...you'll have to excuse my slight passion on the subject; the whole drawing a line between men and women in the forces annoys me on all sorts of levels!

Part of me wonders if the press attention is just because she seems to have been the only person named so far - but the overblown attention female casualties does bug me slightly - I lost two colleagues in November; the Female getting a great deal of press attention with the male getting mentioned as some sort of aside.

I guess the attitude of society in this respect just gets to me. I would imagine there are police officers out there who have the same feelings as they seem to be subjected to the same type of reporting when a female officer gets killed as opposed to a male officer.

 

I would rather he would give them 1.2 million than use a nuke

 

I think women in the forces is a great idea - keep a battalion of them together in the barracks till their cycles 'tune in', then unleash them on the enemy during PMT week - how scary would that be, a bunch of hormonally irritated women with automatic weapons !

 

**

no problem. you wonder correctly. the press attention is because she's female and from a press perspective, that's the 'story'. you can place good money on amoral red top news editors secretly praying for her to be abused so they can ratchet up the hysteria and bolster sales. much as i despise them for it, it's their job.

i don't think it's the attitude of society. most regular people will probably view this - and other incidents - in the round. just ask your friends. i'd say it's the attitude of the media wherein lies the problem because they subjectively set the tone of the news and that sets a certain amount of perception in society.

i'm sure you're right about police officers. but all this raises the interesting point that perhaps the death or harm of a woman still possesses a greater taboo value - as well as a greater, more visceral ability to shock ... a question for desmond morris i think.

 

Well, there you go.
They made such a song and dance about the wifey being held that the Iranians now feel they are doing the UK govt. a favour releasing her*. My money is on the fact that this will have a knock on effect as to when the rest of them get released.

*although this is yet to be confirmed by the British embassy

 

Maybe she just started 'whinging' , lets face it, its what women do best and TBH if I had a captive female that started to nag/whinge/moan I'd set her free as well

 

Well said that man (?????)

 

Or lactating And she is on her way back, female bias...................nah!

 

Bunch of Iranian b0ll0cks propaganda on Skynews!

 

The original accepted norm for a family was that if they decided to have children then the wife looked after them and the home during the day while the husband was the breadwinner. That really was a pretty good system although it did not preclude the wife from getting a job if there were no children to be responsible for. Those were in the days when a family was considered to be important and was the best institution for bringing up children properly.

If you now want to start jumping up and down shouting about we are now living in a more modern world and it is all different and much more equal between the sexes etc., just tell me how we now see modern youth and their problems and tell me why! Also tell us what is the real priority in a family with children.

Neither HG nor I were saying that this girl was not perfectly capable of doing her job as a coxswain, my point was it seems a bit unfair on the child that her mother is doing such a risky job.

Les

 

les, i get the impression - and i could easily be way out here - that in recent times, government has been applying the same public sector employment guidelines to the armed services. apples and pears: the forces are a unique entity, subject to a unique requirement and requiring a unique framework to deliver that requirement - which is being the blade of crown & government policy. i think it demands a unique moral stance on who government should, and should not, place in harm's way.

for me, dogma and equal opportunities creep in an inappropriate environment has created a moral vacuum at this end of the employment spectrum.

that this lady is also a mother makes me even more uncomfortable - it's the thin end of the wedge. do we really ever want to risk seeing a female re-run of the infamous peters/nicoll footage from GW1? the way things are, it's not beyond the realms of the possible.

 

 

Good point well made Les; dont agree though! I think that the value of a parent can be equally 50/50 father and mother. I really wouldnt place more 'value' on one side or the other from the people I know. The loss of either parent is equal in my view.

This is based on my assumption that I would do a bloody good job of assimilating the roles of the mother, god forbid, should I ever have to. Well OK my choice in dresses and 'healthy sweets' might be different, but you get my meaning?

However I must be honest and say I was quite surprised, almost shocked at a young mother being out there in pretty much a warzone. I guess its pretty unusual, but I guess it is her choice.

D

 

**

i think you hit the crux of it with your last point - choice - and choice means consequences. is this an acceptable consequence?

 

"Send flowers with nuke hidden in them" seems to be choice of the moment!!

 

**

that'll be a bunch of polonium slowdeathicus, the rare russian orchid. from mr putin's own greenhouse.

 

Please don't try and suggest that the scum who are meant to be parents who are responsible for the spawn that you are referring to, have, in anyway whatsoever, anything in common with this woman who is making a sacrifice for the benefit of the society that she lives in.

Kids are little ***theads now because of bad parenting, laziness, blame culture, stupid liberal ideas about allowing them room to grow and all that junk.. not because their parents are serving their country.

I think you'll find that if everyone with children left the Armed Forces because "its a little risky", you would end up with a very small Armed Forces.

 

I guess we need to see it as an acceptable consequence? The only reference point I have is WW2 - clearly the loss of a father there is horiffic for a child [at least]. Do you consider that an acceptable consequence, and from who's perspective?

D

 

I don't need to quote any of the above posts. All the points made are perfectly valid and only differ in the matter of degree.

I agree Diesel that a father is every bit as important to a child as its mother in the normal family environment. I personally can well remember how I missed my father when he was away when I was a young child. In the example I quoted however, the mother is with the child most of the time while the father is doing the necessary earning bit. Ideally as has been stated correctly often enough, a child needs the influences of both father and mother for a balanced upbringing.

In this case we have both parents in the military and both doing that risky job which was quoted above by Prasius. That is why I said that I was surprised at her having to do that job so close to a hostile border. I also wonder who took care of the child when they were both on duty at the same time and whether that is a fair situation for the child.

Prasius, your reasons for the state of so many children today are absolutely right, it is down to a weak or non existent family environment either by irresponsible and uncaring parents, or a family where both parents are away from home for extended periods. Incidentally I should be well qualified to know what the priority is in the Services when it comes to the family or duty, I spent long enough in the service of HM to know that!

This affair of the hostages seems to be a long way from any worthwhile conclusion at the moment. We can only hope that it gets sorted out soon in the right manner.

Les

 

Great to see so many replies, but this post was a bit of a joke to start with.....