War. What is it good for?

The Government has today announced that they will be increasing funding for schools to teach children with family members in the armed forces. This will be in the form of £10 million and a promise to help armed service families get a mortgage. This has been difficult in the past as they move around so often.

The Royal British Legion’s single, ‘2 minute silence’, reached number 20 in the UK charts even though it contained no audio whatsoever. It alluded to the Cagean idea of nothing ever being silent, but I fear that it didn’t really include as much thought, art or humour as John Cage’s 4’33” did back in 1952. However, I applaud the Legion getting 2 minutes of silence to sell so well and raising funds for the much deserving armed forces.

The funding of the armed forces has been in the news often since we went to war in Iraq, the lack of equipment and support being the main focus. Charities such as ‘Help for Heroes’ and ‘The Royal British Legion’ have tried to remedy this by appealing for funds from the public. However, I believe that charities shouldn’t have to do this; the Government should be willing to give the armed forces what ever they need for any war that they enter into. In a recession, a war is an expensive business, especially against an enemy that is as transient and abstract as terrorism.

I believe that more money should be available for armed service personnel and their families, and it is right that Government should put more effort into this area after they led us into an illegal war to begin with. It is hypocrisy of the Western world to have nuclear weapons and forbid any other country to have them.

It costs approximately the same amount to fund the NHS for a year as it would to replace the Government’s controversial Trident nuclear submarine missile system. This imbalance between a system straining to give life and a system promising death and destruction is harrowing to say the least.

So today’s announcement by the Government is a step in the right direction, but, however much charities do to help the people in the armed forces, it won’t solve the fact that they are stuck in a war zone with no foreseeable way out.