In the U.S., today is Veterans' Day; elsewhere it's Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, marking 88 years since the truce that ended World War I.
Whatever you're doing, please take a moment to reflect on the sacrifices our men and women in arms have made throughout history to protect our nation. Regardless of your views on the war, remember the sacrifices our troops are making now in Iraq.
I happened to come across this video on YouTube; It's one man's tribute to his parents' service during World War II, and I think including it here is appropriate:
And, finally, a poem that encapsulates the cost of war on the young people sent to fight it:
In Flanders Fields
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian ArmyIn Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
You know: I used to post that poem on my division's intraweb at work every Veterans Day, back when I was still maintaining it. I don't anymore - maintain it - but I'm not sure I still would. Somehow, when I read it just now, all I could focuse on was the lines "Take up our quarrel with the foe ... if ye break faith with us who die" and I'm not at all sure what they even mean any longer.
Thanks for the McRae poem, Orac. It's a Canadian tradition to read that at Remembrance Day observances, though I understand it's not as well-known elsewhere.
Ridger: that last stanza is a bit ambiguous, isn't it? ISTM that Remembrance (or whatever) Day walks a fine line between honoring the dead and glorifying war. I know my father (a WWII vet, albeit non-combat) often felt that way. There's nothing "good", per se, about fine young men (and now women, too) being maimed and slaughtered for their country -- just sometimes, it's a sad necessity, to defend some greater good. And many wars don't even have that much excuse -- they're about stupid abstractions like national pride, or just being afraid of Them.
Canadian folk-singer Bruce Cockburn penned the following, which I have to believe is a deliberate reply to McRae's last stanza:
God damn the hands of glory
that hold the bloody fire-brand high.
Close the book, and end the story
of how so many men have died.
Let the world retain in memory
that mighty tongues tell mighty lies.
And if mankind must have an enemy
let it be his warlike pride.
Let it be his warlike pride.
-- Bruce Cockburn "Going Down Slow"
While I'm still dabbing the lingering tears, I'd like to recommend a great Daily Kos diary about the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WWI, Remembering Canada: The First World War.
If only we would stick to defending our nation and our friends, our vets would truly have honorable task.
signed, a vet.
Thank you for sharing that. I thought you may like to read this: http://www.guyrandalladams.com/vet.html
Debra...
Steve
The McCrae poem is also regularly read at ANZAC day services in Australia and New Zealand. I had actually thought the poem was English until now.
Posted way, way too late, but nevertheless... the best song I've ever heard about WWI. It's best to hear it sung (I first heard the great June Tabor do it), but it works as a spoken poem, too:
Well how do you do, Private William McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side
And I'll rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen back in 1916
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene
Did they beat the drum slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did the rifles fire o'er you
As they lowered you down?
Did the bugles play the Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers o' the Forrest?
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart does your memory enshrine
And though you died back in 1916
In some faithful heart are you forever 19
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enshrined forever behind the glass pane
Of an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame
The sun's shining now on these green fields of France
The warm winds blow gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished under the plough
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in the graveyard it's still No-Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To Man's blind indifference to his fellow-man
To a whole generation who were butchered and damned
And I can't help but wonder now William McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
Did you really believe that this war would end wars
Well the suffering and the sorrow and the glory, the shame
The killing the dying, it was all done in vain
For Willie McBride, it all happened again
And again, and again and again and again.
In Poland the 11th of November is actually a happy holiday, since the end of WWI was the beginning of Poland's reconstitution as a sovereign state. Hence the attitude towards the day is somewhat different than in those poems above.