This is why we should still study Kipling.

Rudyard Kipling's poetry still resonates today, especially those written about soldiers. He saw into the soul of the average British civilian, and it wasn't pretty. Still isn't.

In today's news, the Metro Hotel in Working, Surrey, refused a room to a British soldier with a broken arm because of a policy to not serve those in the service. It was so late by that time, that the soldier was forced to sleep in his small, two-door car.

He'd traveled to the small town to help out with funeral arrangements for a friend who'd died in the line of duty in Afghanistan.

I am forcibly reminded of Kipling's poem "Tommy" from his Barrack-Room Ballads:

"For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' 'Tommy, wait outside';
But it's 'Special train for Atkins' when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's 'Special train for Atkins' when the trooper's on the tide.

...

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' 'Chuck him out, the brute!'
But it's 'Savior of 'is country' when the guns begin to shoot;
An it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool--you bet that Tommy sees!"

The Brits and Americans who believe similarly had best keep that in mind. One of these days, one of these boys is going to get elected to office, and remember clearly enough to try to do something about it.