For a change, I agree with what Little Hawk said!

Bringing his reasoning up to the present, it seems to me that our troops are as much "slaves" as the people who worked for the Romans.

They are dying daily in unwinnable wars promoted by our politicians, with our tacit approval. For this privilege, they are given as remunaration, slightly above the National Minimum Wage and over £6000 per annum less than a firefighter or police officer.

They are required to act as killing machines, forbidden to think or express their opinions on the actions they are involved in.

Who in their right mind, would encourage their children to join the military to save our brave "liberal democracy".

The problem our leaders have, is in reducing "soldiership" to "just another job" like policeman or firefighter, they would be required to listen to the voice of the rank and file, over pay, equipment, conditions and most importantly, the reasons why they are being forced to lay their lives and their limbs on the line.....Ake