consider UK conscription, says Britain's former top NATO commander

Omega_Haxors , 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago)

I support this because all those white liberals who acted like war doesn’t effect them now get to die in a trench. On the other hand a lot of innocents will get caught up in this too, and the people starting the wars will be fine, so i’m not sure just how far i’m willing to go with that.

andthenthreemore , 6 months ago

Dulce et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen

www.poetryfoundation.org/…/dulce-et-decorum-est

<span style="color:#323232;">Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
</span><span style="color:#323232;">My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
</span><span style="color:#323232;">To children ardent for some desperate glory,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Pro patria mori.```
</span>

flathead , 6 months ago

Eric Bogle - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

yewtu.be/watch?v=WG48Ftsr3OI

<span style="color:#323232;">Now, when I was a young man, I carried my pack
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And I lived the free life of a rover
</span><span style="color:#323232;">From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Then in 1915, my country said, "Son
</span><span style="color:#323232;">It's time you stop rambling, 'cause there's work to be done"
</span><span style="color:#323232;">So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And they sent me away to the war
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And the band played Waltzing Matilda
</span><span style="color:#323232;">As the ship pulled away from the quay
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears
</span><span style="color:#323232;">We sailed off for Gallipoli
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">How well I remember that terrible day
</span><span style="color:#323232;">How our blood stained the sand and the water
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
</span><span style="color:#323232;">We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Johnny Turk, he was waiting, he primed himself well
</span><span style="color:#323232;">He showered us with bullets and he rained us with shell
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Nearly blew us right back to Australia
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">But the band played Waltzing Matilda
</span><span style="color:#323232;">When we stopped to bury the slain
</span><span style="color:#323232;">We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Then we started all over again 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Now those who were left  did their best to survive
</span><span style="color:#323232;">In that mad world of death, blood, and fire
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive
</span><span style="color:#323232;">While the corpses around me piled higher
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And when I awoke in my hospital bed
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And saw what it had done - well, I wished I was dead
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Never knew there was worse things than dying
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda
</span><span style="color:#323232;">To the green bush far and free
</span><span style="color:#323232;">For to hang tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
</span><span style="color:#323232;">No more waltzing Matilda for me
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">So they collected the crippled, the wounded, the maimed
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And they shipped us back home to Australia
</span><span style="color:#323232;">The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
</span><span style="color:#323232;">I looked at the place where my legs used to be
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me
</span><span style="color:#323232;">To grieve, to mourn and to pity
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And the band played Waltzing Matilda
</span><span style="color:#323232;">As they carried us down the gangway
</span><span style="color:#323232;">But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And they turned all their faces away
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And so now every April, I sit on my porch
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And I watch the parade pass before me
</span><span style="color:#323232;">I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Reliving old dreams of past glory
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And the old men march slowly, their bones stiff and sore
</span><span style="color:#323232;">The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And I ask myself the same question
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">But the band plays Waltzing Matilda
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And the old men still answer the call
</span><span style="color:#323232;">But as year follows year, those old men disappear
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Someday no one will march there at all
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing matilda
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And their ghosts may be heard 
</span><span style="color:#323232;">As you pass by that billabong
</span><span style="color:#323232;">You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me.
</span>

autotldr Bot , 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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It’s time to “think the unthinkable” and consider introducing conscription to ready the country for a potential land war, Britain’s former top NATO commander has said.

General Sir Richard Sherriff, ex-deputy supreme allied commander of the military organisation, warned that the UK defence budget is not big enough to expand the armed forces alone.

“Britain’s armed forces have traditionally and culturally relied on long service volunteer highly professional soldiers with huge experience - and that is really the way we would all want it to go on.”

The head of the British Army said UK citizens should be “trained and equipped” to fight in a potential war between NATO and Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Major General Charlie Herbert, a military analyst who has served as a senior NATO adviser, said Sir Patrick was trying to “provoke a debate”, nationally and within government, about the size of the army and the defence budget.

“There’s a 1939 feel to the world right now,” senior Tory MP Tobias Ellwood told Sky News on Wednesday, warning conscription was a possibility.

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