Worth a prayer on Sunday

For these brave military personnel from the UK.

Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public.

The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers “hadn’t paid” and might scare the children.

The incident has sparked widespread condemnation. Adml Lord Boyce, a former head of the Armed Forces, said last night the women should be “named and shamed”.

“These people are beneath contempt and everything should be done to get their names and publish them in the press,” he said. “It is contemptible that people who have given up their limbs for their country should be so abused when they are trying to get fit again.”

It comes after calls for the public to do more to welcome home troops back from tours of duty and to recognise the bravery of those fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Send them to Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia, Bethesda or Walter Reed if there is no room for heroes left in the UK. I will tell you this, they will be welcomed with open arms here in the USA - their families as well.

Name and shame those women - and name and shame the nation that would let this happen. Admiral Boyce (sorry, I don't do titles), I would offer that talk is cheap. Who is leading the charge for action?

Just a side-bar here; you probably do not know it but Tony Blair and his Labour Party closed all the military hospitals in the UK. As a result, the injured are thrown on the horrible NHS. Read in the article that they are only now trying to do damage control.

Perhaps there would have been a place and time when the Church of England would perhaps weigh in on such a subject - but sadly guess what the Archbishop "Harry Hippy" of Canterbury is talking about?

The Archbishop of Canterbury has launched a stinging attack on the United States, comparing it unfavourably with the British Empire at its peak.

Dr Rowan Williams criticised America for intervening overseas with a "quick burst of violent action" and claimed its foreign policy had created the "worst of all worlds".

The wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim lifestyle magazine included the Anglican leader's most outspoken criticisms to date of the US and the war in Iraq.

He also said that the modern Western definition of humanity was not working, and that there was something about Western modernity that "really does eat away at the soul".He offered only mild criticisms of Islam in the magazine Emel, describing the political solutions offered by the Muslim world as "not the most impressive".

He also said he was surprised that the small Christian community in Pakistan was seen as "deeply threatening by an overwhelming Muslim majority", and he condemned the Israeli security wall that cuts Bethlehem in two.

However, he also commended the Muslim practice of praying five times a day, saying that it allowed the remembrance of God to be "built deeply in their daily rhythm".

This Sunday at Supper, say a prayer for these men. Lions governed by jackasses.

Hat tip Michelle.