- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
I support this because all those white liberals who acted like war doesn’t effect them now get to die in a trench. On the other hand a lot of innocents will get caught up in this too, and the people starting the wars will be fine, so i’m not sure just how far i’m willing to go with that.
Eric Bogle - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=WG48Ftsr3OI
Now, when I was a young man, I carried my pack And I lived the free life of a rover From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over Then in 1915, my country said, "Son It's time you stop rambling, 'cause there's work to be done" So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun And they sent me away to the war And the band played Waltzing Matilda As the ship pulled away from the quay And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears We sailed off for Gallipoli How well I remember that terrible day How our blood stained the sand and the water And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter Johnny Turk, he was waiting, he primed himself well He showered us with bullets and he rained us with shell And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell Nearly blew us right back to Australia But the band played Waltzing Matilda When we stopped to bury the slain We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs Then we started all over again Now those who were left did their best to survive In that mad world of death, blood, and fire And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive While the corpses around me piled higher Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head And when I awoke in my hospital bed And saw what it had done - well, I wished I was dead Never knew there was worse things than dying For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda To the green bush far and free For to hang tent and pegs, a man needs both legs No more waltzing Matilda for me So they collected the crippled, the wounded, the maimed And they shipped us back home to Australia The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay I looked at the place where my legs used to be And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me To grieve, to mourn and to pity And the band played Waltzing Matilda As they carried us down the gangway But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared And they turned all their faces away And so now every April, I sit on my porch And I watch the parade pass before me I see my old comrades, how proudly they march Reliving old dreams of past glory And the old men march slowly, their bones stiff and sore The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?" And I ask myself the same question But the band plays Waltzing Matilda And the old men still answer the call But as year follows year, those old men disappear Someday no one will march there at all Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing matilda Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me And their ghosts may be heard As you pass by that billabong You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me.
Dulce et Decorum Est
By Wilfred Owen
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.— Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.```
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It’s time to “think the unthinkable” and consider introducing conscription to ready the country for a potential land war, Britain’s former top NATO commander has said.
General Sir Richard Sherriff, ex-deputy supreme allied commander of the military organisation, warned that the UK defence budget is not big enough to expand the armed forces alone.
“Britain’s armed forces have traditionally and culturally relied on long service volunteer highly professional soldiers with huge experience - and that is really the way we would all want it to go on.”
The head of the British Army said UK citizens should be “trained and equipped” to fight in a potential war between NATO and Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Major General Charlie Herbert, a military analyst who has served as a senior NATO adviser, said Sir Patrick was trying to “provoke a debate”, nationally and within government, about the size of the army and the defence budget.
“There’s a 1939 feel to the world right now,” senior Tory MP Tobias Ellwood told Sky News on Wednesday, warning conscription was a possibility.
The original article contains 1,120 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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