The War to End all Wars

[billcoe]

On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month 90 years ago WWI ended.

 

My Grandfather and namesake, William Coe, served as a Marine in the trenches of Belgium. Woodrow Wilson, the peace candidate, that low life lying sack of shit, that anyone has yet before or after determined a good reason for, choose to send US troops to the huge war and disaster already happening in Europe despite winning the Presidency on the pledge to keep us out of that very war. But my grandfather volunteered and did it thinking it was "The War to end all Wars" like it was pitched.

 

So unimaginable and unspeakable horror was his...by his own choice. But he suffered in silence and did this to keep his son, my dad, William Coe, living in a safer world.

 

It didn't work. A few short years later my dad also volunteered and chased the Germans all the way up the Rhine to Weisbaden somewhere. He never spoke a single word of this to his wife (my mother), who thought he was in England at an airbase and only learned of the march through Germany 40 some years after the fact as my father had passed away from recently found letters my dad sent home to his mother during the war.

 

Despite the lack of imagination that runs concurrency through my family, ie, I'm William Coe as well, I guess someone came up with a name and that's what everyone is named, why reinvent the wheel.....my dad and my grandfather learned that this country was worth our everything. That we have no options, we are here and we are in this together. We must do our best and be active engaged citizens. Every damn drop of blood and sweat that got us here, most of it was wasted and for what? But still, here we are. Is there anything more important than our freedom and our lives?

 

Tonight I'm going to stay up a bit later than normal, and I'm not a religious man, but at the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month and as a reminder that 90 years ago WWI ended, I'm saying a prayer. A prayer that Obama and his folks have the strength and the smarts and can guide us through these rough times ahead and keep my son and daughter safe. I want to remember again that what is most important isn't that we all get rich and have nice new GM SUVs to drive, but that our country and our children stay safe. I'll be praying that our leadership will do the right things to stay safe and secure and free (and I don't even know what that is). I'm doing this for me, for my family, for those like Mike and Scott who have put it out there, and for you.

 

I'd hope that you all take a moment tonight and reflect on what's truly important to you.

 

Take care all

[ivan]

"the first world war came and it went

the reason for fighting i never did get

but i learned to accept it, accept it w/ pride

and you don't count the dead when god's on your side"

 

as for the war to end all wars, i think plato had something astute to say about that.

 

done talked w/ my vet dad already 2day - my grandpa's gone - and my little bro for some reason couldn't get to the phone over in i-rack

Edited November 12, 2008 by ivan

[Bug]

Well said.

[ivan]

wasn't the 11th hour this here mornign though william?

[Mal_Con]

When I taught in Australia this poem was always considered the most appropriate on this occasion, it is by Wilfred Owen the "Poet of the Trenches" he was killed in action shortly before armistice day.

 

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

 

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.

 

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

 

DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country

[ivan]

nice - much better than "flanders fields" - i teach that one every year too, though not on v-day

[korup]

Wilfred Owen, poet laureate of the dark, stinking chemical apocalypse....

If only the "War to End All Wars" had been true... thanks Bill. I think it is safe to say that those wars were true, and in the benefit of all humankind.

[ivan]

I think it is safe to say that those wars were true, and in the benefit of all humankind.

huh?

 

you mean hitler was a humanitarian?

 

firebombing dresden and nuking hiroshima was for the benefit of all humankind?

 

hate to split hairs dude, but, while i'd agree that ww2 at least was necessary to fight, i see very little about it that was noble and a whole lot that is just fucking repulsive

[billcoe]

Mal con, one of my favorites too.

 

 

During this meditation last night, the huge amount of people, the millions upon millions that have died directly and indirectly weighed heavy upon my thinking. (estimated 25 million died from an influenza that most likely started in a British army kitchen in France) Is it fair for me and my brood to be safe at the expense of an Iranian fathers son, who loves his children as much as I?

 

No finality to this thinking...it's just out there.

[sobo]

as for the war to end all wars, i think plato had something astute to say about that.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

 

(for the benefit of those that don't know what Plato had to say about it)

[korup]

I should have been more specific; there sure as hell is nothing glorious or noble about anyone's conduct in any of those situations.

[bradleym]

when i was a teenager, growing up to be your typical moralistic, fire-breathing, jingoistic amurrican guy, mis-understanding Tennyson, etc., it was this poem and reading 'All Quiet...' that really turned me around. when i was in grad school I always ensured they were required reading, and i've observed the same transformation take place a few more times. it is a sad sort of gratification.

 

Last evening we were talking about the Great War, and I explained to my son (7yrs old, pretty fascinated by war like most little boys) that if Grandpa McClelland's ammunition wagon (he was the driver) had gotten too close to the wrong thing (he related some close scrapes to me when i was a boy) none of us would be here. My son's eyes went wide, and though it perhaps had only a temporary effect, it made him think for a few minutes.

 

Thanks all for sharing.