I read with some surprise that the morale of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is low, not because they’re getting killed, but because they’re not! At least, that’s what sundry lower ranking commissioned officers writing in the Australian Army Journal maintain.
The men are apparently “ashamed to wear the uniform”. Poor devils! Can’t go home and face their wives and loved ones with not even the smallest limb missing, let alone a bugler and half a dozen pals carrying the coffin. You can pick them in the supermarket wearing dark glasses and a newly grown beard, and when you greet them, they ignore you, or rush past with a quick “gdday.” When one of them reads of one of his mates getting killed by a suicide bomber or a shot in the head, he spends the rest of the day drinking in a pub where he’s not known, green with envy, downing a dozen alcopops and a dozen whisky chasers, muttering, “lucky bastard…lucky bastard..” until the bouncers chuck him out shouting ,”You’re a disgrace to the uniform!!” And that’s the unkindest cut of all. He lies in the gutter blubbering, “I know..I know” until he passes out.
For heaven’s sake, Kevin, do something! Stop them from building schools and hospitals for the bastards, they could have done that at home! Get a few of them killed! Give the officers something to be proud of!
