Do I like Kipling? I don't know I've never Kippled....

'In Flanders Field' has the merit of actually being written 'in situ', on the back step of an ambulance after one of the Ypres offensives in May 1915. Many of the others were written whilst in barracks or (in at least one case - remember the Ballad of Reading Gaol wasn't written in gaol, or even in Reading) safe at home away from the hell that was the Salient.

And if your fellow countrymen are having the crap bombed out of them then a little jingoism is bound to creep in.. take a look at some of the recent threads re:WTC 11/09. That's jingoism at its worst because those propagating it have probably never had to do anything more traumatic than remember that 'O say can you see' doesn't end with the words 'play ball!'

LTS