Respect

[upgently]

We Brits can, and should, learn a lot from this video.

YouTube - Best Commercial Ever (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_DcjLePDHyU)

[Shack37]

Been posted before but got the same lump in the throat as last time.:D
s37

[Shack37]

2. When a coach of squaddies came passed me a few months ago while I was doing a Check A, I gave them a cheery smile and a big thumbs up....only to be returned with a couple of flicked V's and wrist movements aimed my way



Had counselling for it?:{

[minigundiplomat]

I'm sure there will be a UK version somewhere with the airport travellers booing, spitting and jeering (especially at BHX) followed by footage of 250 guys trying to change into civvies in a dirty cramped gents.

[effortless]

Lets see how they are treated after they withdraw. Ask any Vietnam vet how he sees it.

[Melchett01]

Would never happen in this chav-ridden self-obsessed me me me gimme gimme gimme Islington-socialist society that Blair and Brown have created.

Instead, more likely to be met by some 12 yr old officious git insisting that we have to change out of our uniforms incase we offended some minority or the immigrants queing to get in.

[BigJoeRice]

"Ask any Vietnam vet how he sees it."

Thats a good point but only because Johnson et al never figured out how to make it Un-American to not support the troops in Vietnam.

Unfortunately, GW and the boys (mainly Cheney I suspect) made a clear connection with many Americans, that failing to support the troops overseas made you either treasonous - or even worse - French.

Thats why you have the ludicrous situation of Americans - elected and unelected - walking around saying they don't suppport Bushes illegal war - but by God we do support the poor sods stuck with pursuing it.

I can't speak for the rest of the country but I'd wager that here in Minnesota that advert pretty much sums up peoples feelings towards the military.

[AR1]

The other week I was attempting to join the M4 Westbound at J15. The car to my left strayed into my lane and I sounded the horn to warn him.
The two uniformed occupants went berserk, and tailgated me onto the motorway, before pulling alongside me in the outside lane and abusing my verbally and with various gestures.
Whilst I'm well aware that bad driving conduct happens irrespective of the drivers occupation, the simple fact is that the incident was memorable by shocking conduct of men in uniform. Respect from the public is all very well. but you need to respect the uniform and the position you hold yourself.

[ehwatezedoing]

- or even worse - French.

I call this racism! :E

[effortless]

"Ask any Vietnam vet how he sees it."

Thats a good point but only because Johnson et al never figured out how to make it Un-American to not support the troops in Vietnam.

I think that there is more to it than that. The draft made the war very, very unpopular and the poor draftees were the only people who were accessible to public dismay.

Recently, US mass media have been, in the main, supportive of the adminstration's forays into war, whereas in UK and Europe, they have been more even handed or lily-livered, depending on your view. If we had wall to wall Union Flags or misty lens views of our boys coming home then we may have had a bit more clapping at the airport.

In the UK we rarely see our chaps coming home. We live in a small country where our troops land at Brize or Lyn and are transported back to base in company transport. In the US, because it is so spread out, service personel are seen at so many municipal transport hubs.

We also, and I was very much one of those people once, like to see ourselves as "men apart". "You can't handle the truth!" so we set ourselves outside society. This is even more so nowadays than it was when I was in. When do people take an interest in matters military? When 24 hour rolling news gets pictures. They aren't interested in successful peace keeping. That ain't news. We don't see our services taking our troubled youth and making something worthwhile. We see broken men coming back from combat, badly served in service and out and we are shamed. No one likes to be shamed ad often the victim gets the blame.

All this said I am sure that if one person had started clapping then all the rest would have followed. I takes one to start.

[14greens]

Road rage brings out the worst in folk, but you are right, who ever was in the wrong, 2 blokes in uniform should have had better sense and thought about the fact they were in uniform before flicking the v's and obviousy mouthing abuse at you.
problem with having a white car fleet rather than mil reg vehicles that could be traced

[D O Guerrero]

Anyone that joins the armed forces for the praise or glory is in the wrong job. We live in a democracy and if people choose not to support the armed forces that's up to them.
The people who are usually the most vociferous about this subject usually haven't served themselves. The vast majority of people in the service men and women are too busy getting on with what they do to care what the UK public thinks of them...

[Shack37]

The vast majority of people in the service men and women are too busy getting on with what they do to care what the UK public thinks of them..

DO. G
Agree with you up to here. I think the guys n girls doing their job DO care what Joe Public thinks of them. It would be a boost to morale if, in today's ambience of uncaring Gov't/MoD, the UK public did show a little support for the lads and lasses in uniform.

s37