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graculusDulce et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Any loss of human life is a tragedy. Take what happened today and multiply it by a few hundred thousand (at least) and you'll get the loss of life that's likely if a war against Iraq goes ahead.
It's fine (and utterly right) that people mourn. But who mourns for those whose lives have already been torn apart by the economic sanctions inflicted on Iraq, or those whose days are numbered because of Bush's war-mongering?
War means death, people. It means soldiers and pilots and women and children and old people dying in unspeakably horrible ways. That's the reality of it. Let's not forget that.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Any loss of human life is a tragedy. Take what happened today and multiply it by a few hundred thousand (at least) and you'll get the loss of life that's likely if a war against Iraq goes ahead.
It's fine (and utterly right) that people mourn. But who mourns for those whose lives have already been torn apart by the economic sanctions inflicted on Iraq, or those whose days are numbered because of Bush's war-mongering?
War means death, people. It means soldiers and pilots and women and children and old people dying in unspeakably horrible ways. That's the reality of it. Let's not forget that.
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-01 04:06 pm (UTC)idiots like him worry me all the time.
I'm very sorry for the people who lost family in the Shuttle accident but I don't really think it merited all day all channel coverage. Space travel involves risk and this time it didn't work out .... Each person on that shuttle knew the risks and I'm grateful they chose to take it, but in the end they all knew there was a chance of failure..
As for Iraq, well I'm hoping its all pissing but with the slack jawed yokel we currently have in charge, one can never tell.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-01 04:10 pm (UTC)However, having agreed, I'd just like to point out that the smaller numbers are so much more comprehensible than the larger numbers, and therefore easier to grieve. Dionysus is taking it particularly hard, since he's a Florida baby who spent his childhood watching shuttle launches.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-01 04:18 pm (UTC)Yep, and thanks to the news media, those 7 people have faces for us to go with the names. That makes it more real, more immediate, than the faceless nameles ones who'll be the victims of any war. Only the people directly affected will know who they are.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-01 04:34 pm (UTC)It's disturbing how essential a part of going to war that is... Young men won't go shoot people who are people to them. They can't.
And I have friends who've gone to antiwar rallies who say that the numbers of protesters are being grossly underreported in the media. http://www.plaidder.com/nomore.htm
Speaking of Plaidder...
Date: 2003-02-01 05:00 pm (UTC)http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID60/32900.html