The Spectator

Lest We Forget

One remarkable fact of recent years is that even as the veterans of the first world war have died and as those who served in the second world war have headed through their eighties and beyond, the memory of the 20th century’s two most devastating wars has continued to be honoured with thoughtfulness and devotion. The idea of commemorating those who defended and saved this country has lost none of its potency. This year, as we head towards the 100th anniversary of the start of what was meant to be the war to end all wars, there are more British poppies in evidence than ever.

Our part in the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in particular has become one of the few indisputable moments of our history about which all British people can feel legitimate and unalloyed pride. During it, people from throughout the country (and, indeed, the Commonwealth) played a full part. The Queen herself served in uniform, as an engineer. Even in a time when the idea of our national identity is often looked down upon, Armistice Day at least has always remained a permissible form of patriotic commemoration.

But it is hard not to see a certain guilt too. Over the past decade our armed forces have been deployed numerous times, but seldom with much public support and never with much political strategy. By the time British forces leave Afghanistan next year, they will have been engaged there for longer than the course of the two world wars put together. Yet it is a conflict which most of the public ignored, and continues to ignore. Many politicians turned away from it even as the casualty toll mounted.

As the Taleban come back into negotiations, after our armed forces have spent a decade in the country ostensibly in order to keep them out, it is hard not to reflect that some of our best men and women have been treated badly as well as unwisely by successive governments in recent years.

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