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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I understand the absolute need in soldiery for blind obedience. I see the point of the bull, the drill, the ceaseless cleaning of equipment, the stripping down and reassembly of firearms, the lot. I know why the top of the cupboard has to be so dust free that not a speck shows on white gloves when the hut is inspected, and know why the coal has to be whitewashed.
In short I understand the point of basic training and of the inherent pavlovian urge to accept and perform an order at once, SIR! And doing it without thought,
I understand this so well that I would question the need for every simple order. And yet, because I see all this, and because I have as much idea about military strategy as modern commanding officers and am wise enough to leave tactics to the men on the ground, I would be a great Field Marshall.
But this does not detract for one nanosecond from those whose choice it is to enlist. Conscription is a different, mandatory matter, but the free choice of those who wish for a regulated, secure (except for warfare) military career os a decent free choice and to be applauded, unless one is a dedicated and total pacifist, in which case a different paradigm applies entirely.
And, now, in the UK, one may be gay, out, and proud and still be in the armed forces at a high level.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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