I’ve just seen images of an old school friend of mine being welcomed back to the UK following a tour in Afghanistan.

While he was away I read his comments with interest and noted that they lacked any great conviction for his efforts and were firmly based upon how much he wished to see his fiancée and to have a laugh with his friends.

It strikes me that this is an attitude which seems wonderfully telling. Such thoughts and ideas he expressed were symbolic of the UK’s peoples thoughts on the war in Afghanistan. And we are immensely and correctly supportive of our troops and their efforts.

And yet we question the presence across the world of our bravest men and women and put the blame on our politicians. And while I know this is an unfair assessment, as it is the fault of many decades worth of international conflicts in Afghanistan which have caused such strife, I find myself concentrating on one thing.

When a friend of mine. An ordinary guy in every measure, can survive one of the worst conflicts in the world and throughout maintain a smile in the pictures he sends home. And can then return home happy after seeing and hearing the like of which we cannot grasp, I am reassured.

Whatever ‘hardships’ we go through in our day-to-day lives are in many ways trivial. And members of our armed forces and veterans are those who prove that humans can survive and flourish despite terrible incidents.

So while they signed up to fight for our freedom, our people and our nation, they do even more by inspiring us to work through our hardships and live our lives as well as we possibly can.