11 November 2009

 

Death and idealism

I have heard there was a time when some of the older veterans at today's Remembrance Day ceremonies thought there might be no more wars. They fought, and died, and killed, and saw the waste and destruction—and believed that perhaps the cost was too great. That nations and societies could decide to put the barbarism behind us.

There were young veterans at the ceremonies today, much younger than me, returned from Afghanistan and elsewhere. Sadly, I don't think they can share in that old idealism.

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# 2:11 PM

Comments:

"war to end all wars"
# posted by Anonymous Lloyd Budd : 11 November, 2009 14:56
 
Isn't it awful? They thought they had seen the end of war. And yet it keeps happening.

It must seem an awful mockery to the older veterans. Either that, or, for them, an exercise in hope.
# posted by Anonymous MonkeyPants : 12 November, 2009 00:11
 
knowledge of the past = death of naivety = cynicism
# posted by Blogger silverfox : 12 November, 2009 13:34
 
It is sad that there seems to be somethings the human race is incapable of not repeating.
# posted by Anonymous Derek Neighbors : 18 November, 2009 17:20