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Thursday, January 27, 2005

Tell Them, 'Because our Fathers Lied'

"The master class has always declared the wars;
the subject class has always fought the battles...."
- Eugene Debs

...Many years ago Rudyard Kipling wrote in his Epitaphs of the War:

'If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.'

At the same time, one of England's most promising poets of WWI, Wilfred Owen, wrote a famous anti-war poem. After presenting a series of ghastly images relating to the death of a soldier by mustard gas, Owen tells us that if we could witness such scenes, then

'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.'

For those of us without an Oxford education, the translation of the Latin is, "It is sweet and fitting that you should die for your country."

Powerful quotes, no?

Jack Clark 10:13 PM [+]   
Post #110689280445771856