The futility of war?

Peebles, Scotland.

With reports being issued on the BBC of a new UN mandate that will allow the western NATO allies to blast Libyan fighters out of the sky, it is perhaps worthwhile casting our minds back to previous conflicts.

This is the splendid war memorial to those men of Peebleshire that have fallen in conflict. There are too many names to count, but the toll is approx:

The Great War 1914/18 - 500 dead
WW2 1939-1945 - 150 dead
Afghanistan - 1 name

If you view it large the lettering is readable.

To put some context into these figues it is handy to know that Peebleshire is a small mark on the map of Scotland - and most of the area is rural farmland. The majority of these men came from communities that don't even reach the status of 'hamlet'.

There's no doubt that Gadaffi is a complete and utter bampot*, and needs to be kept in check, but lets not add any more names to this, and many more thousands of memorials like it across the UK.

*bampot - great Scottish word describing an unsavoury character (that's the polite way to read it)