Posted on 12/21/2006 5:20:01 PM PST by tobyhill
Dec. 21, 2006 - Not so very many years ago, Baghdad thrived with intellectuals and artists, a few of whom survived even during the decades of Saddam Hussein’s single-minded tyranny. The poets considered T.S. Eliot something of a god, and his iconic work, “The Waste Land,” a kind of scripture. They found hope in the notion that love and sacrifice might triumph over the despair and sterile devastation of their own “cracked earth.”
Today, those I knew in Baghdad who remembered Eliot and wrote about him have died or, long since, abandoned a city that has become the epicenter of a widening civil war. But as I watched President George W. Bush give his press conference yesterday, I couldn’t help thinking of another Eliot poem. In “The Hollow Men,” there is that line about “paralysed force, gestures without motion,” and the famous conclusion about the world ending “not with a bang but a whimper.” And there was Bush: trying desperately to contrive some way to claim a triumph in a country he has turned into death’s dream kingdom, pretending to have strategies where none exist, ignoring realities and taking refuge in willful ignorance even as he claimed to feel the pain of the dying.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I say MSNBC = Matthews Sucks Nothing But Communists
Doctor Raoul says MSNBC = Matthews Shows Nothing But Crap
Doctor Raoul:
:-)
D2
No comment except more Leftist nonsensical BS. And I didn't have to read very far either.
Yet another "Iraq was gumdrop forest in candyland" before US/Coalition invasion. Night quite as delusional as Moore's fantasy, but still a fantasy.
If T.S. Eliot were alive today, I'm sure he would refer to Christopher Dickey as one of the "hollow men".
Oh my. A metrosexual. I am in awe.
Why am I not at all surprised.
Why am I not impresses either?
"And there were rivers of chocolate and all the children flew kites..."
I'm suspecting that the administration will use the statements by the troops today, wishing for more "boots on the ground", to override the commanders' view that a "surge" would not be productive.
I'm not trying to disrespect the troops, but one reason that the commanders are in charge is that they've studied history, in particular military history, in much more depth than the troops have.
"And then some man in a mask sawed off little Michael's head. Why did Michael agitate him so? We must find out why Michael was such a naughty boy".
heh...okay, I shouldn't laugh a that.
This jackass talks about it as if it is a good thing...hanging out with people like Paltrow, CLooney, Streisand and Gore Vidal. Ugh.
I was just trying to express a little of these people's mindsets. They are as disgusting as it gets.
I think it better that in times like these
A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter's night.
On Being Asked For a War Poem - 1916.......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.