Mentioning Kipling yesterday reminded me of two of his Epitaphs of the War.
Common Form
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
A Dead Statesman
I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?
6 comments:
Thanks a lot for those words!
Really remarkable what Kipling wrote - war is such a stupid thing.
I never liked catholics - having Blair converting to that "faith" made me shiver ...
My versions (with apologies to Kipling):
Common Press Forum
If any question why we lied,
Tell them, because our children died.
////
A Dead Statesman
They could not dig: they dared not fob:
Therefore they lied to please the mob.
Now all their lies are proved untrue
And they must face the man they slew.
What tale shall serve them here among
Our angry and defrauded young?
Kipling's son was killed in WWI. How many front-benchers from any party had children serving in Iraq?
war is such a stupid thing. I never liked catholics
A lot of stupid wars have been fought by people who didn't like other people's religion.
@Lavengr: I think you got it wrong. Wars are usually started by people who HATE - that's someting completely different in my opinion. And BTW Catholics started a lot of wars - and they're still fighting against modern society, especially here in Germany ...
Wars are not usually started by people who hate. They are started for a perceived need for defence against a threat, or to gratify megalomania or, in not a few cases, by stupidity or accident.
Of course Catholics have started wars. Have I ever said otherwise? No I haven't. Nor would I wen there are still people living here in Spain who remember a particularly nasty one that was started by a bunch of Catholic military officers.
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