Good post M Baxter! I'm with you, I too wonder what planet Billy.T and the Balding DoDO are on. Perhaps this analogy will help them.
Imagine you've spent months and months negotiating on the western front, trying to avoid war. Eventually, with all avenues exhausted, the call is made for you to head for the front!
It's a filthy place, your covered in mud and it's always cold. There's no end in sight and you begin to despair! You dont know if you can hold on much longer but somehow you know you must go on! Conditions are unbearable.
Finally the call goes out, "the war is over" we've reached settlement!
You trudge back accross the lines, bloodied and bruised.
On the way you pass some barracks. In those barracks sit the conciencious objectors! They're nice and warm, smoking cigars, sipping brandy and have had a great old time during the war!
Then High Command announces that those same slugs, sitting in the barracks, will be receiving the same spoils that the war has just achieved!
The objectors celebrate with gusto!
And you wonder why we call you SC_BS!!!
Disclaimer: I realise comparing our struggles to those of veterans is rather offensive and at no time have I meant to underscore their heroic role in our history. I have travelled many times to the western front to pay my respects!