100 years on...

[kallend 2,146]

Pretty sobering pictures:

www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/century/?google_editors_picks=true

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[turtlespeed 226]

kallend

Pretty sobering pictures:

www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/century/?google_editors_picks=true

Lots of ordinance.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[wmw999 2,586]

Every head of state should be required to walk through some of those places. Might make some of them consider their more bellicose intentions.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[turtlespeed 226]

wmw999

Every head of state should be required to walk through some of those places. Might make some of them consider their more bellicose intentions.

Wendy P.

Mmmm hmm.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[GeorgiaDon 379]

This should be required reading, for everyone but especially for those in a position to order troops into battle.

Don

DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
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 tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped 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.

_____________________________________
Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996)
“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

[CornishChris 5]

I went to Ypres a couple of years ago. The locals still play The Last Post and perform a small ceremony every evening in remembrance. I walked in original trenches an saw the broken ground from the shells, still scarred a hundred years on. Truly astonishing place and time. The respect for the losses is still palpable after all this time.

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

[kallend 2,146]

CornishChris

I went to Ypres a couple of years ago. The locals still play The Last Post and perform a small ceremony every evening in remembrance. I walked in original trenches an saw the broken ground from the shells, still scarred a hundred years on. Truly astonishing place and time. The respect for the losses is still palpable after all this time.

Back in 1973 I was with a small group that drove pretty much the entire length of the Western Front from the Channel to the Moselle. It was all grim, but Verdun was just unbelievably awful.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[grue 1]

wmw999

Every head of state should be required to walk through some of those places. Might make some of them consider their more bellicose intentions.

Wendy P.

I'd agree if I thought they were human enough for it to affect them.

We'll likely never know for sure, but I'd be fairly surprised if many (most?) politicians don't reek strongly of sociopathy or psychopathy.

cavete terrae.

[champu 1]

grue

***Every head of state should be required to walk through some of those places. Might make some of them consider their more bellicose intentions.

Wendy P.

I'd agree if I thought they were human enough for it to affect them.

We'll likely never know for sure, but I'd be fairly surprised if many (most?) politicians don't reek strongly of sociopathy or psychopathy.

Pockmarked terrain is a Rorschach test.

[rifleman 70]

An extract from the history of the first battalion I joined as a reservist, which saw service during WWI.

http://www.yorkshirevolunteers.org.uk/awardcroixdeguerre.htm

Atheism is a Non-Prophet Organisation