The Secretary for War and the Colonies expressed his deep sense of personal loss at the death of Trooper Whiteside, whom he appears to have known rather well
He doesn't need to know him at all! All British soldiers are courageous,fit,determined and have an admirable sense of humour.This is a self evident statement of eternal reality.They are all like hybrids of Richard Coeur de Leon,Daley Thompson,Winston Churchill and Tony Hancock.
It's all like Ice Cold in Alex or Is Paris Burning? The boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne are back in Afghanistan, to be of good cheer and to die heroically.
Of course all deaths in action are heroic and tragic, but the Half Colonel was a toff and not a bloke, so his passing is half as heroic and half as tragic. This is the way of New Labour. At least the families will get an Elizabeth Medal, which makes up for everything.
The Olympics and the military seem to go together all the way back to the modern revival in the late 19th century:
In the search for a reason for the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin theorized that the soldiers had not received proper physical education.[21] In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock Olympian Society, Coubertin decided that a large-scale revival of the Olympic Games was achievable.
-- Wikipedia
Perhaps the 2012 London event will revival Britain's flagging fortune in Afghanistan?
Meanwhile, the Paralympics may get a healthy influx of competitors from among the mauled and maimed. A bit more glamorous than just minding our own business, what?
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