AFTER weeks of obligatory and meaningless poppy wearing (even the Cookie Monster puppet on The One Show sported a poppy!) and yet another Remembrance Sunday, surely it is time to remind ourselves – again – of the futility of glorified and state-sponsored mass murder – conveniently pigeon-holed as ‘war’ or even ‘a just war’.
Wouldn’t it be wiser if our warped TV media, instead of retaining the ubiquitous war mentality, blanketed the airwaves with all the anti-war films and documentaries? Many will cry ‘but you have to remember our fallen soldiers!’ But shouldn’t we be reflecting, instead, on all the men, women and children slaughtered in these futile conflicts? As soon as politicians have finished justifying the last war, they feel their consciences are clear enough to wage the next one. They, and the media, then simply ‘sell’ it to the masses; the arms dealers get richer; the body bags and medals are distributed; and the ‘war mentality’ cycle continues. Many fall for this deception every time, but it was refreshing to hear one war veteran painfully admit “we weren’t heroes – we were fools”. 

James Hayes-Carter
Salisbury Avenue
Penarth