Tuesday - February 14, 2012

Is it still history if no one learns from it?

Thoughts on Passing

Essayist Austin Allen contemplates history and literature now that the very last veteran - a woman, naturally - of World War I has passed away.

In a stable lying almost in the shadow of the new stone church, a man with gray eyes and a gray beard, stretched on the ground amidst the animal odors, meekly seeks death like someone seeking sleep....In the kingdoms of England, the sound of the bells is already one of the customs of the afternoon, but the man, while still a boy, had seen the face of Woden, had seen holy dread and exultation, had seen the rude wooden idol weighed down with Roman coins and heavy vestments, seen the sacrifice of horses, dogs, and prisoners. Before dawn he would be dead and with him would die, never to return, the last firsthand images of the pagan rites. The world would be poorer when this Saxon was no more.

I missed it last week: Florence Green, 110, served just as the war ended, working the chow line for the RAF. It’s only been in the last year and a half that anyone even knew she served. None now live who witnessed that great calamity while in uniform, in any way shape or form. And very few, if any, still live who even read about it in the newspapers.




100 years later ... once more into the breech?

Secretary of State Clinton: We need Assad’s consent to put troops in Syria

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had a clear and unified message coming out of their meeting in Washington, D.C. Monday: They are looking for a political solution in Syria and won’t consider putting international troops there unless the Syrian regime agrees.

Lady, are you out of your friggin’ mind? How like a Democrat, to even consider getting involved in a war that has no bearing whatsoever on our national security, and is being fought by two forces that are both essentially our enemies, and enemies of our allies. Thank God that the only thing keeping her from invading a sovereign nation is a hall pass from Teacher, a Mother May I? note hastily scribbled in blood and soot. Lunatic.

How about “a clear and unified message” that could do us some good, like “Should one bomb or stray bullet fall into Israel, we’ll carpet bomb the living shit out of both of you. Now have fun, and let us know who wins.”

Posted by Drew458     on 02/14/2012 at 02:07 PM   
Filed Under: • War On Terror •  
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