Ardashir-I-Nama - And the Great War passes into recorded history
http://eric-hinkle.livejournal.com/383635.html
Eric quoted a poem in the comments to this page that is worth remembering:
The Ode of Remembrance
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Lest we forget.
From "For the Fallen," by Laurence Binyon, the whole of which is:
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
Lest we forget, dear Lord, lest we forget.
World War 1 was a horror. It began because of the very thing that was done to prevent it, a great interlocking mess of treaties among the Great Powers that obligated any nation to come to the aid of any of the other signatories to the treaties that was attacked by anyone. During that war, 9 million combatants were killed, and another 20 million people died afterwards due to the Great Influenza Epidemic that almost certainly began because of wartime transportation of men and materiel from the original source of the virus into numerous other areas. In the aftermath, Germany was beggared by French demands for reparations backed with American might, which set Germany up for eventual takeover by the Nazis, which led directly to World War 2. World War 2 in turn brought the Nuclear Age and the Cold War, and numerous smaller, brushfire wars followed in World War 2's train.
It can be argued that World War 1 kicked off a train of technological developments that ultimately led to the Space Age, the Information Age, and the World Wide Web, but it and the wars that followed it brought untold misery and mass death to the world, as well. Lest we forget, keep in mind that history, and salute the last of the men who had to fight in that terrible war, for their history gave rise to our history, and we must never forget what they and their comrades suffered therein.
Eric quoted a poem in the comments to this page that is worth remembering:
The Ode of Remembrance
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Lest we forget.
From "For the Fallen," by Laurence Binyon, the whole of which is:
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
Lest we forget, dear Lord, lest we forget.
World War 1 was a horror. It began because of the very thing that was done to prevent it, a great interlocking mess of treaties among the Great Powers that obligated any nation to come to the aid of any of the other signatories to the treaties that was attacked by anyone. During that war, 9 million combatants were killed, and another 20 million people died afterwards due to the Great Influenza Epidemic that almost certainly began because of wartime transportation of men and materiel from the original source of the virus into numerous other areas. In the aftermath, Germany was beggared by French demands for reparations backed with American might, which set Germany up for eventual takeover by the Nazis, which led directly to World War 2. World War 2 in turn brought the Nuclear Age and the Cold War, and numerous smaller, brushfire wars followed in World War 2's train.
It can be argued that World War 1 kicked off a train of technological developments that ultimately led to the Space Age, the Information Age, and the World Wide Web, but it and the wars that followed it brought untold misery and mass death to the world, as well. Lest we forget, keep in mind that history, and salute the last of the men who had to fight in that terrible war, for their history gave rise to our history, and we must never forget what they and their comrades suffered therein.