Dear o sung wu,

;)

Dear paul1405,

The good old armadillo defence. My father use to employ it whenever I was silly enough to talk him into a round or two. One flex of his shoulders and his head would literally disappear. Mine always seemed to be an easy enough target, despite me being 8 inches taller than him. Then again he was the RAN champion boxer for his division. His bravado had him take on a bloke from the Army two weight classes up. According to him the next three days were a bit of a blank.

As I stated earlier you certainly don't need any help from me, this is more about o sung wu's growing fondness for starting threads all sweetness and light then sticking the boot in. It needed to be shown for what it is.

That being said I am certainly happy that he has returned to a measure of civility in his discourse with you. One gets the sense he regrets what he directed at you earlier and is attempting to make amends. Being the stubborn old coot he is (and I put myself in that category) there is no way you are going to get an apology, especially not in front of me, so you will have to accept it in kind.

I was actually quite prepared to bow out and leave well enough alone after his post on Monday, 6 October 2014 9:11:14 PM which I thought was at least a little conciliatory, but when he later attempted to rewrite history with 'his hand on his heart' I felt the record needed correcting.

Ah well, its a diversion from a busy week.

Thanks Steele, and never expect any apology from anyone in life, in that way you can't be disappointed, and if you get one, well, that's an unexpected bonus. Enough said on that. My upbringing developed a strong pacifists attitude in me something I'll never loose.

Wu, something interesting about WWI, which I consider the most horrendous war from a soldiers perspective ever, with things like 30,000 British killed in a day (maybe the lucky ones) at the Battle of The Somme etc. horrendous.The thing that is interesting is the attitude towards the enemy, I think strangely how our people, and the enemy blokes, didn't have that hatred for each other. You would think someone who is killing your mates by the score, would be absolutely hated by you, but seems not so.
A very interesting "fact" from WWI, and no one can say this is true, is Adolf Hitler was "caught" by a British solider, who could have easily shot him stone cold dead (how things would have been different if he had) by rather chose to let him go free, hummm!
The story about the "football match" between the British and the Germans staged in no mans land in about 1917, not popular with the High Command, hummm! I think the British won the war (hard to tell from a returned soldiers point of view) but the Germans won the football match.

I've just come back to this discussion and
I've been reading all the various posts.
Goodness me - emotions have run high.
I guess this just goes to show that we can all
react when certain buttons are pushed.

Speaking from my own personal experience there
have been moments on this forum when I became
so upset and distressed that I couldn't sleep
and became quite ill. We all tend to forget at
times that there are human beings sitting on the
other end of our computers and the words that we
use can have a big impact at times.
I've been guilty of using language that later I've
regretted and thought, "I shouldn't have said that,
or perhaps I should have said it differently."

We should all be able to speak our mind without using
malice, anger, or personal insults - but it
unfortunately doesn't always
come out that way. I guess it's true
that the art of reasoned, intelligent,
argument is a skill not easily acquired. And just as
true that we should all think before we post.

At least this discussion has made me want to try
to express myself better in my future posts on other
discussions.

See you on another thread.

PAUL1405...

I do tend to support (in principle) your views and opinions concerning the moral legitimacy, of both prosecuting the War itself, and employing Conscription, as a means of fighting that War. I believe you argued strongly and convincingly for your position !

I've got to agree. The French, and later the United States and her allies, should've kept right out of the place ? Do I believe we (the allies) lost the war in Vietnam ? In the Military sense, no ! Philosophically, absolutely - all of us, fought on two fronts. 'In- country', and at home. It's at home where the War was ultimately lost.

Your own conclusions that your upbringing did impose a strong 'pacifist' attitude, that you'll never lose, is most intuitive in itself ? Perhaps an apology from me is due ? Sometimes a true pacifists has more courage for his convictions, than others, who are simply swept along by the crowd ? I don't know, it's far too deep and complex for me ?

I should concede also, that my occasional lapse's into a style of narrative that may be perceived as provocative, can at first sight appear 'boorish' by some. So a stint with the Military (they'll take most anyone), thereafter the coppers (of which you, and millions more, have little or no respect), after which one must start preparations for one's ultimate demise !

There's a certain humour in it all, don't you agree ? It's for this reason, why I take most everything, certainly with OLO and the Forum, as being inconsequential, and just a bit of fun ! There's no true intent nor malice for my words to injure anyone.

Moreover PAUL1405, in the sunset of my existence, I must confess of deriving some amusement from first; identifying a confederate; an individual with nearly as many personality imperfections as do I; and periodically; teasing, taunting and goading him, for that most fundamental of all our human transgressions...EGO ! A blood sport it's clearly not, nevertheless it can fill in an hour or two in an otherwise quiet afternoon.

Oh dear FOXY...

A clear case of mea culpa I'm afraid ! I sort of pursue this as a bit of fun, nothing else. While it's true we all employ language that may and very occasionally offend, I honestly believe it's what's in our mind that counts. If we were to let the 'barbs' or arrows to strike sensitive areas, perhaps a brief break from all this is what's needed ?

If nothing else, thirty two years as a copper does tend to insulate one's inner-most feelings. And without the dramatics, you do tend to 'harden-up' after awhile.

In conclusion I'm dreadfully sorry if anything I've said, or inferred, stated or in any other way specified, has upset you, or caused you any unease. There are three of you ladies who regularly contribute to this facility, ladies of whom I have utmost respect...namely your good self, POIROT, and SUSEONLINE. I'd be mortified if I did or said anything, that any one of you, would find 'over the top' and clearly offensive, again I'm sorry.

Dear O Sung Wu,

Thank You for your concern and kind words.

However, you don't need to apologise to me.

What I have learned from this discussion because of
the emotions that I saw coming out - is how careful
I have to be in the future, with the words I use, so that they
wouldn't be misunderstood or misinterpreted - especially
when the intent isn't there to hurt anyone. It's been a
very valuable lesson to me and for that I am extremely
grateful.

I do enjoy this forum and the people
who contribute to it.
I am grateful to be a part of it.

Hopefully, I'll be able to stick around
for quite a while.