No3L Suggested That I Throw This Rant Out ... So Blame Him If Its Rubbish!
Many, many moons ago, Ed was a baby soldier and a medic technician in the (British)Army - essentially, a paramedic. I did this between cocking up magnificently my chemistry A-level and deciding that I'd just go to university and do maths instead.

Long story short, I found myself in the Saudi desert WTF-ing in autumn 1990 preparing to support the drive up and over the border into Kuwait in my own small way (1/750,000th of the total strength ranged against the fourth largest army in the world (at that time, the Iraqi army - all fresh from the Iran/Iraq war)).

Contrary to the perceptions of many of my friends in the UK, we didn't sit on our arses drinking tea and doing nothing. When the war kicked off we went onto rotations of 14-18 hour shifts in patient care with 1.5-2 hours sleep a night (Scuds, gotta love 'em).

We got back to the UK in March 1991 to a grossly underwhelming reception. Is this (and it's a question I've thought about before) because:

1. It was seen by UK public as a "wee skirmish" because it only lasted six weeks? Note, this is the last time that multiple opposing professional armies faced each other across a battlefield "for real" and were shooting at each other, for real (admittedly, the Americans shooting at us).

2. Comparative lack of UK deaths (48) was seen to reinforce the message that this was a "small war" and therefore not worthy of consideration?

3. Lack of understanding of the nature of the conflict beyond:

(a) Saddam invades Kuwait
(b) Kuwaitsmates (Bush I, Thatcher, Mitterand et al) get together and boot Saddam out

Feel free to leave many or no posts!
(Eds Meds Mathskillz=1,Socialskillz=0, Tue 12 May 2009, 12:45, 7 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Yep
all three sum it totally.

I was only about 10 when it happened so I'm not ashamed of being unaware of these issues, but I don't think the media at the time made a big deal of them.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 12 May 2009, 12:48, Reply)

Heh yeah, it's all my fault!
You have a valid point, and the more recent conflicts abroad have seen their fair share of apathy from the general public.

I think some of it stems from the public perception of war, the people who make it and the people who fight it (the public perception of, not the soldiers themselves)

We see and hear about it every day, the media covers conflict in the minutest detail and, much like the latter moon landings not getting TV coverage because they'd lost public appeal, apathy sets in.

Maybe.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 12 May 2009, 12:52, Reply)

I was only 14 at the time
but I remember thinking it had all been done with air-strikes and smart bombs. This was what was shown on the news.

Do civillians ever really know what goes on in a war? I met someone from my school a few months ago who is now a paratrooper, what he had to tell me did not match up with the news reports.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Tue 12 May 2009, 12:54, Reply)

I have a friend
who's in Afghanistan at the moment. And he says that none of the news reports are ever fully accurate - and that fuckloads is left out.

So even though I wasn't even around at the time of this war - I can guess it's probably combo of 1&3. And people often underestime PTSD.
(Poppet some assembly required., Tue 12 May 2009, 13:10, Reply)

'Rave' was in full swing
and to my eternal shame that held my complete attention at that time.

Sorry
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:18, Reply)

^Same here
Sorry but I wouldn't have been much help.
( girlinthehole, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:25, Reply)

I was in my teens at the time and remember that one quite well
Mostly because the boyfriend's father was in the National Guard and followed what the US termed "The 100 Day War". Thanks to the bf's dad following things closely, I did know that it wasn't all just shooting missiles and did in fact actually involve loads of people on the ground working their assess off while being shot at. (In later years I've become friends with people who were there) I agree, the news is never accurate.
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Tue 12 May 2009, 17:50, Reply)