Amnesty International has for many years been my chosen charity, and as I lie on my sofa with my laptop on my knees with an incredibly sore leg, and the housing association gardener with his leaf blower outside (who for some reason has been clearing the very small alley way at the side of my house for the last hour and a half), I am stunned by what a tortuous combination pain, lack of sleep and noise can be. No wonder those deadly tools have been employed by the unscrupulous over the centuries as a means of garnering control. Then I wonder what turns a normal decent person into a torturer in the first place and just hope am never given the answer to that one.
Love the way the terminology of warfare has been sanitised. 'Friendly fire' means unintentionally killed by someone on your own side. 'Extraordinary rendition' means carting people around the world from one dodgy country to another in order to avoid accepted conventions and the rule of law. 'Collateral damage' means accidently killing innocent non-combatants instead of the intended enemy target. And IED is the acronym for a deadly hidden homemade bomb - sounds more like a contraceptive device. Not feeling very happy today - poor night's sleep again.
The short lived euphoria at having heard C speak has now been replaced by more familiar emotions. Miss him achingly. Worry frantically. Don't like being me today.
Still am being taken to see my consultant this afternoon and it's always nice to get out and about. It is true that the days do seem to have a culture and tone of their own and today is afterall Friday the thirteenth, so may be it's just predisposed superstition creeping in - hope that mood will change as the day progresses.
Miss H enormously too - he passed his vivat well. Miss R and wonder if she's coming home tonight.
See that the Prime Minister says that others in NATO must share the burden in Afghanistan. To that end 'people' are being sent to lobby the forty three member states of the alliance for reinforcements, this being done on the basis of what differentiates this mission from previous armies of occupation is that we are working 'with' and not 'against'. He did admit that the seriously entrenched culture of corruption from the bottom to the very top was proving to be an obstacle to progress though. War is an expensive business and can't help pondering who is actually funding the Talliban, the money must be coming from somewhere so surely in these days of computerised banking the paymasters could be tracked and stopped. Or am I being ridiculously naive. Only hope this is all really worth it and wonder how history will judge the campaign.
Please God all stay safe and well.
Definitely a bit blue.
Speak soon. A soldier's Mum x
No comments:
Post a Comment