Wednesday 22 June 2011

Appeasement

I've been zapping TV sitting on the couch after a long and tiresome day at work. I came home and ate the left over dinner Dave cooked up for himself which he kindly offered me to finish off. And I did. All I wanted was to watch Calvet and fall asleep but I ended up watching 'Our War: Caught in the Crossfire' on BBC3. A documentary made up of archival footage made available by the MOD, mostly shot by soldiers themselves with their helmet cameras, as well as interviews with young veterans of the still ongoing war in Afghanistan. It's eye opening in many sense through the eye-lines of the people on the frontline. But mostly it shows what we don't see and won't ever be able to really witness the hell of it all.

Incidentally I am also skimming through wikipedia about Neville Chamberlain and came across the definition of 'appeasement'.

Appeasement = 'a process of settling international quarrels by admitting ad satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and compromise, thereby avoiding the resort to an armed conflict which would be expensive, bloody, and possibly dangerous'.

It has also 'been used as a synonym for weakness and even cowardice since the 1930s, and it is still used in that sense today as a justification for firm, often armed, action in international relations'.

A young chap who served in Afghanistan says "it's a drug, you get addicted to it and you come back thinking how can I get back that feeling again?" Apparently they will be returning to Afghanistan in the coming months serving until they are all but completely withdrawn. Fighting and being courageous, coughing up swear words and broken Pushtu, high-fiving kite flying local kids and building schools and losing and taking lives. Can't help feeling for them and the kids who grow up waving at soldiers and cycling past crumbled schools and houses with their mums and dads in them.

Oh they are showing Come Dine with Me now. Normally I'd watch it but it's late now and it's passed my bed time. Good night.

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