Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942

I recently picked up a little book called, "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942". Not exactly great literature but a fascinating read non the less. Its written in an informative way so that the arriving US soldier could adjust and not upset the natives too much.

With such sections as "No Time To Fight Old Wars" and "British Women at War" its short tour de force of diplomatic niceties. I'm not sure if its the style or its intentional but its actually quite moving and funny in a dry sense of humour way. For example, when talking about the fact that the US service men would encounter women officers, and explaining that that the British found no shame in following orders from a woman, talks of the fact that these women were effectively at the front line. Talking of the fact that women officers were bravely fighting, and dying, along side the men at the home front it states,

"...when you see a girl in khaki or air-force blue with a bit of ribbon on her tunic - remember she didn't get it for knitting more socks than anyone else in Ipswich..."

One part that struck me as very pertinent at the moment was entitled "Keep out of Arguments." Where it says,

In the pubs you will hear a lot of Britons openly criticizing their government and the conduct of the war. That isn't an occasion for you to put your two cents worth. Its their business, not yours. You sometimes criticize members of your own family - but just let an out sider start doing the same and you know how you feel.

It goes on to say, "its impolite to criticize your host; it is militarily stupid to criticize your allies." At this moment in time when America has just had its memorial day and it faces hard questions over Haditha I think its fair to remember that not so long back the US and the UK both suffered in a vital and just war. Now America is going to have to do a lot of soul searching if half of what is being said is true. I may disagree with the President of the US and the countries foreign policy, ours is not much different, but I have to have faith that for the majority within this country and the US that the following from the book is also true;

...there are important similarities - our common speech, our common law, and our ideals of religious freedom were all brought from Britain when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Our ideas about political liberties are also British and parts of our own Bill of Rights were borrowed from the great chapters of British liberty.

This may be idealistic bollocks, and I guess it was propaganda of a sort at the time, but I do think its time that we reexamine, and reclaim, the principles upon which the US was founded and the tradition of English freedoms and liberties that the revolutionaries thought they were fighting for. They are shared enlightenment traditions dating back to when England was regarded as a beacon of freedom across Europe. I think if we compare the way the US and UK are behaving at the moment in the light of the freedoms we claim to cherish we should question the validity of those governments. Its time those of us with a more positive view stopped swalling the politics of fear and we try and reclaim the politics of hope. I don't want to think what can my government protect me from, I want to think what my society can do.