Hmm
Most people joining up have a good idea what could happen, but when it all goes a bit wrong you get that sinking feeling and you KNOW that it's gone horribly wrong.
Help for Heroes has been set up because servicemen/women were finding that all the promises from the army saying that they will always be your family and will help you out are not quite true. Yes, they are better now but that's mostly down to public pressure and organisations like HfH who held up a mirror to the whole sorry mess.

I fucking double dare you to pop down to Selly Oak Hospital and express your views, "Well, it's only a job, what did you expect?"

For one thing you'll find most of them are not prepared to sit there and have everything given to them but only to have the opportunity to rebuild their lives again, because, you know, it can be a bit of a bugger missing both legs and an arm, not forgetting the absolutely horrible side conditions that can develop from something like this.

Actually, seriously, I really dare you to go down there and introduce yourself and meet some of the guys and girls, have a chat, exchange ideas and maybe both parties will learn something new. Yes, I know that you have relatives and are forces but it's not the same.
nuff said.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 14:40, 4 replies)

This!
Very well put.
(The Boy Monders I have ginger bits in my beard., Thu 4 Feb 2010, 14:44, closed)

You've missed the point.
In fact, it looks like you barely read the post.

I have nothing against these people getting the best treatment available. But that's because I think that all injured people should get splendid treatment.

I don't think there's anything noble about them, though. I don't think they're heroes. I don't think we should get misty-eyed about people who're doing a job for which they volunteered. Because that's all it is: a job.

There's nothing special about members of the forces, or what they do.

As for the forces' promise to be a surrogate family: well, I don't expect that from my employer - hell, I even resent my family for being too familiar - and, by the same token, I don't see that it's reasonable for anyone else genuinely to expect it. Again: IT'S JUST A JOB.
(Star Wars Starwarsy McStarwars Face, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 14:50, closed)

Well it's not exactly JUST A JOB.
There is a little more to it than that. But I too hate the fact that some people see every spotty oik as a hero as soon as they join the army.
( girlinthehole, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 14:55, closed)

Like I said
Get yourself down to Selly Oak, then, I'm sure, you'll get the point.
I really think it would be a worthwhile trip.
Anyway, you made a number of points and I chose to give emphasis to one in particular. At my age, I'm allowed to.
I find the press coverage for HfH a little overwhelming tbh, I think most people are the same. Let them take advantage of it to raise the money, I say, in ten years it'll probably be history. People will have forgotten all about except the poor bastards with horrendous injuries.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 15:01, closed)

Wait so if I disagree with someone, I have to go somewhere where the opposite opinion
is strongly held and tell them to their face, else my opinion is invalid?

Seems a little rude to me. I assume you aren't a big fan of racism, yet I'm also guessing you haven't been to a Ku Klux Klan meeting and expressed that viewpoint? (An extreme example I know, but it gets my point across)
( chenobble rocking his explorer beard on, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 16:38, closed)

I'm seeing where you come from now
A world that does not take into account the mental state of an individual or group.

Yes, the injured get the best treatment, fixed up real good too. How do they feel inside though? Who gives a damn, they knew what they were doing when they joined up. Excellent pschologial treatment there.

Your kid's just been blown up? Meh, he knew what he let himself in for. Now MTFU. That doesn't sound too good for me.

A new word for you sunbeam. Empathy.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 15:08, closed)

No-one's saying that though, are they?
Everyone will have sympathy for the families and those who've been injured and think that they deserve the best. Point is, they're no more special than any family that's suffered loss or person that's that's been hurt as a civilian.
(The man with the flan swashed his buckle on, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 15:44, closed)

I didn't join the forces.
I didn't join because I knew that there was a very real and serious risk of being shot at, blown up, maimed or otherwise hurt in a bad way and didn't want that. Every single forces applicant has that same choice. There is no conscription.

I respect people in the forces who do a difficult job, which I would never do. That is in the same way I respect those who care for people, save lives and others who make the world a better place. But! This doesn't make soldiers special above and beyond everyone else. They CHOSE to join up. By implication they CHOSE to risk life and limb.

They deserve the same sympathy and treatment anyone who has suffered serious injury does, but ask yourself how many other people have been left disabled and on lifes scrapheap from civilian jobs?

Construction workers do a dangerous job with potentially lethal risks, so do civilian pilots, firemen, oilrig workers, chemical plant workers and many more. They all choose to do it.

Do they get special treatment? Does the builder who's paralysed and unable to work not deserve charity? Do the family of a rig worker not need comfort when their loved one is lost in a helicopter accident as happened recently? Doesn't everyone deserve a chance to rebuild?
(The man with the flan swashed his buckle on, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 15:42, closed)

^this^

( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Thu 4 Feb 2010, 20:20, closed)

They signed their lives away, nobody else did.
OK, so they may have been stupid enough to believe politicians about the role of the army, but why should I feel sorry for them?
If there is a problem with the terms of the contracts not been met then help for retards should be suing the government or arranging for the lying cocks to be shot.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 18:49, closed)