Biography

With the war in Ukraine and the talk of world war 3 it might be useful to discuss how it felt growing up as a little boy in the 1980s. I do vaguely remember my grandfather who died relatively early in my childhood. Preparing plans for bomb shelters.

My grandfather was a coal miner the main employer in the area.

He passed away after my parents returned from a 10 years living in the Highlands.

I love the Highlands and still do. Never a dull day many many adventures. 

One of the earliest stories I tell is the time when I was aged 3 or 4. I threw stones at a wasps nest in a tree stump. And the wasps went chasing after me all the way home. One had crawled up my jumper and stung me just when I got home.

I never did that again and respected wasps ever since.

Military conflicts during my lifetime

The first military conflict that I recall was the retaking of the Falkland islands after Argentina retook the islands off the coast of Argentina. A naval expedition to the south Atlantic took place to retake the islands. Resulting in the loss of many lives. But success in the end for the UK armed and naval forces. Involving an aircraft carrier, frigates, harrier jump jets and commandos.

After this the next one involving UK forces was the invasion of Kuwait. This was after Kuwait had been invaded by Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussain, in 1990. A coalition which included UK forces successfully removed Iraqi forces. It remains an autocratic state under the rule of the Al Sabah family to this day.

After this in the noughties was the invasion of Iraq itself and subsequent invasion of Afghanistan. The hunt and removal from power of Saddam Hussain and the subsequent hunt for Osama Bin Laden. This was after the September the 11th when a number of suicidal pilots had taken control of passenger aircraft. They hijacked the aircraft and then sent each aircraft on a suicidal mission to destroy a number of targets in the USA, most notably the twin towers in New York. They also sent aircraft in turn towards the Pentagon and the White House in Washington. The later two did not reach their target.

This then led to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq as well, in order to  hunt down Osama Bin Laden and his ring leaders. Depose Saddam Husain who constantly threatened to build and launch nuclear weapons towards the west, harboured terrorist organisations such as the one Osama Bin Laden led. This was mainly a US led operation with UK and others in supporting roles

The invasions of these countries was successfully carried out. Saddam Husain was caught. Osama Bin Laden was also eventually tracked down and killed. Despite being half way around the world. The subsequent occupation of the countries did prove difficult with the troops subsequently being removed. Afghanistan returning to being a Muslim country. Iraq forming a democratic system which still operates to this day. The pope visiting the region quite recently in order to ease the tensions between Christians and Arabians. 

After the departure from Afghanistan there have been major concerns for the future of Afghanistan's female population there. Removing and separating girls from schools. Constraining their freedoms so the situation there is still of concern to all. Despite the distractions of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.

There were other conflicts in my time the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Libyan conflict and many, many more which have made the headlines and the movie screens.

These are all modern day conflicts but when we read our history books conflicts have made their appearance throughout history and are probably one of the more detailed events we have written records of.

One day we hope for such things to end but we wait and we wait. 

I think many had thought conflicts were slowly disappearing from our lives. Particularly in Europe.