Groomed for the Glory of War




This morning one of our local National Public Radio stations had one of those  "'experts' talk and listeners call in" programmes about The Great War  (a.k.a. World War One).

 One caller spoke of his Scottish born great-uncle who had served in that blood bath.  The uncle served and survived the war, one of only three out of sixty three soldiers from his home town who returned home.

 The uncle spoke to his great nephew about his being a Boy Scout (before 1914) and his experience of the semi-militaristic drills the boys were put through, even as they carried wooden rifles.  

 "We were", said the old man" being groomed for the glory of war".

  "Beware" he said "of any culture which grooms its populace to believe that war is glory".

 The glory of War?   Not in that 1914-1918 festival of blood.

 And to hell with our current world leaders who lie, deceive,  and spend billions of our dollars/pounds/euros in the pursuit of vain glory;  even as precious human blood is sacrificed to the Altar of War all over this globe.

 Many of them will gather in Europe this Sunday  11th November 2018 to "commemorate" the Armistice of 11th November 1918.

 They will make pious speeches.  Their faces will be solemn. They will lament the blood of 1914-1918 even as their national economies depend on the artifacts of war.


 They will keep the obligatory two minute silence at 11:00 a.m. The Last Post will be sounded, even as  children will be killed for the glory of war all over the world.  

 If only these national and political leaders would spend sixty minutes on their knees, weeping in repentance for the horror and folly of war. 















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