[kellynla]

My father, God rest his soul, was one of those "Doughboys."

Semper Fi, Kelly

[G.Mason]

As is usual, Christopher Hitchens displays to this reader that he has read more books than I even knew existed.

Small wonder that he may well be pilloried for this, his take on Memorial Day.

[Savage Beast]

And so was mine. A doughboy. He served in France. As magnificent a creature as ever graced God's world. I look forward to being with him again in the hereafter, and the first thing I shall do, after espressing my love for him, will be to thank him.

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."

[Savage Beast]

Shakespeare's works are far too profound for simple paraphrase, but in my opinion Romeo and Juliette is fundamentally a parable about 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.

[Liberty Valance]

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.

[Verginius Rufus]

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?

[kabar]

This Memorial Day, one might think particularly of those of our fallen who also guarded polling-places, opened schools and clinics, and excavated mass graves. They represent the highest form of the citizen, and every man and woman among them was a volunteer. This plain statement requires no further rhetoric.

Well-put.

[taxed2death]

I still have my Grandfathers WW1 Army "trunk" (looks kinda like a musicians road case) I guess you would call it, complete with all the stickers plastered on the outside from all the ports of call and stops he made in Europe. Inside on the underside of the lid are various pics of Ladies in various stages of dress with their ankles exposed!!!!....pretty racy for that day...and a newspaper clipping of a dough boy charging forward with his rifle.
I wouldn't part with it for all the money in the world.

[CarolTX]

The finest WWI memorial I ever saw was in Paris, France.(don't hit me, fellow FReepers....!)

It was not in my guidebook...I just came upon it walking around the Latin Quarter. It astounding...a huge stone carving, covering the entire wall of a building at the end of the street.
A liberty-goddess sort is in the center, holding a sword over her head, obviously ready for the down-stroke. Crushed under her foot...about to be beheaded... is a large snake. Details of both figures are very nicely executed in the stone, and the symbolism of Victory over the Enemy was NOT...as they say..."subtle".

Around this tableau are lists of French units that served and a slogan (exact wording escapes me) to the effect of "the honored dead who fought for Liberty."

The piece obviously was created when WWI still was thought to be the War to End All Wars. Very moving...

[x]

When Dalton Trumbo wrote his leftist antiwar classic "Johnnie Got His Gun," he little expected that it would be used as a propaganda tool by pro-fascist isolationists in the late 1930s, and that he would be protesting in vain that this was not what he had really meant.

First of all, those isolationists may not have been "pro-fascist."

Secondly, they did get Trumbo's message alright. Dalton Trumbo published "Johnny Got His Gun" (note spelling) in 1939. He knew what he was after. Opposition to war against Hitler was the Communist Party line before the Soviet Union was itself attacked.