owlstom read a few of your articles & they are normally very good this is a good one also &, worthy of a mention, can I just say have a safe tour & look after yourself fella.

You write very emoitvely & sensibly (for an owl lol)

Blokes like you make me humble & no B/S either fella.

UTB

Cheers bypass, thanks for that mate

Gutted I can't be at the Lane in October, but hopefully there'll be some Owls and Blades out there with me, there should be, Steel City fans are everywhere. Red or blue we'll make some noise for the boys out there.

Thanks again.

A difficult one. I'd like to say I have every confidence in the mighty Blades bouncing straight back, but with that clown Wilson at the helm and no money to speak of, I'm not overly confident. As for Wednesday, they're going nowhere.

owlstom: Fighting in illegal wars for oil and dropping bombs on innocent men, women and children who have only sticks and stones to defend themselves. Very brave.

Like I said mate, you're entitled to your own opinion and good luck to you. But I think you may want to research things a little more.
We have not been and nor are we, engaged in an illegal war, that is fact and not opinion. I don't deny that civilians have been killed, that is not right at all and shouldn't happen. But I think we both know that a lot of the people in both Iraq and Afghanistan have things just a touch more sophisticated than sticks and stones with which to defend themselves.

As for the wars being about oil, do you not think we'd have been syphoning it off from day one if it was?

Right or wrong, it is brave that soldiers, sailors and airmen do their country's bidding without question. But they don't look upon it like that, because to us it's our job and one we will do until we are unable.

Up the owls!!!!

I very much doubt you'd have that attitude if you had any real grasp of how it is out there - both pre, during, and post liberation.
And sitting behind a computer, criticising someone about to go halfway round the world to put his neck on the line for the likes of you ... hardly brave is it?

We're not all thick Sun readers who can't think for themselves and believe whatever they're told.

But people in the Forces are then are they Hammer? If you're going to make bold statements such as the one you have, it helps if you can quantify it.

Up the owls!!!!

The irony in your statement is bewildering. Tell us, where do you garner your opinions on our armed forces from?

Such eloquence and insight. The mind boggles which papers you read.

The Armed Forces, generally speaking, are made up of poorly educated young men and women. They're then polished up and put in nice uniforms. Were they not doing what they do, they'd probably be in some council flat claiming benefits, or behind bars.

The word 'brave' is banded around far too easily when talking about these people. There's nothing brave in Goliath beating David. Especially when it's illegal and immoral in the first place.

Contrast it to WW1 and WW2. Then, soldiers fought opponents who were equally matched and who indeed wanted to take over the world. These were brave people fighting to protect the people at home from German world domination. Not killing hundreds of innocent people and committing the odd atrocity and abuse along the way.

The brave modern soldiers are the ones who refuse to fight and are willing to face the consequences for their conscientious acts.

Exactly how do you arrive at the viewpoint that the Armed Forces have plenty of ill educated young people in them?

Having served for 13 years and having A-Levels as well as GCSE's as do countless others, I can tell you exactly the opposite of what you have said is true. On what evidence do you base your opinion? Perhaps applied and were rejected, who knows.

As I said, civilians have been killed which is horrible, but it is far from the picture you paint of our marauding forces crusading all over the place trying to stamp their ideology on the local populace.

The wars are not illegal, you can argue all you want about that, but it's true and your opinion doesn't make the opposite fact does it.

I have to disagree with you and say that teenagers fighting for their country is brave. After all, if they are the social reprobates you claim, imagine what they'd be doing otherwise?

Up the owls!!!!

You have to have a degree to get in the Royal Marines these days - fact.

I think you may need another tweak to your name mate, almostalwaysontopicblade

Yes, 'offtopicblade' was a bit limiting.

Whereas 'token' is quite appropriate

Up the owls!!!!

Er....yes. I'm glad you noticed.