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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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Thank you for your service, Terry
Date: 2008-11-12 03:14 am (UTC)I too am offended beyond belief by McCain. The things he voted for, like torture and against the new GI Bill proved to me he's an elderly idiot. Yeah, he served his country well at one point, now he's serving it badly.
Sigh. I'm gonna make my comments about family and friends in the service over at my LJ. I'm not naming friends, mostly because except for you, I'm uncertain who is or was in the service.