Another fecking Holy War, with Government leaders asking us to be acolytes, willing or no. I hate war. I hate every war Ive seen, and I was born when the Korean War was not yet in full song. I can accept that there may have been good sound reasons for going to war in the past, but their origins -- their origins have always been contrived. Pearl Harbour was forced, and after that there was no option but to march, to set sail. It was important to carry out that war, because it had a clear purpose and a clear enemy. We pushed them, they pushed back, and invaded Hawaii, an island in the middle of the Pacific that had no common border. Their leaders had insane visions of conquest, and the Allies had the moral high ground. I suppose. But we wanted Hawaii, and Japan did too. The tinder was there, the kindling too, and a lot of fuel had built up in the manner of tensions, and terror, and carefully built up hatred around the various countries. Opportunism at the top, patriotism at the bottom. Once the tinder was lit there was no turning back. You supply the copy, Ill supply the war said William Randolph Hearst, and he rabble-roused the US into going to war with Spain during the Spanish-American war. That anecdote may have been apocryphal, but given the scope of the war-dog media, its entirely believable. I wish we had journalists like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite again, more interested in verified facts than spun fabrications. Journalism was holy then, their impartiality was stainless and noble. Possibly the best and most accurate appraisal of all this induced suffering and death came from Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain. Heres his War Prayer, and he spoke for me. Sarcasm thrown to the heart with the sharpest sword of all. warprayer.org/
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 11:26:11 +0000
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