A simple and honest statement.

[sabrinaseyes]

I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war

Comments

[anonymous]

Little did Siegfried realize that he was taking part in one of the most significant events in modern history. Without the political blunders of WWI, there would have been no reason to have WWII. Without WWII, the current generation of living humans would most likely not have seen men walk on the moon (the saturn V rocket was invented by a captured nazi scientist).In fact, most modern aviation technology can be traced directly to roots in German wartime aeronautical research. Without WWII, most free-thinking humans would not have witnessed the birth and death of much of the world's socialism and communism within their own lifetimes.

The prosperity brought on by the post WWII economic boom would not have been realized. Much of the technological innovation, brought about by wartime technological research, would have been stifled and slowed due to less urgent need for superior weaponry. Computer development, conceptualized and accelerated during WWII for the purpose of producing superior weapons targeting systems, would have presumably lagged for years otherwise. You'd be watching Mr. Rogers instead of typing on Live Journal.

Perhaps most importantly, if not for the post WWII baby boom, a HUGE percentage of the current batch of whining liberal 20-somethings as well as their parents would not even exist because they would never have been conceived.

War is hell. However, without it, ponder your own existence.

[mycastlesblue]

Since when is the technological advancement of the human race a reason or excuse for war? Remind me at what point the value of a single human soul ceased to greatly outweigh that of our material possessions? The dehumanization of men put through war is never to be overlooked. Surely these brave men didn't pay with their sweat, blood, and sanity so that we could be discussing it like this in a medium as "advanced" as livejournal. Who wouldn't give up these technological "byproducts" of war if it would mean that countless men wouldn't have to have been broken on the battlefield? How dare you try to equate the value of our "technological innovations" to the plight of a generation. I'm forever grateful for my own existence, but it's defined by the ideals fought for and achieved in the past rather than the "gadgets" obtained through scientific advancement.

[anonymous]

You seem to have missed the larger point. I'll try again without the fluff. We could debate the "rightness" or "wrongness" of war from a philosophical standpoint till we're blue in the face. Yet no one can deny the profound changes war has brought to the political, social, cultural, economic, and technological existence of mankind since the first two cavemen threw rocks at each other(or was it Cain and Able?).

[sabrinaseyes]

I understand that good things come out of bad circumstances. That is pretty much something that I've always been told. Looking at World War I, the main cause of artistic, musical, and literary development was due to the disillusionment people felt after World War I. So I suppose I should be grateful. Look at the entire Lost Generation- such Fitzgerald and his colleagues- and the rise of new artistic movements such as Dadaism and in architecture,the Bauhaus school. This was the start of the literary Modernism movement. People were definitely thinking outside the box.

However, after World War II, in a desperate attempt to regain "normality" there was a move to going back to the way things were. Suddenly, the Beaver Cleaver existence is born. There is a huge push for people to have families and for women to stay at home and take care of their home and children with the latest cleaning conveniences all with a smile on their faces and dinner on the table when hubby got home. Obviously, things didn't work out too well with this kind of restricted thinking. "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" was written, the Beat poets began to be heard, folk music spread and the 60s made for an entire new way of thinking again.

Though I've probably gotten far away from my point during my ramblings, the point is this: stuff comes from stuff. I found Sassoon's statement to be strikingly relevant to the events now occurring. I understand that to all wars there will always be dissenters, no matter what the cause, as I am a dissenter of the war we are now in.

I completely agree with World War II. It was a just cause to fight for and good things came out of it (as good things come out of everything). Plus, there's another upside. If events had been different, my grandparents would never have moved to America from Germany, my parents would have never met and had the wonderful person who is myself. So there is another super thing that came indirectly from World War II-- ME.