Quote Originally Posted by trewornan View Post
I've never understood the American attitude to this sort of thing, it's very different in the UK.

There are plenty of UK citizens opposed to the war in Iraq but I can't imagine any of them demonstrating against or even criticizing the members of our armed forces who are fighting. It's not a soldier's choice after all, they are merely doing what their country has asked of them. An anti-war campaign which picked on our soldiers would do themselves a great deal of damage in this country.

On the other hand, it would be very unusual for anybody to accuse someone opposed to the war of being un-patriotic, treasonous or so forth - something which seems to happen all the time in the US. It's perfectly possible to believe that a war is not in the best interests of your country and whilst you might be wrong that doesn't make you a traitor.

Respect your armed forces - they don't chose which wars to fight it's the politicians who do that so save your ire for them.

Respect those who oppose any particular war - at least they are prepared to stand up for what they believe in and they are trying to do the right thing (whether misguided or not).
This is interesting ---- How would British citizens have reacted 100 -200 years ago? How would British citizens have reacted when the concept of never letting the sun set on the British Empire was the philosophy of the day? I just can't imagine people not caring about the Union Jack being disgraced in some way during this period. I'm just curious.

As far as being offended by the burning of a national flag ---I just can't imagine this being something uniquely American. But I suppose the most powerful nation the world has ever known might take itself a little seriously sometimes .

Justin