RE: Hotel byblos25 Jan 2026 08:17
There will be no sermon today- instead a message of support.
Statement by Revd Oldsharedog
There comes a moment when silence becomes complicity. This is one of those moments.
The remarks made by Donald Trump about UK troops are not merely insulting — they are an obscenity dressed up as bravado. They drip with arrogance, ignorance, and a staggering disrespect for sacrifice. To sneer at those who have served is not strength. It is moral cowardice.
British soldiers have marched into hellish places not for ego, not for profit, and not for applause, but because duty demanded it. They stood in deserts and ruins, in firefights and funerals, shoulder to shoulder with allies who understood that freedom is never free. Many did not come home. Others came back carrying wounds you will never see and burdens they will carry for life.
And this — this cheap contempt — is what they are repaid with?
Let us speak truth without varnish: anyone who belittles the service of allied troops reveals exactly who they are. A man who mocks sacrifice has never understood it. A man who dismisses courage has never been required to show it. And a man who uses other people’s blood as a talking point is unfit to speak of honour, let alone leadership.
Do not insult us with performative patriotism. Flags waved by mouths that sneer at service mean nothing. Respect is shown in restraint, in humility, and in reverence for those who stood between chaos and the innocent.
UK troops do not need approval from a man who confuses bluster for bravery. Their honour is not granted by demagogues, and it cannot be taken away by sneers. It is written in headstones, in regimental colours, and in the lives of those who served and survived.
We will not be quiet. We will not be polite about disrespect. And we will not allow the sacrifice of our service men and women to be diminished by anyone who treats duty as disposable and courage as a joke.
If you want to speak of strength — start by showing respect. Until then, your words carry no weight here.