Weary of war, but Britons back their troops

Barely four years ago, there were media reports of military amputees being jeered at in public swimming pools, soldiers barred from pubs and airmen in uniform verbally abused in the streets.

These days, however, soldiers returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan are regularly honoured by crowds of well-wishers at homecoming parades, and on Saturday, hundreds of events will mark the country's third Armed Forces Day.

As budget cuts begin to bite, Britons are also showing their support through military charities such as Help for Heroes, which this month is celebrating raising £100 million ($162 million, 113 million euros) in less than four years.

"I always suspected it was going to be huge," said former soldier Bryn Parry, who founded the charity with his wife Emma. "It seemed to have tapped into a pent-up desire to help."

At the time, that desire seemed buried under the fallout from the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which divided Britain and prompted many in this traditionally supportive country to turn against their troops.

The head of the army, General Richard Dannatt, was so concerned at reports of antagonism to the troops that in September 2007 he warned of a "growing gulf" between civilians and the military.

Dannatt spoke against a backdrop of a mounting toll in Afghanistan and Iraq. Dozens of soldiers came home in body bags that summer, and many more returned wounded, their arms and legs blown off by roadside bombs.

It was an emotional meeting with some of the wounded at a military hospital that prompted the Parrys to start raising money for rehabilitation centres to help them get back on their feet.

And with the help of high-profile backers such as Dannatt, Prince William and the mass-selling tabloid The Sun, Help for Heroes, founded in October 2007, has become a national cause and the focus of fundraising events across the country.

But its success has gone further than that. In the past four years, many military charities have seen their donations soar and there has been an upsurge in events honouring British troops.

At the same time, disillusionment with the Afghan campaign is rising -- a recent YouGov poll found 51 percent of people think Britain's 9,500 troops cannot beat the Taliban, and 73 percent want them home soon.

"The key to it was making it non-political and non-critical, that's what we said on day one. Take away the politics and just say there are boys of 22 who have lost their legs, will you get in and support it?" Parry said.

Soldiers are still coming home in body bags -- 26 so far this year -- but their coffins are now publicly mourned in parades through the town of Wootton Bassett, near the southern English air force base where they are repatriated.

"There seems to have been a separation of the men from the mission," Sarah Ingham, a PhD candidate in war studies at King's College London, told AFP.

"People are supporting the armed forces despite having deep reservations about the operations in Iraq (which ended in 2009) and a certain bafflement about our continued presence in Afghanistan."

One social worker involved with the Royal British Legion, a charity which provides welfare for veterans, agreed. "I am anti-war in almost every way, but they (the Legion) do a massive amount of good work," she told AFP.

The Legion raised a record £35 million last year through its Poppy Appeal, which dates back to World War I, while the income from donations and appeals to the long-running Soldiers' Charity rose by 45 percent year-on-year.

The money is welcome at a time when the government is slashing spending to reduce the deficit, including cutting the defence budget by eight percent.

Although Parry, whose 26-year-old son Tom served with the British army in Afghanistan in 2009, insists the government is providing everything its troops need and says his charity is only supplying the "extras".

Cameron's year-old coalition has sought to respond to the public mood despite the cuts, doubling the tax-free allowance for troops serving in Afghanistan.

And in May, it unveiled plans to enshrine the government's duty to the armed forces -- the so-called military covenant -- into law, to ensure the troops are protected in the future, whichever way the wind of public opinion blows.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011