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what does the below have to do with the topic ? and haven't we read this
verbatum before ?
maree
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2000 4:18 AM
Subject: Re: {W&P} The Australian Ballot
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>
> 20th century, a century of war
>
>
> George Anthony remembers the victims of a profitable business
>
> It is either morbidity or subdued anger, but the slaughter of the First
World
> War, with its 350 miles of trenches, from the Belgian coast to the Swiss
> border, has always had a fascination for me. Early on, the reading of
"Lions
> led by Donkeys", "In Flanders fields", "Goodbye to all that", "First day
of
> the Somme", seeing the play and then the film, "Oh, what a lovely war",
> visiting the Imperial war museum, and the first four lines of the Wilfred
> Owen poem, "Anthem for Doomed Youth",
> "What passing-bells for
> these who die as cattle?
> Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
> Only the stuttering rifles` rapid rattle,
> Can patter out their hasty orisons",
> has fed this fascination for years. And the Cenotaph in Whitehall with the
> Armistice commemoration there; for the establishment to shed crocodile
tears,
> every November 11th, has kept it in my mind and everybody else's since
that
> war ended 82 years ago.
> I suppose it was the sheer size and apparent senselessness of it that is
so
> overwhelming, even though it was so long ago. Perhaps that's why it is
still
> referred to as the Great War. A.J.P. Taylor, in one of his BBC television
> lectures, described it as war of attrition, saying, "That providing the
> French and British lost three and the Germans lost two, the Allies would
> win." No bows and arrows here, as at Crecy, Agincourt, and the Little Big
> Horn. No Waterloo, engaging a mere 140,000 professional soldiery, for only
> one day, leaving 62,000 dead. But a monstrous engagement, killing millions
in
> no time at all.
> There have been war's since of course, indeed the 20th century's main
feature
> has been war on a frequent and huge scale, fought with ever increasing
> inhumanity with ever increasingly sophisticated weapons.
> Beginning the century with the Boer War, followed by the Russo/Japanese
war,
> the Gulf war, the French Indo-China war, the Russian Civil war, the 14
> countries war of intervention against the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil
> war, the Mexican civil war, the Spanish/American Cuba war, the Liberia
civil
> war, the Yemeni war, the Guatemalan war, the Nicaraguan war, the El
> Salvadoran war, the British Malayan war, the Kenya Mau Mau war, the
Vietnam
> war, the Six Day Israeli/Egypt war, the Nagorno/Karabakh war, the
> Bougainville/Papua New Guinea war, the Burma civil war, the Khmer
> Rouge/Cambodia war, the Angola/Unita war, the Nigerian/Biafra war, the
> N.A.T.O. bombing of Serbia, the Afghanistan wars, the Falklands war, the
> Sudan war, the Ethiopia/Eritrea war, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria,
the
> Chinese Red Army/Kuomintang war, the Sino/India war, the Rwanda/Burundi
civil
> war, the East Timor war of liberation, the Georgian civil war, the Guinea
> Bissau civil war, the Israel attack on South Lebanon, the Kashmir war of
> liberation, the Kosovo civil war, the Iran/Iraq war, the Chechnya civil
war,
> the Tajikistan civil war, the Turkish war against the Kurds, the Uganda
civil
> war, the Moluccas war of liberation, the Comoros civil war, the Turkish
> invasion of Cyprus, the Colombia liberation war, the Zapatista/Mexico
> liberation war, the Western Sahara liberation war, the Sierra Leone civil
> war, the Somalia civil war, the Sri Lanka/Tamil civil war and the Congo
war,
> making 56 qualifying as war. With another 26 "nascent international armed
> conflicts", have in their different ways, demonstrated the Clausewitz
dictum
> that "war is politics by other means". Attempts at conquest by one
military
> power over another to maintain its hegemony, instead of by diplomacy and
> political struggle.
> Young men and women, still see war as an adventure, but not on the scale
of
> 1914. Even then they had to be lied to, either that it would be all over
by
> Christmas or, "Gott mitt Uns". Working conditions, long hours and
miserable
> pay, with appeals to patriotism and defence of country, prompted millions
> between 1914 and 1918 to join up for King, Kaiser and "La Patria".
> Even though, subsequently, there was something of a sea change in world
> mentality, the Russian October revolution, the Kiel naval mutiny, their
own
> artillery shooting French mutineers and demob mutinies here at home, has
not
> endured as long as the system which creates war. It did end the age of
> innocence they say, and did radicalise the international working class for
a
> while. But within a mere 21 years, it engulfed even more countries, and
still
> more millions died. And still the concept of war continues to dominate
into
> the 21st century, with more countries with ever ready nuclear weapons, and
> the European Strike Force, allegedly part of the Maastricht Treaty, being
> installed by Blair`s Labour. Obsessed, among other killing machines, with
> Trident.
> Such thoughts rushed through my mind as I searched the War Graves
Commission
> web site for two uncles, who joined the army with no intention of entering
> the ranks of the "glorious dead." I found paternal uncle and namesake,
> Private George Anthony, resident of Stoke Newington and poulterers
assistant
> at Smithfield Market, killed at the age of 19 years on either September
25th
> or 29th 1918, at the battle of Villers-Guislain, near Cambrai. And
maternal
> uncle, Gunner Freddie Fooks, resident of Clapton and plumbers mate who
> expired at the Falaise gap in Normandy, on August 15th 1944, aged 33
years.
> I shed tears for these two young men, they probably had no idea what they
> were fighting for. But I also had a feeling of great anger; that they,
like
> millions of others died in a slaughter of innocents. And still Capital,
the
> creator of wars, survives. As the man said, "War is terrible, but it's
also
> terribly profitable."?
>
>
>
>
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