A heartbreaking clip from Good Morning Britain has gone viral, showing a 100-year-old World War II veteran lamenting what has become of the country he once fought for.
Reflecting on the meaning of Remembrance Sunday and the state of modern Britain, veteran Alec Penstone spoke with deep sorrow about the sacrifices made by his generation.
“I can see in my mind’s eye rows and rows of white stones—hundreds of my friends, and everyone else who gave their lives. For what? The country of today? No, I’m sorry, the sacrifice wasn’t worth the result we have now.
“What we fought for was our freedom, and now it’s a darn sight worse than what it was when I fought for it.”
The clip has garnered more than 7 million views on social media for highlighting how far Britain has drifted from the nation its soldiers once defended. Virtually all of the comments note that Penstone’s emotional words are a devastating reminder that the country is losing its identity, heritage, freedoms, and people.
Commenting on the video, Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire wrote, “This man fought for his country. Today, he looks around and sees that it has surrendered itself to a third-world Islamic invasion.
“Men like him—white men who built his country—are demonised and scapegoated. And while migrants rape and kill in the streets, the government focuses its energies on arresting people who say insulting things about trans activists online. A travesty of historic proportions.”
No doubt, the veteran’s grief captures a sentiment increasingly shared across the West: that the civilisation so many once fought and died to preserve is being quietly dismantled from within.
WATCH:
Penstone isn’t alone in his lament. In 2022, Carl Dekle, a 100-year-old U.S. Marine and Silver Star recipient who fought at Guadalcanal, broke down in tears when reflecting on what has become of his country.
Interviewed by Fox 13 Tampa Bay on his 100th birthday, Dekle—once known for greeting every day as “a beautiful one”—admitted his optimism has faded.
“People don’t realise what they have. They complain about everything,” he said. “The things we fought for, the boys who died for it—it’s all going down the drain. Our country’s going to hell in a handbasket. We haven’t got the country we had when I was raised. Nobody will have the fun or the opportunity I had. It’s just not the same.”
