The saddest thing on the news today

[venta]

The Royal Family are in Alrewas today, dedicating a memorial to the 16,000 people who have died in service, training or acts of terrorism since the end of WWII.

In the news report it says:

"There is room for 15,000 more names to be carved on the Portland stone walls of the memorial."

Comments

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I was packed off on a school trip to Ypres with similar effect. The effect of the statistics (for me, anyway) is in the contrast. For British troops, wars since 1945 simply haven't been like the World Wars, in terms of thousands dying. Other nations have had it different, of course - the US in Vietnam, and civilians in any war. But the British armed forces are few in number and highly professional, with the result that they simply can't and won't suffer heavy fatalities.

So, the cost of our wars *isn't* measured in British casualties (which is not to say they're insignificant). The death toll is generally among civilians, because very little has happened over 60 years to make a war zone a less dangerous place to live.