Posted on 02/14/2003 7:27:20 PM PST by CubicleGuy
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation
*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.
"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.
"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed. See Jim Zwick's page "Mark Twain on the Philippines" for more of Twain's writings on the subject.
Transcribed by Steven Orso (snorso@facstaff.wisc.edu)
The U.S. military has taken far more care not to injure the innocent than any other army in the history of warfare.
Please. We are not in the same class as the 20th century dictators, and I pray we never will be. But your touching earnestness is risible, in view of the carnage wrought by our righteous might on the innocent of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, Hamburg, Dresden, and Berlin. No polity is sinless, and with all its good will and high moral purpose, the US has spilled its share of blood. Beware moral pride.
Your argument is not only flawed-it is an anathema to me.
I was not referring to WWII, which was the last example of total war in the Clausewitzian paradigm. We were, BTW, completely morally justified in each of those action - But that is a different argument.
However, since the emergence of smart weapons, we have gone to great lengths to minimize non-combatant casualties. Witness Gulf War I, in which the only significant civilian casualty episode came from an Iraqi command and control facility co-located with a civilian bomb shelter.
Under American/NATO occupation 300 plus churches have been torched and over half a million Non-Muslim Albanians have been forced to flee. All in peacetime, all under the protection of Uncle Sam.
If I was a minority Sunni Arab in Iraq (the current ruling class-as the Serb minority was in Kosovo) I would be afraid to live in an Iraq under American control. Will Americans stop Shite Arabs (the majority Arab group) and the Kurds from exacting revenge and ethnic cleansing of the hated Sunni Arabs from their midst?
If I was a Sunni Arab and wanted recent history to provide an answer I would conclude that under American occupation my life would be in danger.
Beware moral pride indeed.
The Great Satan's makes his point quite clearly at his FR home page. Romulus, this is for you. I find the picture he posted there quite interesting, although probably for a quite different reason than he intended when he made it part of his home page.
My rebuttal to The Great Satan.
What more need to be said? OH, yeah, I know what could be said. This:
So you support the impending war against Iraq, eh? Ok. That will be $2,500, please. Don't worry about sending a check just yet. We will payroll deduct.
Oh, and that's just for this year. Then we have to rebuild Iraq, of course. Though we will need another $15,000 from you for that effort, the good news is that it will be spread out over the next decade or so. For now, we'll just add it to your share of the national debt, which is - let's see now - about $387,500 as of today.
And then there will be interest on the debt, of course. That totals $19,375 per year on your share of the current balance, assuming 5% interest. As usual, we won't be bothering you to pay off any of the principal for the foreseeable future.
What? You don't have it? You didn't budget for it? Don't worry. After all, we don't. In the immortal words of Joe Black, these things have a way of working themselves out.
The US population totals 290 million. Though there are 98 million taxpayers, there are 80 million households. Each household consists of 3.63 people. The figures quoted above are per household, a more realistic way of looking at things, I think, since my thirteen-year-old girl simply doesn't generate much in the way of tax revenue.
Simply saying the war on Iraq will cost $200 billion has no impact on any but the most inveterate policy wonk. It's really tough to relate to a billion, you see.
When I was a kid, pennies counted. Nickels and dimes were money. Dollars were the province of grownups. Of course, then you could sent a letter for 3 cents and get a double-scoop ice cream cone for a dime (real scoops, too, not the puny things peddled for a buck apiece today). New cars cost $400...tax included.
The only reason we had a concept about millions back then was due to John Beresford Tipton, whose minion each week delivered that sum, tax free, to some poor schmuck whose life subsequently became wrecked by an endless stream of mansions, yachts, servants and hangers-on. That was Fifties TV's "The Millionaire."
Billion became a concept during the Sixties, thanks to Viet Nam. Of course, most of us know that the world population has doubled recently, to about 6 billion people, most of whose little fingers are hard at work right now, churning out snorkels and snowsuits for Wal-Mart.
I honestly don't recall when trillion came into usage. Sometime in the Seventies, I think. It's in full vogue now, however. US gross domestic product (GDP) totals $10 trillion, fully a third of the entire world's GDP (though we number only 5% of the world population). The stock market declined $7 trillion over the past two years (your household's share was $87,500, by the way). It will cost $1.2 trillion to rebuild Iraq, just about half the US national budget each year.
What's the next level? Had to stop and think, didn't you? I suppose it is quadrillion, but I'm not certain about that. I still have trouble with millions, to tell the truth. That's why it's easier to think in terms of these national and world figures after they have been boiled down to my share.
Mind you, the space shuttle that just blew up cost your household only $32 ($2.1 billion to build plus $470 million for a single launch), but that doesn't include the loss of life.
Of course, the $17,500 you will spend knocking down Iraq and then picking it back up doesn't include the cost of human suffering, either. What is your son worth to you, if he is over there right now? What about all the Iraqis about to die?
$600 billion budget deficit for 2003? Huh? Well, I can clearly understand that figure when I realize that my little economic unit (household) is responsible for $7,500 of it. Of course, add in the $200 billion Iraqi war and the $100 billion economic stimulus package that Bush the Second is pushing, and my share of the deficit (and yours) grows to $11,250. And that doesn't include interest. Or the billions to fight AIDS in Africa. Or all that other stuff Bush outlined the other night.
Now, I don't know about you, but I would have trouble if I spent $11,250 more than I earn each and every year. Things are different when you get to print the money, of course. It helps when you are the world's only superpower, too.
You might be thinking that lots more is being spent on your household's account than you personally pay in taxes, so you're ahead of the game. Tax on, MacDuff! We be making out. You would be wrong. Sure, some pay more and some pay nothing, but the average American household is right in there on these figures. Especially those to whose eyes these words are phosphorescing out right now. You see, a goodly amount gets siphoned off before you ever get a chance to fork it over via payroll deduction.
Your household's share of the total GDP of America is $125,000 per year. Increasingly, that's flipped burgers and service charges, but it still includes a rapidly-shrinking amount of real manufacturing. Think of dirt and other things going in one side of a building and cars rolling out the other side. Lots of that gets taken in the form of taxes you never see, not to mention corruption and outright theft. Your annual salary is what is left after those items. Then the real taxing begins.
Your share of the federal budget each year (and this does include the interest) is $26,250, some of which got snagged ahead of your paycheck. Then there are state income taxes, property taxes and sales taxes and license fees and...you get the idea.
This new Homeland Security Department is costing you $462 in its first year alone. Feel safer?
I could go on and on in this vein, and probably should, but the point now should be obvious. All these huge governmental program costs are real and substantial and being paid directly by you and me. And each year, we fall farther behind due to the deficit spending. There is a natural consequence of this progression and it results in you owning nothing and those who collect the interest on the debt owning everything.
You see, each year you pay $19,375 interest on the national debt (5% interest) and $14,375 (5%) on the nation's private debt ($287,500 total is your share, by the way...plus your share of the national debt, your total indebtedness is $675,000). Does the private debt interest sound a lot like your mortgage? That is no coincidence. Unlike your mortgage, however, the national debt grows by $600 billion each year, with no principal paydown...ever.
Those payments go to the banks and other investors, of course. Due to the annual trade deficit, the amount by which we import goods for which we incur more debt because our exports aren't enough to balance off the two, the interest increasingly flows out of the country. Your share of this year's trade deficit is $6,250. So, of the total budget deficit ($7,500 is your share this year), $6,250 ends up owed to foreigners. Yes, it is this easy. No, it isn't apples and oranges. Maybe oranges and tangerines, but the effect is ultimately the same as if it were all oranges.
Repeat after me: There is no such thing as a free lunch. Eventually, all American debt would be foreign owned. Right now, it's only about 40% in foreign hands. Eventually (and this day is much closer than you could possibly believe), the interest on the debt would consume every penny of the GDP. I say "would" only because the chickens will roost long before then.
War might be the answer, you think. After all, it bailed us out of the Great Depression. Well, probably not (and neither did FDR's socialism run amuck, either), but that's another story. Remember, war consumes productivity and destroys capital. No free lunch, don't forget.
There's only one single, logical, end result. The US dollar will become worthless. That's the only way the government (you and I) can possibly pay the interest, even, let alone the outstanding indebtedness. Hyperinflation. Already, the dollar has gone down 95% in a single century (thanks to the Federal Reserve, but that is another story altogether). 90% of that has occurred in my lifetime (3 cent stamps in 1950 and 37 cents today, don't forget). The dollar declined 30% just in the past year, in case you weren't paying attention. Notice the trend - it is not your friend.
Expect the hyperinflation after the current deflationary period ends. Bush's neverending War on Terrorism is designed merely to be the distraction. A lot of foreigners will be stuck badly when paid off in dollars that are worth a hundredth or a thousandth of what they are today. Unfortunately, so will most Americans, who ultimately hold the rest of the debt in the form of stocks, bonds and cash.
We're still in the real estate bubble. Actually, it is a mortgage bubble, truth be known. Refinancing with equity pullout is what is keeping way too many of us afloat at the moment. That is about to end.
The die is cast and there is no way out. No way. There is absolutely no way to pay the piper without making our currency worthless first. There is no other way to pay the interest, either, once the rates start to rise again.
That's why Bush the Second is spending like there is no tomorrow. He knows there isn't. Even before Bush, government was ballooning. Since 1998, we have lost 2.4 million manufacturing jobs, thanks to NAFTA and GATT. During the same period, 1.7 million new government jobs were created. Bush is on pace to surpass those figures by a country mile. No free lunch, don't forget. Government consumes production. More deficit spending. More debt. In just the past 20 years, government debt has gone up nearly 400%. That sounds like a lot until you learn that private debt increased by almost 500%.
If you have the ability, put some of your assets, especially anything denominated in dollars, such as stocks, bonds and savings accounts, into something that will hold its value: tractors, durable goods, cattle, gold, silver. You know. Not collectibles. Your Pokemon card collection won't be worth squat after the crunch. That way, you will end up with something when the dust settles. Trust me, our masters have already done this in spades. You won't even be able to buy groceries with your Social Security check.
The Great Depression will have a new, lesser, name before the upcoming economic carnage subsides. And I don't expect that to happen during what is left of my lifetime. America will fail economically, whether or not it is ravaged by foreign countries in retaliation for our imperialism or being stuck with worthless dollars...more likely, both.
Meanwhile, pull up a chair. Break out the beer and make some popcorn. The war is on TV, after all. You're paying for it, so you might as well enjoy it. While you still can, that is.
P.S. I'll have mine buttered (cinema style that is, don't scrimp the cholesterol), and I love a good Canadien Lager with it too please. Thank you.
Oh? We have a 2/3rds majority in the senate?
Gee, that sure explains why the Democrat filibuster has brought all proceedings in confirming a simple Circuit Court justice TO A GRINDING HALT.
You call that "ruling" the congress? Give me a break and fetch me a cup of coffee while you're at it.
In addition if you respect the constitution and then your loyalty is to the process not to your party.
Don't preach to me about respecting the Constitution. I have not been a party to the very organization that has spent the past forty years trying to annihilate the Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms in the name of "safety."
Washington warned against joining parties at the expense of loyalty to teh constitution.
And many more warned of desecrating the constitution in the name of temporary safety. On which side do you sit?
Your argument is not only flawed-it is an anathema to me.
The summary judgment and sentiment is mutual.
-Jay
I don't quite understand your citing the cost of war as some sort of rationale as to why we shouldn't go to war.
Let me bust this down in simple terms for you: if I have a $300 DVD player and some jerk walks into my house and destroys it out of sheer malice, I will end up trying to get him to pay for it. If he refuses, then I have to get a court to hear my case against him and issue a judgment in my favor. Then, if he still won't pay, I have to hire a collections agency to garnish his wages. All told, I will end up paying at least $1,500 in legal and collections fees to recover my original $300 loss. That's a 400% markup over the original value of my DVD player.
According to your logic, I should just cut my losses and buy another DVD player, leaving the original crime unpunished.
Fat chance on that one, sport.
If seeking justice makes me wrongheaded, then -- by God -- I will be wrongheaded. If someone else wants to play the Perfect Victim and let evil people give them the royal screw, that's their perogative...
...but that perogative ends where My Country 'Tis Of Thee begins.
Get me?
-Jay
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