I don’t write anywhere close to as often as I used to limiting to when I have done things or if I struggle with something, have a bad day or my feelings cause me problems. I use the Blog to “document” things so that I can look back on them later if a bad day turns really bad so that I can see how I have progressed. I share it because I hope that it may help others to realise that they can try things and there is life to be lived, it of course is everyone’s choice if they read my Blog or not. Either way I will never know, nor would be offended. I have taken part in some things of late but are unimportant in light of recent events. I have written this entry with a heading of “Why?” Maybe someone can help me to understand.
I get that people have religion. Different countries have different religions. I am no expert in religion nor do I wish to be but I need someone to help me understand why any religion, any “God” would allegedly promote the killing of anyone outside of the religion. I want to be clear from the outset that I am in no way shape or form a RACIST. I have served two tours of Afghanistan, the first tour attached to the Royal Gurkha Rifles. I had to look up the religion that they follow and the answer was that it is mixed but majority follow a religion close to Tibetan Buddhism. I had to look it up because I was not concerned which religion that they followed, they were my Brothers in Arms and I would be relying on them covering my back as they would me. On my Combat Infantryman’s Course when I first joined the TA There were two Brothers who were of Pakistani descent, Muslims, following the religion of Islam. Again I had to look it up because their religion is unimportant to me. They too were my Brothers in Arms, they had chosen to wear the same uniform as me and that was what mattered, ALL that mattered. I trained many recruits, of different coloured skin, different accents and NEVER did I wonder what religion they followed because it was UNIMPORTANT.
My second tour of Afghanistan I was sent from my Company and attached to 42 CDO Royal Marines. They were not Army, they were part of the Royal Navy, a different “family” if you like but they did not treat me any differently to anyone of their own. There were guys from South Africa and after again looking up the religion of South Africa I discovered that there are many religions as well as languages. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism and there was also a listing as Other and No religion. I don’t know which religion the South African Marines were because I DID NOT CARE. It was UNIMPORTANT. We were under heavy fire in a side street in a town and the last thing on my mind was what religion those around me were, the fact was that whatever religion, if any, the soldiers around me following was, they were all taking cover from the incoming shock waves of the mortar rounds that were rocking the vehicles around us and the rounds hitting the walls around us. Their “Gods” were not providing an impennetrable bubble around them allowing the shock waves to pass over them without disturbing their stature. We were all as vulnerable as each other.
I am struggling to understand why a “God” would be telling its followers to kill people. Of course the “God” is not telling the followers to kill people. It is someone who has a deluded fantasy that killing is the way forward. That the entire planet should be following a religion that has been portrayed as the only religion that the planets people should follow. That the fanatic has not so much twisted the writings of their holy book to suit their preachings of hatred and destruction, but more written their own. Why would anyone feel that killing and destruction would force people to follow a religion? Why would anyone want to needlessly bully people in to a religion which is being portrayed that as a follower you must convince by bullying, people to join and if they do not then they will be killed? I am struggling to understand.
Paris was hit in a cowardly way and the people of the countries of Europe are begging their leaders to close the borders to all of those “running away” from the destruction in their countries by ISIS. This is being met with comments of those people as being racist but please, please let us not forget that ISIS made it perfectly clear that they would be sending fighters to flood Europe. The people of the countries in Europe that have posted videos of the fighting age “refugee” males fighting with the law enforcement officers of the country and throwing food away that the well wishers, no, HUMAN BEINGS have donated to support those “refugees” have been slated as “propaganda” by “racisits”. The people are scared. They know that they cannot defend against what they cannot see. They know that the very nature of us as human beings means that we will not see people suffer. This is being used against the people of Europe. The amount of boats that are being crammed full of people, “refugees” are increasing because those loading the boats know FULL WELL that WITHOUT QUESTION the Navy’s of the European countries will pick them out of the boats and give them safe passage to Europe. Call it a Trojan horse if you will.
I do not want people to suffer, but at what time will the leaders of the world realise that this terrorism has now escalated to a war. We are at War. Make no mistake. Blowing up busses, trains, aeroplanes, cinemas, theatres and anything else that I haven’t mentioned is not terrorism. It has become a global problem and is therefore a War. So lets treat it like one. We have to surely protect ourselves. In World War 2 did we welcome German, Italian or Japanese people with open arms while the fighting was on? The USA took precautions by placing the Japanese Americans in “camps” so that they knew where they were. I am not saying that it was the right thing to do or indeed that we should be trawling the streets collecting people of specific criteria, I think it is already too late for that. But please, please. We have to protect ourselves, it is the duty of our Government to protect the people of this Country. We simply cannot continue to accept “refugees” on to our soil and give them housing and money. There are too many risks now to us. We do not have 24hr armed guards such as those around Downing Street. We are not living in a Country where we can simply arm ourselves for personal protection. We rely on our Police to protect us but with the cuts over the years there are less of them at a time when we need them more than ever. We do not arm our Police as standard, a sign of our tolerance but the threat is such of an escalation that maybe we now need to follow other Countries. We need to support our Police that are armed, they are too frightened to pull the trigger as they are immediately investigated, is this how we should be treating those put in place to protect those who cannot protect themselves? We cut our armed forces and as has been shown this week, we seem to now protect terrorists and investigate the soldiers who have been employed to protect our Country.
I know that I will have upset people with this post. This was not my intention but was always a risk. Many people have updated their profile pictures on the social media site to have a feint French flag over their photo. This shows the solidarity, the fact that Great Britain stands with France and that the people of our Country feel the sorrow and the loss of our neighbours. We must stay strong. We must not let paranoia rule our lives. We must not label all Muslims as terrorist, and we must understand that it is the twisted fanatics who are preaching that the religion of Islam is one of terror and death and that this is not the true meaning of the religion. We must also see that the Muslim communities stand proud and publicly CONDEMN the acts of those carrying out the cowardly attacks, this may help those who tar all Muslims with the same brush to understand that they are not all the same. But most of all I think we must ask, no, BEG our Government to instantly put measures in place to protect us, not tell us that in the year 2020 they will be doing x,y and z. Measures need to be put in place now. I fear that the people of this Country have gone past the loss of faith in the present Government and that they will replace the Government with a party whose leader sympathises with an Irish terrorist organisation, believes that our Royal Family is obsolete and wants the UK to have no Army. I for one do not want to be here if that happens.
So that’s all I’ve got. I am not all educated, I don’t know big words and those who really know me will doubtless be impressed that there are no expletives in this post. But I wanted to put my thoughts on to “paper”. My thoughts are with France, with Beirut, Lebanon and the many other Countries who are suffering terror attacks from which ever organisation they are being attacked by. I just looked at a table of terror attacks this year. If you are interested then have a look www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_2015 I am pretty sure that you, like me, will get to half way through January and wonder exactly what this world has come to. A song immediately comes to the forefront of my mind by Queen. I am sure you already know which one. If not, then give it a listen. “Is this the world we created”
Good night all.
