Small wonder that he may well be pilloried for this, his take on Memorial Day.
Posted on 05/29/2006 6:01:58 AM PDT by kellynla
LONDON--In the Cotswold hills, in deep England, there is a pair of villages named Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter. In addition to its rather gruesome name, Lower Slaughter possesses a unique distinction. It is the only village in all of England that does not possess a First World War memorial. In the remainder of the country, even the smallest hamlet will have--I almost said "will boast"--a stone marker with an arresting number of names on it. In bigger towns, it wouldn't be possible to incise all the names in stone, though at the Menin Gate in the Belgian town of Ypres a whole arch is inscribed with the names of those who fell along the Somme. Every year on Nov. 11--anniversary of the 1918 "Armistice"--the rest of the English-speaking world gathers, with Flanders poppies worn in the lapel, to commemorate the dead of all wars but in particular to feel again the still-aching wounds of the "war to end all wars": the barbaric conflict that shook peoples' faith in civilization itself.
Though the carnage of that war was felt much less in the United States, it was only after the doughboys returned in 1918 that the former Confederate states dropped their boycott of America's original "Memorial Day," proclaimed by Union commander Gen. John Logan in May 1868. And here one can note the bizarre manner in which war--which is division by definition--exerts its paradoxically unifying effect.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Semper Fi, Kelly
Small wonder that he may well be pilloried for this, his take on Memorial Day.
This is Chirstopher Hitchens' best.
As hideous as war is, it has proven to be our only guardian against such horrors as Auschwitz and Nanking, Pearl Harbor and 9/11--and, in fact, greater horrors than we can imagine.
What can the mind imagine that could be worse than World War II? The aftermath of the victory of the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire.
"Nothing is more tasteless, when set against the reality of death, than the hollow note of demagoguery and false sentiment."
OH MY NAME IS FRANCIS TOLLIVER,
I COME FROM LIVERPOOL
T'WAS CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES, AND THE FROST SO BITTER HUNG
THE FROZEN FIELDS OF FRANCE WERE STILL, NO SONGS OF PEACE WERE SUNG
OUR FAMILIES BACK IN ENGLAND WERE TOASTING US THAT DAY
THEIR BRAVE AND GLORIOUS LAD’S SO FAR AWAY
I WAS LYING WITH ME MESS MATES, ON THE COLD AND ROCKY GROUND
WHEN ACROSS THE LINES OF BATTLE CAME A MOST PECULIAR SOUND.
SAYS I NOW LISTEN UP ME BOYS, EACH SOLDIER STRAINED TO HEAR
AS ONE YOUNG GERMAN VOICE SANG OUT SO CLEAR.
HE'S SINGING BLOODY WELL YOU KNOW MY PARTNER SAYS TO ME,
SOON ONE BY ONE EACH GERMAN VOICE JOINED IN IN HARMONY
THE CANNON’S RESTED SILENT AND THE GAS CLOUD ROLLED NO MORE
AS CHRISTMAS BROUGHT US RESPITE FROM THE WAR
AS SOON AS THEY WERE FINISHED AND A REVERENT PAUSE WAS SPENT,
GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMAN, STRUCK UP SOME LADS FROM KENT,
OH THE NEXT THEY SANG WAS SILENT NIGHT T’IS SILENT NIGHT SAY’S I,
AND IN TWO TONGUE'S ONE SONG FILLED UP THAT SKY.
THERE’S SOMEONE COMING TOWARDS US NOW THE FRONTLINE SENTRY CRIED
ALL SIGHTS WERE FIXED ON ONE LONE SOLDIER TRUDGING FROM THEIR SIDE,
HIS TRUCE FLAG LIKE A CHRISTMAS STAR SHONE ON THE PLANE SO BRIGHT
AS HE BRAVELY TRUDGED UNARMED INTO THE NIGHT
THEN ONE BY ONE ON EITHER SIDE WALKED INTO NO MAN’S LAND,
WITH NEITHER GUN NOR BAYONET, WE MET THEIR HAND TO HAND,
WE SHARED SOME SECRET BRANDY, AND WE WISHED EACH OTHER WELL
AND IN A FLARE LIT FOOTBALL GAME WE GAVE THEM HELL.
WE TRADED CHOCOLATES, CIGARETTES, AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM HOME,
THESE SON’S AND FATHER’S FAR AWAY FROM FAMILIES OF THERE OWN,
TOM SANDER’S PLAYED HIS SQUEEZE BOX, AND THEY HAD A VIOLIN,
THIS CURIOUS AND UNLIKELY BAND OF MEN
SOON DAYLIGHT STOLE UPON US AND FRANCE WAS FRANCE ONCE MORE
WITH SAD FAREWELL’S WE EACH BEGAN TO SETTLE BACK TO WAR
BUT THE QUESTION HAUNTED EVERY HEART THAT LIVED THAT WONDROUS NIGHT
WHOSE FAMILY HAVE I FIXED WITHIN MY SITE
T'WAS CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES AND THE FROST SO BITTER HUNG
THE FROZEN FIELDS OF FRANCE WERE WARM AS SONGS OF PEACE WERE SUNG
FOR THE WALLS THEY’D KEPT BETWEEN US TO EXACT THE WORK OF WAR
WERE CRUMBLED AND WERE GONE FOR EVERMORE
OH MY NAME IS FRANCIS TOLLIVER IN LIVERPOOL I DWELL
EACH CHRISTMAS COME SINCE WORLD WAR ONE, I'VE LEARNED IT’S LESSONS WELL
FOR THE ONE’S WHO CALL THE SHOTS WON'T BE AMONG THE DEAD AND LAME
AND ON EACH END OF THE RIFLE, WE’RE THE SAME
He won't be pilloried by me -- an excellent essay on the saddest part of war.
Similarly, Flight 93 is a microcosm of war. As horrible as it was, the consequences, had the heroic passengers chosen not to wage war against the terrorists, would have been even more horrible. The implications concerning "anti-war activists" are obvious; evidently they would have us refuse to attack the terrorists and let them have their way, as we indulge in banal self-congratulation at an absurd sense of superior morality.
We can be thankful that there are heroes all among us who know that there are things in life worth defending.
Always remember that there is a Scott Beamer somewhere nearby, though, like the real Scott Beamer, he or she is lost in the crowd. Heroism is basic to the human spirit.
My late Grandfather who was born in 1896 was a Doughboy in WW1 - He survived a mustard gas attack in the trenches in France. Spent months in the hospital after that. He spent the rest of his life farming in Texas. He never left the state again.
Thank you.
Agreed.
So why doesn't Lower Slaughter have a memorial? Was it the only village not to lose someone in WWI, or did they decline to honor those who had died?
I just now realized that our limited action in Iraq by a volunteer force represents a real change away from the mass infantry and national mobilizations that Napoleon began and continued into WWII, Korea, and even Vietnam. In a sense, warfare returns to what is was before when armies fought and sometimes the civilians sat on a hillside having a picnic while watching.
I do recall reading of families watching some battles of the Civil War, on hills overlooking the battlefield, as if at some sporting event.
I goes back to the Renaisance when soldiers were mercenaries and even the Middle Ages when knights did the fighting. The horror and carnage of WWI and WWII was due to the total war, mass mobilization started by Napoleon. Is is interesting to hear dems argue that would be better, again. No, it would not.
Hitchens forgot to mention that after June 22, 1941, Trumbo snitched to the FBI on anyone who wrote to him asking how to get "Johnnie Got His Gun", since his God, Stalin, was now at war, and old Dalton didn't feel pacifistic anymore - and didn't think anyone else should, either.
First Bull Run. There were U.S Congressmen and others who came by carriage to picnic and watch the battle. Most left, sans picnic basket, the same way, albeit faster.
Bwahahahahahahaha!!!
That was great!
I see Congress critters haven't changed much in 150 years.
Were it not for the thumb, I fear we all would have been killed off centuries ago. Our survival certainly wasn't because of our brains. ;)
Well-put.
Hitchens is a master of the studiously absurd.
Peckian and puckish, he charms even those he torments.
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