i put this up on The Forum Whatever, but i feel so strongly about it im putting it here for anyone else to comment upon. id also sggest getting a cup of tea in!

Remembrance + Wars
I am anti-war. I loathe it with most of my being, I would not ever want to kill and my heart sinks at every outbreak. Most never need to be fought at all, the cost of ego and pride. But that would never put me off my passionate backing of Remembrance Day. World War two was the epitome of a war that had to be fought. Hitler was the epitome of the ego/pride thing, and the hypocrisy that is the background of so many wars - he wanted an Aryan state where he was a skinny Austrian runt. If we did not stop him he would have led armies across Europe. To say "oh they would have just attacked Russia and lost" is pathetic. The many gravestones of war graveyards fill me with grief at the loss, but if we had not got involved, millions more would lie unmarked under concentration camps.
We should have acted as soon as they marched into Poland.
Our world would be profoundly different if it had not happened. We would not be in a nazi dictatorship now; that kind of rule would never have the lasting power, but it is not unfeasible to think that they would have invaded Britain, and succeeded. We may have still fought them off, but it’s not impossible to disregard our being a part of the third Reich if we sat back and watched it happen, thought it was someone else’s problem or refused to fight because of being anti-war.
I would not hesitate to defend my country. Not for patriotism, but it is where my friends live and my family. It is my place of birth. I would not be defending the crown; I would not be defending the government. I would be defending my territory. Any less is cowardice. But attacking another country is another matter ENTIRELY.
If there was another Hitler, another man who would begin a crusade through countries to build an empire, crushing the rights of other people, then I would nervously go.
Remembrance + Iraq
But it’s the concept of joining the army that would keep me a 'conscientious objector' because we would be at the whim of pride and ego. Iraq is a prime example of this. Saddam Hussein HAD to be taken out. Any argument against it is foolish. The man was a monster with as little regard for his own people - his own family - than for those he tried to conquer. He would do it again. I remember at the anti-war march when the president came to Britain, some idiot embarrassing those opposing the war claiming it was for the Iraqi people to act and overthrow Saddam. Ridiculous. They TRIED. What happened? Saddam gunned the protesters down with - if I remember rightly - a helicopter the west sold them.
However, the war was conducted in atrocious circumstances. Innocents are always killed in wars, a horrendous inevitability. But to go in for oil and foothold clarification is an affront to the planet. The American government is the school bully. Anyone that threatens its Alpha-continent mentality is stepped upon. No one is allowed to get too much military power without drawing their attention. (amber i hope you dont take offence there - its not the americans, its their govmnt&military imm on about)
I would only attack another country if it were becoming another third Reich or - ironically- if it were becoming a new colonial British empire. This does not disclude America. With Bush at the helm it is coming frighteningly close.

Remembrance Day?
I will always honour it. Not for the wrongs of the many wars that have been fought and are going on today, but for those that died crushing the third Reich, the most heinous empire since we walked onto sandy beaches planted a flag and made slavery. My memories go to those that fought the Nazis, and to those that joined the armed services hoping that they could make a difference for the better, only to die at the hands of a suicide bomber defending the oil the west is raping in the shambles that is the ‘liberated’ Iraq. I remember those that died fighting in wars that shouldn’t have happened. I spare thoughts on Remembrance Day for the innocents that die at the hands of unjust armies and orders - including our own. War is a horrific thing I would dearly love to do without. But they will always happen, its sadly part of human nature, no matter how much we try and lift ourselves above it. Arguments will always escalate out of control. Rivalries will always be reconcilable, much as I wish it weren’t so. When these things are at the hands of those that control armies, it kills innocence.
Remembrance Day does not justify war; the clue is in the title. It’s for those that fought to stop the rich crushing Europe. Its for Jews bulldozed into a pit. It’s for mothers who lost sons in trenches in foreign countries. And its for soldiers that die carrying out orders of officers who should know better. To disrespect the day because current wars are morally unjust is shameful. The two minutes silence should be carried out, children will still chatter, they will still deface monuments and throw the poppy wreaths away. But its sadly their right to be a prick, they should at least be thankful for it, if wed layed back and let the nazis walk through Europe theyd never be able to act like such pricks, they could be in the Hitler Youth, or in the army early fighting the middle east, or just not alive because somewhere in their family there was a ‘insert minority here’.

And for those whove hurt their eyes trying to read this mega comment:
I am anti-war. I am a conscientious objector, because however bad this country seems, im living in a country where im allowed to be one.

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