Ave!

[Ursus]

For whatever country they called home, and for whatever cause they called just, hail to those who performed martial service.

[M. Porcius Cato]

To those who have fought and defeated the forces of fascism and of communism, and to those who continue to fight the rise of the Islamofascists--my thanks! Governments that have been limited by the rights of the individual and by the consent of the governed have always been rare, and their enemies numerous. Veterans of these struggles against dictatorship deserve higher praise than any soldiers in history--their legacy is the freedom and prosperity of the greatest nations on earth.

 

I'll not add a blanket praise, however, to those who fought on behalf of the fascists, communists, and islamofascists. As far as I'm concerned, this veteran's day is not for them.

[Pertinax]

This might be too much to bear (the music is a heartache) but try and look for a moment:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/flash/index.shtml

 

and this if anyone needs a little info on the poppy:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/remembrance/...ory/poppy.shtml

[Virgil61]

This might be too much to bear (the music is a heartache) but try and look for a moment:

...[/url]

 

Thank you P. A whole generation of young men slaughtered.

 

A starkly vivid poem that strips the romanticism of war away by one of those soldiers who never returned;

 

Dulce et Decorum Est

--by Wilfred Owen, LT MC; Killed in action one week before the end of the war.

 

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;

Drank with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines 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 flound'ring like a man in fire and 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 with 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.

[phil25]

We shall remember them.

 

And I DO include those who fought on all sides in both World Wars. Norman davies new book on the 1939-45 European War (which I am reading currently) is a salutary reminder that comparative morality can require selective thinking.

 

Many of those who fought in the Wehrmacht or the red Army probably did so because they were compelled to, or because (on the basis of their perspective) they thought THEY were doing the right thing.

 

So in the silence tomorrow and on Sunday, I will be thinking of and paying my respects to ALL those who fought (including many civilians, and women and even the animals who had no choice and suffered so much.

 

I find it a humbling time, as I am not sure I would have had the courage to face what my predecessors did.

 

God bless them all.

 

Phil

[Rameses the Great]

Indeed, they fought not for themselves but for freedom, their country, and for us. They sacrificed everything for us and we shall never forget them. They certainly are not a lost generation to us.

[Gaius Octavius]

We shall remember them.

 

And I DO include those who fought on all sides in both World Wars. Norman davies new book on the 1939-45 European War (which I am reading currently) is a salutary reminder that comparative morality can require selective thinking.

 

Many of those who fought in the Wehrmacht or the red Army probably did so because they were compelled to, or because (on the basis of their perspective) they thought THEY were doing the right thing.

 

So in the silence tomorrow and on Sunday, I will be thinking of and paying my respects to ALL those who fought (including many civilians, and women and even the animals who had no choice and suffered so much.

 

I find it a humbling time, as I am not sure I would have had the courage to face what my predecessors did.

 

God bless them all.

 

Phil

 

Amen!

And amens to Virgi's poem and his service.

Edited November 10, 2006 by Gaius Octavius

[DecimusCaesar]

I agree. Thanks for posting the link Pertinax and thank you for the Willfred Owen poem Virgil.

 

Thank you to all those who lost their lives in the worst wars fought in human history.

[The Augusta]

May I add my respects to all those who died in the two world wars - and indeed, to all those who have died in war. On Remembrance Sunday, we should perhaps forget the politics, the rights and wrongs of this cause and that. For one day of the year, we are to remember the dead of all nations. Whether sent into battle by whoever we consider to hold the moral high ground, those young men gave their lives. They are all deserving of our thoughts at this time.

 

'They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We shall remember them.' L. Binyon (1869-1943)

 

On a recent regional news programme here in the UK, two men came together after 88 years: the two oldest survivors of the First World War, one English soldier, one German. Both were centenerians; both hugged each other and wept. A humbling sight.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

On a recent regional news programme here in the UK, two men came together after 88 years: the two oldest survivors of the First World War, one English soldier, one German. Both were centenerians; both hugged each other and wept. A humbling sight.

 

 

 

I too saw that news report, it was such a moving moment to see two former enemies just hugging each other and crying for the friends they'd lost, there was definately a lump in the throat.

 

 

 

God bless them all