In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
Thanks for the post.
Also worth a read is an article on John McCrae author of the wonderful poem
http://www.thestar.com/life/travel/2009/11/10/guelph_house_commemorates_flanders_poet_mccrae.html
Compare ISIS today to Imperial Germany of 1914. See any major differences? How about the USA of 1914 to the USA of 2015?
That’s why there’s history!
My own tribute:
I’m proud of two young men who served as sergeants in Iraq
We’re fortunate; they went in ’91, and both came back
And one yet wears the uniform and serves his country still
The other’s done his job, and both have gained a lot of skill
But larger than my family, I raise a proud salute
To all you vets who trained and served that needful high pursuit
We’re here, and we are free, and we’re a nation worth applause
And it has been at your expense — it IS a noble cause
A small percentage of us puts their bodies in harm’s way
Some don’t survive. You’ve bought the liberty we have today
And not alone for us, a hundred million souls and more
Were freed by US troops. You know just what you’re fighting for
And so do we — and so today I thank you one and all
For answering your country and responding to the call
Our job lies yet before us, to preserve the prize you’ve won
We proudly undertake the job that you’ve so well begun
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle
BRAVO!
Lovely. Thanks Keith.
Wonderful! My flag will fly tomorrow. I’m proud to be an American citizen in these United States.
I wish all of our states could/would unite to protest the federal over reach: Clean Power Plan, Waters of the U.S., Amnesty for illegal immigrants, etc. etc. etc.
My flag flies every day and night (lighted) my dear. Stars & Stripes above and Gadsden Don’t Tread on Me below. Call someone(s) tomorrow that you know has been there and done that and thank them for their service if you don’t see them in person during the day. It really is the easiest way to make a powerful gesture. I kinda make it point to make a special effort to do so with the Vietnam vets because they didn’t get that when they came home. In fact a fair number of them got the exact opposite.
We always give a 10% discount to military in our business. (We are not far from Fort Brag.)
Right, wrong, or in between.
Here is the first 3 hours (audio podcast) of one man’s take on WWI.
It is the first part of a six part podcast.
http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/
The other 5 parts are free also with a few clicks.
Midwives. Craftsmen. Organic farmers. The German Greens are coming home. Heim ins Reich. Volk und Natur. Blut und Boden.
https://coloradowellington.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/blut-und-boden-die-grunen.png
One time I researched at the National Archives site to get the official figures for war the US has been involved in. For every war since our Civil war I figured the actual number of days US personnel were in combat. Then I divided each category of casualties, Killed, wounded, missing by the number of days the US was in that war. By that criteria WW I was BY FAR the deadliest war the US has ever fought. Then add to that the US deaths from the great flu pandemic and do the same exercise. You’ll find that 1918 to 1920 was BY FAR the deadliest two years for Americans since the Civil War.
As near as I can tell, World War One was a research project to determine how many soldiers could be stuffed into a mechanized sausage making machine before the gears seized up. Strangely, all the massive research funding seemed to go to a very small and select group of already wealthy businessmen.
I cannot think about WW! without remembering Wilfred Owens and “Dulce et Decorum Est.”
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dulce-et-decorum-est/
Horrifying.
Grand Dad died then leaving a wife and six young children. Grandma got every single one of them, including the two girls (one died in high school) through college.
The American people do not have those type of guts anymore.
It is heartbreaking to think of the millions of young lives snuffed out in senseless wars.
All war are senseless until your staring into the mouth of the crocodile. Just now I’m re-reading the multiple books of Winston’s Churchilles Personal Memoirs from WW II. In fact I’m reading ‘Their Finest Hour’. France has Capitulated and Vichy has taken control of the unoccupied portion of the country and it’s Colonies, Norway invaded, Almost all of Western Europe under Hitlers boot. Britain stands alone with only her empire to back her and having only received from the US by this time a ship load or two of surplus WW I arms and ammunition. In the US many of the same politicians and “experts” that had been confident that the western allies would defeat Hitler are now equally confident that Britain cannot possibly hold out and should get the best terms they can from Hitler. The Soviets at this point are not at war with Germany and in fact are shipping them raw materials.
The British Army having lost most of it’s modern arms on the Continent despite the miracle at Dunkirk is still inadequately armed and it will be months before the losses of artillery, and other heavy weapons can even be replaced for the existing Divisions. Most of those in the Home Guard that don’t have their own firearms have none at all. So Britain relies on it’s great Navy and 25 squadrons of fighter aircraft to ward off an invasion attempt. Despite these circumstances when Hitler puts out peace feelers Churchill with the unanimous backing of his cabinet and Parliament makes it clear it will not accept ANY terms from Hitler short of total withdraw of all German forces from all conquered territories. It was a war worth fighting.
Indeed. You don’t have to go looking for war, it will find you. When it does you can capitulate and vanish under the waves or you can fight. The only one that gives you the chance to survive is to fight.
As Churchill said, when you find yourself in hell keep going because you have only lost when you give up. Never give in, never surrender.
Great man, great people even though they have been infested with some defeatist thinking of late.
It was interesting that just a couple of years before, the young John F. Kennedy was the palace guest of Benito Mussolini, and became enamored with fascism as it allowed a military buildup without all the messiness of seeking the people’s permission to do so.
Kennedy wrote a paper on this when he got back to the States. He correctly pointed out the rise of Hitler and the need to prepare to fight him, but his faith in fascism as the solution (to fascism!) was misplaced. To Kennedy’s credit, he quickly grew out of the notion.
Sometimes we must fight. It is an art to know when. But giving up our Constitutional republic in the process (as the young JFK suggested) defeats us, and our purpose, in advance.
===|==============/ Keith DeHavelle
Good points, Keith, just one semantic but in my mind important quarrel:
Yes, Kennedy’s first instinct was anti-democratic, but no, it wasn’t using fascism to fight “fascism“. Many American elites were infatuated with Mussolini, and quite longer than Kennedy. However, “fascism” as a political term that includes the Italian state, Hitler’s National Socialism, Japan’s Bushido, and everything else people don’t like—or no longer like—is completely meaningless.
As I was writing this I decided to look up what I remembered Orwell said about it. It turns out he didn’t think it was “completely meaningless” but rather “almost entirely meaningless“. 🙂
I think I will stick with Orwell’s 1944 view over all the silly definitions of political “scientists” and thinkers before or after him. It served me well so far and I doubt I’ll ever see a better definition of “fascism“.
As they say, read the whole thing. It’s a short column but I don’t imagine that after reading it any thinking person would ever use the word “fascism” the same way. I know it took me a long time to come to terms with the meaning of the word but Orwell’s 1944 ridicule expresses perfectly how I came to see it many decades later.
Many were enamored with Hitler prior the the invasion of Poland. Charles Limburgh and Henry Ford among others.
Heh. A great Freudian slip. I think Charles Lindbergh earned this association with the smelly German cheese. 🙂
Colorado Wellington,
According to E.M. Smith (with his economist hat on) there was a scramble by the US left to distance themselves from the WORD “fascism“ after the atrocities of WWII came to light.
The new phrase for the same concept is “The Third Way” The Progressives are always changing the meanings of words trying to hide their true nature. Especially since the US is now largely Fascist…..
So the word “fascism“ does have a specific meaning. They just don’t want you to realize you are living under fascism.
Yes, Gail. That is the competing view that I also keep in mind. It seems we live, as much as we resist it, in a Hegelian world so the word can be concurrently meaningful and meaningless. There is only one thing certain: “Fascism” doesn’t mean what today’s Progressives say it means.
Millions die senselessly as pawns of egomaniacs, who are determined to expand their power and force their will on others. Then millions more die fighting the egomaniacs. It is sickening and tragic all the way around.
It’s high time we bring back sensible wars, enough is enough!