To the fallen/ Memorial day

[chatpilot]

All war is deception.
Sun Tzu

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.
George McGovern

[Minimalist]

"It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act
first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter."
- Thucydides

[bozo]

" War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight,
The lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade "

from " Queen Mab " by Percy Shelley.

In the notes that Shelley wrote accompanying his epic poem, he quoted Godwin's Enquirer on the subject of what is a soldier? :

"Its first constituent is obedience: a soldier is, of all descriptions of men, the most completely a machine; yet this profession inevitably teaches him something of dogmatism, swaggering and self-consequence: he is like the puppet of a showman, who, at the very time he is made to strut and swell and display the most farcial airs, we perfectly know cannot assume the most insignificant gesture, advance either to the right or the left, but as he is moved by his exhibitor. "

These words were written over 200 years ago but still have resonance in my book.
Particularly Shelley's for war truly is " the statesman's game ". Politicians start wars, ordinary people do not. Politicians crave war, ordinary people do not.
Politicians and the Establishment call the fallen " heroes ", yet I would argue that ALL dead people in wartime are actually " victims ", but of course this term would not suit the glorification of " the fallen " that suits " the statesman's game ".

I am truly sorry for all those who have lost their lives in past conflicts and for those who are about to lose their lives around the world's trouble spots.

I am not a pacifist ( although I'd like to be ) since I subscribe to the view that occasionally a war must be fought ( WW2 being the best example in recent time ). Unfortunately, most conflicts are not necessary, the madness going on in Afghanistan at present being the perfect example.

Over here in the UK, the body bags containing British dead bodies are regularly paraded through a small place named Wootton Bassett. Many of the locals line the street to " show their respects " for the fallen. They claim they do it for the purest reasons, that their show of respect is non-political.
I say it is a political act, that these no doubt well-meaning souls are helping to maintain the status quo, which is to continue the action in Afghanistan, thereby ensuring these ghastly parades will continue until the statesmen see sense or are forced by public opinion to think again.
I wouldn't object if the good people of Wootton Bassett turned out for the parade bearing banners saying " troops out now " or some such phrase, but they don't......not yet anyway.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

That is so true Min and only those that have seen and lived life through the eyes of a soldier could fully understand the hardships and internal conflict that many of them faced.

Agreed,as an ex grunt. (conscript). I served in Malaysia. On patrol it took all of my energy to stay on my feet. I simply cannot imagine how guys managed to fight under far worse conditions there and in New Guinea.


However,patriotism remains the same horseshit its always has been: a way for cynical old men to get our gormless young men to go to a foreign country to kill their gormless young men.

Here Remebrance Day is November 11,At 11am (11th hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) the country comes to standstill for 2 minutes silence.

Australia

In Australia Remembrance Day is always observed on 11 November, although the day is not a public holiday. Services are held at 11am at war memorials and schools in suburbs and towns across the country, at which "Last Post" is sounded by a bugler and a one-minute silence is observed. In recent decades, however, Remembrance Day has been partly eclipsed by ANZAC Day (25 April) as the national day of war commemoration.

In secular Australia the most revered day in our calendar is April 25, ANZAC Day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_day

Patriotism;the virtue of the vicious (Baron Manfred Von Richthofen)

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Kokoda: One of the best Australian war films

Kokoda (also known as Kokoda - 39th Battalion) is a 2006 Australian film directed by Alister Grierson and is based on the experiences of Australian troops fighting Japanese forces during the 1942 Kokoda Track campaign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoda_%28film%29

[Minimalist]

There is nothing wrong with pausing to remember the sacrifice of fallen soldiers.

What burns my ass is that the ""remembrance" is more about the political agenda of current leaders than it is about the death of the soldier.

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

The last great Republican president.