David ,there is no glory,meaning or future in war for those who have to fight it.You speak to most returned soldiers.All they want to do is forget it and find a better life.

The problem with appealing to the 'sacrifice' of Jesus is that -- even assuming the accounts are true -- it was hardly any sacrifice at all: merely a painful weekend after which he would return hale and hearty to his heavenly father. Real human injuries, real disabling wounds, real deaths are very different.

How many soldiers, I wonder, have gone off to war in the expectation of a Jesus-like heavenly resurrection? How many of their deaths might have been avoided if they had realised that their religions were a sham, and their hopes of eternal life simply glib nonsense?

We have a duty to the people whom we recruit to fight for us to ensure they know the truth about life and death: drawing troops largely from the deluded religious -- as happens in the US and possibly here -- is simply exploiting their ignorance for our own benefit.