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pecuniumWorld War 1 shaped a lot of the modern world. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, used it to prove they were "real" nations. It killed "the Sick Man of Europe," put paid to the Tsars of Russia, dissolved the last ties of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and laid Germany low, as The Franco-Prussian War had raised her up.
It also set the tone for how we have seen war ever since, the books about it, All Quiet on the Western Front, Generals Die in Bed, Jonny Got His Gun, A Farewell to Arms, etc. were full of disillusion, and the arc of poetry, from the early verses, ( In Flanders' Fields) to the middle chorus (Break of Day in the Trenches) to the later attempts to apprehend it to those who could never understand (Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen).
That sense that war is pointless, and wretched and wasteful is all true, and we expect soldiers to think this. Which is why we are shocked that some of them aren't so be-horrified by it. Some of this is because it's not always like that (not even for those who were in WW1, see Spring Offensive by Owen, which was unfinished at his death).
I hope to think those sentiments are a net good, that the awareness of our common humanity is more widespread because of it (soldiers are a funny lot, we know our job is to kill each other, and as a result we are the most convivial of professions. I've spent many a night in carousing with my fellows; and each of us aware that, should political fortune shift we could be at most serious odds).
So the most hopeful thing to come out of the war is probably this speech of Mustafa Kemal, who led the Ottoman Army at Gallipoli; later remaking Turkey and known to us as Ataturk. It's posted in bronze in New Zealand, where his erstwhile foes built him a memorial.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.
It also set the tone for how we have seen war ever since, the books about it, All Quiet on the Western Front, Generals Die in Bed, Jonny Got His Gun, A Farewell to Arms, etc. were full of disillusion, and the arc of poetry, from the early verses, ( In Flanders' Fields) to the middle chorus (Break of Day in the Trenches) to the later attempts to apprehend it to those who could never understand (Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen).
That sense that war is pointless, and wretched and wasteful is all true, and we expect soldiers to think this. Which is why we are shocked that some of them aren't so be-horrified by it. Some of this is because it's not always like that (not even for those who were in WW1, see Spring Offensive by Owen, which was unfinished at his death).
I hope to think those sentiments are a net good, that the awareness of our common humanity is more widespread because of it (soldiers are a funny lot, we know our job is to kill each other, and as a result we are the most convivial of professions. I've spent many a night in carousing with my fellows; and each of us aware that, should political fortune shift we could be at most serious odds).
So the most hopeful thing to come out of the war is probably this speech of Mustafa Kemal, who led the Ottoman Army at Gallipoli; later remaking Turkey and known to us as Ataturk. It's posted in bronze in New Zealand, where his erstwhile foes built him a memorial.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-12 02:28 am (UTC)I don't think war is an occaision for flagwaving, or celebration. I find myself bitter and nasty at those things (and people, esp. politically driven) who try to use it as such.
I flip the television, and billboards, posters, etc., off on a regular basis these days.
The one time I came close to losing it was in the lobby at Walter Reed when Bush said, "bring it on". Had I had something solid I might have thrown it at the screen. As it was I swore, and stomped off to my room, where there was an insufficiency of beer.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-12 02:34 am (UTC)In an ideal world, you would not have to be bitter about those people - you could laugh at their misguided folly, because they would not have the power to send people out to war.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-12 02:44 am (UTC)That's the short of shit which pisses me off.
When they follow it with telling me the other guy (whomever he is) fails to be "supportive" of the troops, because s/he doesn't want to treat them in precisely the way that person thinks is proper, or whatever the attempted scandal de jour (Obama hate the troops because he doesn't wear a lapel pin... What the FUCK?) happens to be, well I get cranky.
Sometimes I let them know it, which usually leaves them just a trifle speechless.