SO YOU WANT to GO to WAR?
____ Fine, But First Try To Answer These Questions
How does it feel to be cut in half
_____ by a sudden burst of machine gun bullets?
What does it feel like at the precise moment
_____ when a bullet enters your eye, and pierces your brain?
Can you imagine having your lower jaw smashed by bullets
_____ and then see its bloody, splintered fragments
__________ drop to the ground ?
What is it like to take a direct hit to the skull?
_____ Would you know that you were dead?
What sensations must a person feel
_____ as his body is being consumed by fire?
What might be the thoughts of someone
_____ just thrown to the ground and kicked,
__________ whose hands have been tied behind his back,
who then gets chained by his heels
_____ to the rear end of a vehicle
__________ about to drag his still-healthy, still-unbroken
_______________ young body over stones, gravel,
____________________ dirt and thorny stubble?
How does it feel to have the flesh ripped off your cheeks?
_____ To have all the flesh on your hands torn off
__________ exposing bones and tendons?
How does it feel to have grit and gravel
_____ embed themselves in your eyes?
How does it feel to be torn
_____ limb from limb by a jeering mob?
Exactly how does it feel to have your head
_____ stomped to jelly by hobnailed boots?
Or your genitalia ripped out by the roots
_____ and stuffed into your screaming mouth?
How does it feel to be smart enough to realize
_____ you are suffering and dying for the sole purpose
__________ of lining the pockets of international bankers,
_______________ global industrialists and the suppliers
____________________ of war materiel with gold?
Exactly how would you react to being held down
_____ and having your teeth kicked down your throat,
__________ your eyes gouged out,
_______________ your ears and your nose sliced off,
____________________ or a glass rod inserted in your urethra
_________________________ and then smashed to pulver?
How would you feel when you are forced to eat
_____ ground glass or drink hydrochloric acid?
How would you feel if you were sodomized by barbarians
_____ then buried up to your neck in sand
__________ and systematically stoned and kicked to death?
How does it feel to be held down and deliberately blinded by acid?
How does it feel to be maimed by “Friendly Fire?
How does it feel to be flayed alive
_____ and then slowly cut to ribands?
How does it feel to forced to kneel before your captors,
_____ hands tied behind your back
__________ while you wait to have your head hacked off
_______________ by a hand held knife?
How? How? How?
But much more important is
WHY?
__________ WHY?
____________________ WHY?
FreeThinke
How, when we need to ask questions like this now more than ever, could we imagine even for a moment we have no need for the healing power and redeeming grace of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?
When the kids at my old restaurant would go off to the military, I used to warn them about all this. Now I have a nephew in the Marines and it's just eating at me. We imagine we're invulnerable superheros when we're kids, which is what makes all those horrific descriptions even worse. Imagine a kid, 18, 19, 20 years old, being "cut in half by a sudden burst of machine gun bullets?" Imagine the shock as all of life's wisdom suddenly must hit this young, inexperienced, innocent soul, torn in half on ground?
ReplyDeleteI think war's should only be fought by people over 40. Then there'd be no wars, because people that age know better.
JMJ
Sportin*Life said
DeleteButchoo assume dat only "war proffitiers" are evil.
I's here to tell ya dat It ain't necessarily so.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLOL! I'm visualizing this... We'd get a half-hour into it, then we'd all take a cigarette break.
DeleteWhen I was in my mid-thirties, I was playing for my company basketball team, and I suffered a steal from this kid, right under the net, and was pissed, so I ran full court to make sure this young s.o.b. didn't score for it, beat him to the point, he faded, passed, and the other guy scored. I then went to get back in position, and my legs suddenly just felt like lead. It was like one of those dream where you just can't get your legs to move. Just hit me out of nowhere. It wasn't cramps, it was dehydration, it was just muscle exhaustion. I slowly walked off. Sat down. Felt better after about 5 minutes, but then it hit me. I couldn't do this anymore. It was my last game, with a team anyway. I was playing with a little group of neighborhood kids (big, strong teenagers then) until about 6-7 years ago, but I was more there to coach them than to actually play. We enjoyed each other's company, and they listened to me (it's easier when you're not a parent!). They're all doing splendidly now, by the way!
On the other hand, both my "little" brothers are well into their forties and one still plays ball regularly and very well and exercises, and the other is a fitness trainer and heavy weight lifter. And in the restaurant where I worked for many years until very recently, I still ran circles around all the kids! But my brothers and I are kinda macho that way. Yet none of us are the least bit mean, angry, jingoish or miltaristic in our thinking. We put bugs in jars and set them free outside. We're gentle people.
Do you remember the Monty Python sketches were they'd have these old-lady drama clubs reenact great battles of the world wars? They'd all come running into each other in drag and flailing their purses and wrestling around on the beach in Normandy!
The great yet heartbreaking thing about being an adult is that you get to see the tragic silliness of it all. If suddenly all people decided that no war should fought by people under 40, I really believe there'd be no more wars. We'd find another way.
JMJ
What happened to Dave's comment?
DeleteJMJ
Sorry, Dave, but you failed to acknowledge the poem, which IS the substance of this post. It was not put here to be a springboard from which you –– or anyone else –– could launch barbed criticisms based on your cherished political pet peeves.
DeleteWe do allow serious disagreement here, but the reiteration of tired leftist mantras, shibboleths and too-oft-heard clichés is unwelcome and will not be tolerated.
The answer to your concern, Jersey old boy, lies just below your question and above this response.
DeleteBy the way, Jersey, I'd appreciate it very much if you would NOT respond to stray comments you KNOW to be off-topic and likely offensive to me.
DeleteMiller was NOT responding the poem, he was simply trying to USE it as a platform on which to ride one of his favorite little hobby horses –– ANYTHING to get a dig or two into "The Rich" and "Powerful Corporatists" whom he wants to see as categorically Evil –– an ancient, threadbare, empty, Class Warfare meme adored by Marxian Agitators the wide world o'er for more than a century.
Thanks, buddy.
Olivia Lawrence said
ReplyDeleteEloquent, FreeThinke. Very sobering. Ought to be published on the front page of every newspaper. Somehow, we've got to stop the madness.
Thank you, kindly.
DeleteTanker Ray Magee said
ReplyDeleteYeah.Yeah. Okay. Fine. I get the message, but what are we going to do with North Korea, Iran and other hot spots that threaten the peace of the world? Do you just want to wait until they nuke one of our cities? And then what?
You don't read this blog much, do you?
DeleteJMJ
That fellow asked a very reasonable question, Jersey, one for which I'm still struggling to find a good answer.
DeleteBut thank you for your apparent support. I admit to being a partisan, but I take offense at being labled a bigot – at least in the sense most people today ascribe to the word.
In a sense anyone who has firm unwavering convictions about anything could rightfully be called a bigot.It's not always totally negative.
I hear you. It's like that old paradox, if you hate hatred than you are a bigot. Of course, it's a false choice. If someone has a bias against you, for example, but never manifests it in any way, would you hate him, even if you knew? The Golden Rule can sort of work in the opposite way, as well. What if you hate yourself?
DeleteSo yes, it's easy to call anyone a bigot. But to call you a peacenik is just drooling idiocy!
JMJ
I'm not sure I undersgtand what yu're driving at, Jersey, so I'll refrain from further comment –– for the time being.
DeleteTanker Ray Magee said
DeleteWhy didn't you answer my question, Jersey? Quit tryng to avoid it with a sideshow.
Me? I didn't know it was directed at me. I thought you were asking FT?
Delete"I get the message, but what are we going to do with North Korea, Iran and other hot spots that threaten the peace of the world? Do you just want to wait until they nuke one of our cities? And then what?"
You are asking what to do about the DPRK, Iran and "other hot spots," and if the attack us with nuclear weapons?
Well, if they start lobbying nuclear missiles around I can tell you what would happen, and it wouldn't be very pleasant. Whatever nation lobs that first missile won't exist much longer afterward!
In the meantime, what to do about these nations is another matter. If I had the answer, I'd be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, the Congressional Medal of Freedom, the Legion of Honour, the George Cross, and an honorary membership in MENSA right now.
In the end, China must deal with the fat little monster it created next door. From everything I've read on the subject, that is eventually what will happen. I've even read some reports from China that they would stand back and let the DPRK gov't fall to an outside attack as the excuse they need to move the Chinese army in there and establish order.
Iran is another matter. Let alone Pakistan, which is one quite foreseeable revolution away from becoming a Islamist Theocracy with a large nuclear arsenal. Then India would have to act, and so forth and so on... unpleasantness all around. With Iran, all I can see is continued problems and hostilities until the people (and the military) can rise up and bring secular democracy. In the meantime? Who knows? More sanctions? Getting Russia to stop playing footsies with the Mullahs? I don't know.
JMJ
If your poem would give pause to one individual that will surely be included in the recruitment to fulfil the visions of these trump-Globalists that seem to have emerged from the woodwork, you'd have done a great service.
ReplyDeleteI hate to see such militarism based upon a BIG LIE as the Syrian bombing was. It seems to have confirmed that Donald Trump was NOT what he presented himself to be during the election campaign.
Hi, Waylon.
DeleteIf I deformatted it, and laid it out in prose, it might draw more positive attention. There's smething about seeing words in VERSE that makes too many want to SKIP over it, or move to another blog. VERSE seems to confound too many, because they're not used to seeing it, and it seems "challenging," I supose.
I doubt if they're teaching poetry in the public schools anymore, –– or if they are they're probably dwelling on crap like Allen Ginsberg's Howl ––, or any other viciously subversive, morbidly iconocastic trash they can find to poison young minds in furtherung the Leftist Agenda.
But what draws you to the conclusion that the motivation for our recent attack in that Syrian airbase was motivated by a Big Lie?
Don't you believe that the Middle East is in turmoil, and that deadly forces in conflict with each other have taken full possession of the region?
I might agree that there are plenty of other hot spots in the world where atrocities are committed every day to which we pay little or no attention, but do you not believe that Assad –– or SOMEBODY over there –– subjected thousands of civilians to poison gas attacks that left men, women, children and the aged dying hideously painful protracted forms of death?
I have ALWAYS been cncerned that Donald Trump MIGHT not turn out to be what we fervently HOPED he was, but even though the sudden insertion of Ivana Trump and her husband Jared Kushner into the highest sphere of influence at the White House DOES raise my hackles a bit, I'm still not ready to give up in our new president just yet.
But what draws you to the conclusion that the motivation for our recent attack in that Syrian airbase was motivated by a Big Lie?
Delete________
Definitive proof has not been provided that shows the response was the moral and right response. It should be apparent from the actions of the media that it was a way of concluding the long ago desire to remove Bashar Assad.
We have already seen too much evidence of American involvement in these countries. None are better off than before. Neither is America. The same long term agenda remains in place.
The Middle East was obviously chosen for several reasons, including the biblical aspects of it allowing those so inclined to feel the rapture, I guess.
I believe we've seen this story before about Assad committing atrocities against his own people. The people that happened to be on the ground when the latest attack occurred just happened to be an American NGO, and they've been involved in other acts portraying the Assad government in manufactured-media-ready propaganda against Assad.
I believe that his actions in Syria show that he was not genuine in his rhetoric previously about letting Syria sort out its problems itself.
Since this comment is only obliquely related to this post, I will post it anyway since it involves Jared Kutcher, who some say has become the new President with the recent actions by Donald Trump.
ReplyDeleteApparently Kushner is having some trouble arranging some financing for his real development project at 666 Fifth Avenue in NYC. Sounds a bit ominous.
If Kushner is a member of the Chabad Lubavitchers it may well be more than a bit disconcerting as they have a tendency to ingratiate themselves as close as possible to the upper echelons of political power in countries in which they reside. Just as Kushner has done.
The BIG DEAL here, though is the nickname which some wit has hung on Kushner's project: The Devil's Dildo.
https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/23/zaha-hadid-architects-666-fifth-avenue-skyscraper-compared-glass-dildo-architecture-offices/
I have not looked into the link yet, Waylon, but I share your concerns about Mr. Kushner for probably many of the same reasons you imply.
DeleteNaturally, I hope I am wrong, but ...
Again with the Jews! Oy Vey...
DeleteAre you trying to "start something," Schlomo?
DeleteDon't try to play the Victim Card around here. You WON'T get away with it. The tactic is worn out, –– overplayed, –– overworked, –– beyond tiresome, –– and destined to bite those who continue to try it RIGHT in the BUTT –– HARD.
THIS happens to be the place were POLITICAL CORRECTNESS DIES –– we won't put up with it, and won't deal with those who embrace it –– PERIOD!
So, go peddle your papers elsewhere,
I didn't think Trump would do a U-turn and become just another apparent globalist. It's almost like he's become HRC and doing what we expected her to do.
DeleteMaybe there really is only one political party and it doesn't matter who gets elected. They continue doing what the previous regime had done. That looks like the exact result of the last three or four elections.
Anyway, I sort of enjoy the irony of Kushner holding a property with a demonic address. Why would that not have been something that would have occurred to him before he bought it? Maybe he is beneath it all a closeted member of the Synagogue of Satan. Maybe he was planning on operating a branch office at 666 Fifth Avenue.
I do love the name: The Devil's Dildo, though.
I'm much more disturbed by your assertion in another thread that young Mr. Kushner has been taking money from GEORGE SOROS –– el Diablo, himself.
Delete666 Fifth Avenue has always been known as The Tishman building or "The Top of the Sixes" to us New Yorkers.
WIKI says: 666 Fifth Avenue is a 41-story office building on Fifth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[1] The building was initially built in 1957 by Tishman Realty and Construction, which sold the building when it dissolved in 1976. 666 Fifth Avenue was bought by Sumitomo Realty & Development in the late 1990s, and Tishman Speyer bought it back in 2000, adding tenants before selling it yet again to Kushner Properties in 2007. Plans for the repurposing of the original building, designed by the late British architect Zaha Hadid prior to her death in 2016, were announced in 2017.
The Omen –– the movie that brought the evil significance of 555 to the public's attention was not released until 1976, so any associatin with "The Top of the Sixes" aka The Tishman Building must have been purely cijncidental –– unless you truly BELIEVE that any use of the number 666 is inherently evil.
I more enjoy the irony of it. The President's "Right Hand Man", so to speak, wouldn't consider the ominous potential problems of the address and the numbers.
DeleteMaybe nowadays people are more tuned in to the demonic or satanic aspects of a lurking evil that seems to be lurking only slightly below the surface today. That is likely with the able assistance of Hollywood and today's pop culture which seems to revel in it.
I don't recall the movie, The Omen, having anything to do with that building. Didn't it take place in England?
DeleteYes, but it was the numbers SIX SIX SIX that appeared in little Damian's scalp that were supposed to prove the little boy had The Mark of Satan upon him and was in fact the Devil OWN Child born to destroy the world –– i.e. The Antichrist.
DeleteI tend to dismiss all such theorizing as superstitious nonsense, but considering the way things have been going for the past fifty-odd years, I can't help but wonder ...
After all it has often been said that Satan's Greatest Accomplishment to Date has been to Convince Most of the World that He Doesn't Exist!
Quite graphic, but most of us have to face more mundane concerns going to and coming back from war.
ReplyDeleteHow does it feel to have recurring nightmares you can't get rid of?
How does it feel...
to face panic attacks in public that can only be put at bay by having your trusty service dog by your side
to have your marriage destroyed, either because your spouse couldn't take it, or because of your scary behavior?
to try to make it through life with TBI, or missing limbs?
to have horrible images of death and carnage burnished upon your consciousness forever?
to see your friend die?
to carry with you forever the burden of having killed another human being?
* * *
There is no such thing as a humane war. War leaves many scars in many different ways. It leaves veterans physically and mentally wounded, often for the rest of their lives.
It snatches away moms and dads from children; it leave holes in lives that can never be filled.
War wrecks families.
War takes happy, healthy functioning human beings away from families, friends and communities, and returns coffins, sadness, mental illness, and broken relationships.
Our f***ing government and the corporate interests it serves has forgotten this. Our f***ing government hasn't won a war in 72 years.
I am not anti-government, I enjoy what corporations bring to us, and I am not iron-clad anti-war.
Sometimes wars need to be fought... Like when our very existence or the existence of close allies are threatened. We have not had such a circumstance since WWII.
I am becoming very angry as I type this, so I'll back off. Our government has wasted hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars on stupid wars that accomplished nothing other than visiting death, destruction and misery on the poor people caught in the middle.
The summer soldiers, armchair generals and chickenhawks love beating the war drums... but they don't go join up, do they?
A logical inference to draw from everything the poem implied, perhaps.
DeleteHowever, if enough people read and fully digested the poem, it might help future generations "Just Say No" to further participation in any more of these tragic, farcical, cynically motivated military misadventures.
I think we both know that from Korea on ALL these "conflicts" serve ne purpose primarily. I pinpointed it in the following line:
How does it feel to be smart enough to realize
_____ you are suffering and dying for the sole purpose
__________ of lining the pockets of international bankers,
_______________ global industrialists and the suppliers
____________________ of war materiel with gold?
FT, I'm beginning to wonder if NO is not an answer in this ongoing globalist agenda. I believe that there are many people as individuals that do see through this fraudulent scheme to move us to the ultimate Orwellian form of technocratic control.
DeleteBut I'm questioning why political opposition seems to evaporate when the politician is elected.
A SUPERB question, Waylon. Alas! I have no ready answer for you.
DeleteImonda Rampage said
DeleteSo war is a nasty thing, huh? Whodathunket?
Next time tell us something we don't already know why dontcha?
Quite melodic piece of poesy finery! Very horrible yes?
ReplyDeleteQUITE!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHeres one for ALL you Libs who love to quote Polls!
ReplyDeleteThe Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance.
I guess that Trump got a big Bump because he did what Barry refused to do - enforce Barry's “Red Line”.
If you're still confused, ask Mommy, I’m sure that she’ll be glad to explain it to you with words you can understand.
TOM, why bring this up here and now, since it has nothing to do with the anti-war poem I poasted?
DeleteI'm sorry, but you –– and a whole lot of others –– are going to HAVE to learn to address the TOPIC of the POST if you expect me to permit your comments to remain.
How many times do I have to say this? It's a perfectly reasonable policy.
I do NOT want this blog to be treated as a Free-For-All.
It Seams That the Harder the Left Works to Destroy the Trump Family, the More Successful They Become... ....
ReplyDeleteIvanka Trump's Clothing Sales Increased In 2016 | The Huffington Post
Perhaps Ivanka Trump didn’t need that glowing endorsement from Kellyanne Conway to help boost profits.
Trump’s businesses are mentioned virtually every time she is, and those mentions came fast and furious over the past year she helped her father become president. There were also headlines over boycotts of Trump products, stores that dropped her lines, accusations of copying designs, retweets from the official White House Twitter account and the hypocrisy of importing goods made in China as her father insisted he’d rebuild the country with American labor.
It all combined for a hefty increase in sales in 2016.
G-III Apparel Group, Ltd., which licenses Trump’s clothing collection (her shoe line is licensed through Marc Fisher), reported a “$17.9 million increase in net sales of Ivanka Trump licensed products” for the year ending January 31.
Ivanka Trump’s Clothing Line soars to New Highs.
Ivanka Trump’s signature perfume soars to No. 1 on Amazon
Looks, to me like the boycotts are helping her sales. lol
Maybe Hillary wants a new re-count!
TOM, but why bring this up here and now, since it bears no releatiin to the anti-war poem I poasted?
DeleteI'm sorry, but you –– and a whole lot of others –– are going to HAVE to learn to address the TOPIC of the POST if you expect me to permit your comments to remain.
How many times do I have to say this? It's a perfectly reasonable policy.
I do NOT want this blog to be treated as a Free-For-All.
A lot of people assume conservatives are anti-people and would automatically side with United Airlines in the case of the man forcefully dragged off the plane because they oversold their seating capacity. That's simply not true of true conservatives. We are pro human rights and pro free-market. And the free market has correctly assessed the video below as abhorrent and unacceptable..
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the goons who were sent in to remove the Doctor, they're suppose to be there to keep the peace, not act as goons for the airlines.
Furthermore, how United has handled the situation both the process before the incident which caused these conditions and afterwards with a practical endorsement of these actions and subsequent forced apology, have shone a light on where the opportunity exists in this situation. Talk about Hitler and Nazi’s, these United Airline police looked like a bunch of Nazi Brown Shirts, not American’ Police at all. United Airlines has an image of terrible customer service (not confined to this incident alone). There is an opportunity for another airline, new or existing to step in and fill the void of quality customer service in air travel. United Airlines will feel the consequences of this, as it is a situation where a boycott might just be justified. Air travel requirements however, do not disappear. Travellers will still need transport. A smart company will see the opportunity and respond by improving their own customer service to be demonstrably different - not from United, but from all other carriers who haven't done this. An airline that does this in a noticeable way will be rewarded with more customers.
United Airlines needs to go out of business! I could run this company better than these bozo's have been doing.
In most cases when someone is physically removed from a flight it is because the passenger is acting like a moron and everyone cheers when he or she is led off the plane
In most cases when someone is physically removed from a flight it is because the passenger is acting like a moron and everyone cheers when he or she is led off the plane
This guy had a legitimate reason why he needed to be on the flight. To go goon squad on him while he is arguing for his seat is inexcusable
This guy had a legitimate reason why he needed to be on the flight. To go goon squad on him while he is arguing for his seat is inexcusable
This also should have been done at hr gate, prior to letting people board. Once you are in your seat I can just imagine the indignation one would feel being told "get off to let someone else on.
Will, this imay be interesting, but it is NOT relevant to the anti-war poem, which IS the subject of THIS post.
DeleteWhy don't you start your OWN blog, so you can choose topics that interest YOU?
I'd be happy to visit, if you did.
Please do not bring irrelevant subjects that bear no relation to the topic of the post –– in this case anti-war poem I poasted?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but EVERYONE is going to HAVE to learn to address the TOPIC of the POST if you expect me to permit your comments to remain.
How many times do I have to say this? It's a perfectly reasonable policy.
I do NOT want this blog to be treated as a Free-For-All.
PLEASE COOPERATE. THANK YOU.
Late Breaking News!
ReplyDelete'MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS'
US drops massive bomb in Afghanistan
US bomb dropped on Afghanistan, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the Air Force's arsenal, targeted ISIS tunnel complex in Nangarhar province, US Central Command reports. (Fox)
Well, the Dye is Cast, the Fat's in the Fire, and the Fit Hit the Shan all at once, didn't it?
IZZIT GOOD, or IZZIT BAD? DO TELL.
The target was ISIS tunnels and personnelThe US military dropped America's most powerful non-nuclear bomb on ISIS targets in Afghanistan Thursday, the first time this type of weapon has been used in battle, according to US officials.
DeleteA GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," was dropped at 7:32 pm local time, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission. A MOAB is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition.
In however many thousands of years of human history have passed, mankind hasn't yet found a better way than to go to war when (1) an impasse in negotiations has been reached or (2) when one group is in grave danger of being overrun by an aggressive group -- even if the group about to be overrun wants peace.
ReplyDeleteSimply put, peace isn't always possible. Both sides have to want peace, but history teaches us that often neither side wants peace.
Isn't it a pity that the political leaders (and others) who clamor for war haven't been on the battlefield themselves so as to witness firsthand the gory imagery of the poem in the body of this blog post? I have found among my friends that those of my friends who served on the front lines of the battlefield are the first to say, "Before we dash into another war, all peaceful avenues should be tried."
Say what you will about the man - he has delivered on everything he has promised. Including the most far-fetched of his promises: that he would win so much we would get tired of winning.
ReplyDeleteNot only has he delivered a solid cabinet, an exceptional Supreme Court justice, the revival of the Keystone Pipeline, the repeal of devastating regulations on small business, the abandonment of the TPP, the fiscal responsibility of the hiring freeze, and sound national security policies - but he's also changing the hearts and minds of the limousine liberals of Hollywood. When the most bizarre and irrational liberals start rooting for you while you have an "R" behind your name - you know you are winning.
Shouldn't you at least IDENTIFY by NAME the person of whom you are talking?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete