Topic: A remembrance post...11th of November, Armistice day

[toycollector10]

Spend a moment to reflect on the hundreds of thousands of men much like ourselves who gave their lives in the big one, WW1.

Englishmen, Irish, Scots, Canadians, Doughboys, Nuie Islanders, Aussies, Kiwis, French, Italians and on and on it goes.

They were all men much the same as we are. They had their families, lovers, Passions and lives but the carnage of Ypres, Passhendale and Gallipoli and a million other killing fields utterly took that all away from them.

"Lest we forget"

[nickjtc]

Let's also not forget the lads and lassies who are giving their lives today, in the name of whatever, in the middle east.

[toycollector10]

Thanks for that. As far as I'm concerned you are either with the East or the West and I'm damned sure I know what side I'm on. If only the lefty, weak, sick white liberals would get on board, wake up and smell the danger!!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks for that. As far as I'm concerned you are either with the East or the West and I'm damned sure I know what side I'm on. If only the lefty, weak, sick white liberals would get on board, wake up and smell the danger!!

Hey TC, is it true that Helen Clark was born a man? 

[eldar]

Well tc, I might be more for the whole thing if the US govt was not using it to strip as many rights from the people they can. At this point, I will go with the liberal before the neo-con for that very reason. I would rather live in a dangerous world with my rights, then have to be afraid of my government.

[dusterdude]

there was an article in the local paper sunday,it said there were 12 known ww1 vets left alive in the us.

[eldar]

Is that possible? They would be 110 or so at minimum!

[Bob Wessner]

I heard 14, close enough. The one they inteviewed was 106!

[Terry in Australia]

I think the US only came into WW1 in 1917? If so, 106 sounds right. Cheers, Terry.

[toycollector10]

O.K. eldar.... The Presidents in both prior world wars intercepted mail, interned without trial, wire tapped and spied on their own citizens. Why?  So they wouldn't lose. I have posted many threads on this topic.

You want freedom, you have to pay the price. And who was the president that said, "I wasn't going to be the man that lost America by fighting a fair fight", or words to that effect.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. All I can say is, thank god for men of strength who draw lines in the sand

[Terry in Australia]

Are you talking about the war in Iraq TC? Last time I looked, New Zealand's "lefty" government refused to be involved? 

[bill440cars]

                                      Something to remember:

                            Freedom has never been handed to us.
                            It has had to be Fought for. Plain & Simple.

                                              Later on, Bill

[eldar]

TC, I understand come things but not the crap that has been pulled that last few years.  If Bush declares you a terrorist, even if you are not, you can be held WITHOUT trial for an INDEFFINATE amount of time. You are NOT going to get a trial of your peers, You will NOT have an attorney. There was also another one just recently signed after the Military commissions act. I cant remember the names but it gives Bush FULL control of the national guard. He can call them out to put down civil unrest at ANY time. The governor's have to ASK permission now to deploy the NG in their own state.  There have been many of these little acts pushed through by bush. It iwll take years to get back these rights, IF we ever can.  I have great respect for our vets, but I have NONE for our current president. So at this time I  most certainly prefer liberals over the republican scandal mongers that allowed bush to get by with all this crap. If clinton had done HALF the stuff bush did, the repubs would have been all over him like white on rice!

On top of that, we would not even BE in this fight if it was not for bush's lies in the first place. This "war" is a bunch of crap, and has created a whole NEW generation of terrorists.

[nickjtc]

Apparently there are 3 WW1 vets left here in Canada.

[SteveD CB500F]

From the BBC Website:

Alfred Anderson - at 109 the last man alive to have witnessed the unofficial truce on Christmas Day 1914, when German and British soldiers played football and exchanged gifts... "

There may be more alive who witnessed the end of the war, but this guy must feel very alone.

[eldar]

It is really amazing how some of these guys lived as long as they have.  Imagine the things they have seen. There is nothing like living history.

[stevej]

Aithough I didnt appreciate  it at the time, I once had the good fortune to work for a man who was one of those" who went over the top" I was aged 13 in 1973 and did a local paperound ,one morning I returned after delivering my round for that day and Jim was clearly agitated I asked if he was allright,he was a man of few words,  taking off his glasses he pinched his forfinger and thumb across the bridge of his nose ( I proberably hadnt realised the significance of Rememberance Sunday) but what he told me in those 3or 4 minutes has stayed with me to this day and when I need a dose of reality I just remember that morning

[heffay]

stevej... we have no idea what you're talking about if you only hint at a story 

and, does anyone else find it ironic the debate waged w/in this thread?  the guy across the pond is hailing the chief and the one that's "supposed" to be is not.  having lived in the u.s. all my life, i agree with eldar on most accounts.  the boss has overstepped and just won't stop.  he does not speak for me or most of the people i associate with on a personal basis.

[Stevearino]

Thanks for remembering.  My Granpop Reggie was a Seargent in the British infantry for two tours, 1914-18.  Was a decorated vet.  Lived until 1983.  Oh the stories he told.  Verdun, Somme, Ypres, Somme again.  Good God.

As a kid I learned why we pay our respects to Veterans.  Want to know?  Read "Ypres, 1917" by Norman Gladden.

Cheers.

[Japbikemike]

This thread reminded me of my Great Uncle Blythe who served in WWI.  My Father, now 80 once told me when he was about 4-5 years old he remembers sitting in a barber shop with my Grand Father listing to a couple of vets from the (American) Civil War. 

[BobbyR]

O.K. eldar.... The Presidents in both prior world wars intercepted mail, interned without trial, wire tapped and spied on their own citizens. Why?  So they wouldn't lose. I have posted many threads on this topic.

You want freedom, you have to pay the price. And who was the president that said, "I wasn't going to be the man that lost America by fighting a fair fight", or words to that effect.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. All I can say is, thank god for men of strength who draw lines in the sand

Unfotuemaley, it is not the people doing the fighting and dying that draw the lines in the sand. The US can win a fair fight, but not an occupation in which the good and bad guys are undefined. You learn that quick, when you drop off 14 strong young kids, and come back and pick up 10 on a good day. 

[toycollector10]

Yes, it's all gone very sad over there. This was not through want of trying and good intentions.

Any mofo tyrant who thinks it's OK to feed his enemies alive feet first into a log shredder needs to be taken out. Full stop.

Sadly, the ragheads didn't want freedom or democracy, they just didn't want it. They want their medieval hate religion instead but that is another thread.

I normally don't debate this type of stuff because I'm not going to change your mind and sure as sh*t you aren't going to change mine.

The post was: Remember all the poor bastards who have died so that we can post anything we want and not expect a knock on the door at 2 AM and then a slug in the back of the head.

[stevej]

Heffay, I like many, was moved by some of the letters .re Armistace day. Im sorry I didnt make my point clearer, In the UK  we have our Rememberance Sunday  often reffered to as Poppy day, apparently this was the only thing that would grow on the Somme battlefield after its enormous pounding .Of course we are all thinking about  other wars as well especially in Iraq,but my point was about this eldererly man Jim Fountain who witnessed the carniage of the Somme for real . Some 50odd years later it wasnt the trench warfare or going over the top to run into gun fire that haunted this man but the sound of young men some barely 17  years old crying out for their mothers as they lay dying .     

[BobbyR]

Heffay, I like many, was moved by some of the letters .re Armistace day. Im sorry I didnt make my point clearer, In the UK  we have our Rememberance Sunday  often reffered to as Poppy day, apparently this was the only thing that would grow on the Somme battlefield after its enormous pounding .Of course we are all thinking about  other wars as well especially in Iraq,but my point was about this eldererly man Jim Fountain who witnessed the carniage of the Somme for real . Some 50odd years later it wasnt the trench warfare or going over the top to run into gun fire that haunted this man but the sound of young men some barely 17  years old crying out for their mothers as they lay dying .     

Steve, those like Mr. Fountain who saw the carnage did not lose those images and sounds. My Father in law was in the first wave at Normandy. He only spoke once of what he saw, and prayed each night for the souls of the men he killed. My Father on the other hand helped build the Atomic Bomb, and he speaks of it proudly. He did his killing long distance which is more abstact. The "glory of war" is a PR hustle. Clint Eastwood showed that PR aspect in his film Flags of our Fathers. The horror of WWI turned the US isolationist and we were not a military power. It took Pearl Harbor to rile up the populaton, and there is evidence we provoked Japan into it by our oil embargo. The PR machine went into high gear to keep Americans "hot" during the war, since there were no bombers over our cities, no real risk of invasion. I am not saying Hitler did not need stopping -  he did. America never did get back to normal, we were now the superpower of the free world. The perks of that position included, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq x 2. Not to mention our villification by our former Allies (who we also liberated). I see the US population going back to isolationism which means, the Koreans can sort out there own mess, if something happens in Europe, they can call on Switzerland. I will not sacrifice my Son for anyone elses problems and I am not alone in that feeling.