The "Romance" Of War

[Patrick Degan]

So here we have Chimpus Caesar, moral imbecile that he is, saying this a couple of weeks ago:

I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines helping this young democracy succeed...It must be exciting for you...in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks.

—George W. Bush, 2008

It seemed only apropos to present a rebuttal which could have been written explicitly for him from 95 years in the past:

This world is for ample living. We want security and freedom. All of us in every country, except a few dull-witted, energetic bores, want to see the manhood of the world at something better than apeing the little lead toys our children buy in boxes. We want fine things made for mankind; splendid cities, open ways, more knowledge and power, and more and more and more. And so I offer my game, for a particular as well as a general end. And let us put this prancing monarch and that silly scare-monger, and these excitable "patriots," and those adventurers, and all the practitioners of Welt Politik into one vast Temple of War, with cork carpets everywhere, and plenty of little trees and little houses to knock down, and cities and fortresses, and unlimited soldiers --- tons, cellars-full --- and let them lead their own lives there away from us.

—H.G. Wells, 1913

[Xisiqomelir]

Poetry > Prose

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 floundering 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.

[Sidewinder]

Bush's statements seem like a disservice to the friends and relatives of those who've died performing Operation Iraqi Freedom.

H. G. Well's statements, unfortunately, are hopelessly utopian. It would certainly be nice if everyone on Earth wanted security and freedom, but unfortunately, a LOT of people want to be bullies and beat/rape/kill "subhumans" for kicks. There is NO temple big enough to house all these sociopaths, unless you hollow out the Moon and use that as a prison.

[FSTargetDrone]

So here we have Chimpus Caesar, moral imbecile that he is, saying this a couple of weeks ago:

Yeah, I enjoyed his staggeringly thoughtless stream of barely conscious mumblings so much that I've been using it in my sig for a few weeks now.
I've been trying to find a suitable quote from another president who served in the military to counterpoint it.

[Darth Wong]

So here we have Chimpus Caesar, moral imbecile that he is, saying this a couple of weeks ago:

Yeah, I enjoyed his staggeringly thoughtless stream of barely conscious mumblings so much that I've been using it in my sig for a few weeks now.
I've been trying to find a suitable quote from another president who served in the military to counterpoint it.

It would be hysterically funny if you could find a suitable quote from his own father, who served in WW2 and was shot down over the Pacific Ocean.

[Falkenhayn]

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

That's Eisenhower.

[FSTargetDrone]

It would be hysterically funny if you could find a suitable quote from his own father, who served in WW2 and was shot down over the Pacific Ocean.

That's a good idea. I did find something from Robert E. Lee at the time that seemed an appropriate counterpoint:

"What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world."

A bit too much of the religious for my tastes. And of course, he has that little taint of fighting for the Confederacy and all, but the sentiment is generally appreciated. A man who saw war, up front, in person and was appalled at its destructiveness and waste, if nothing else.

Bush, on the other hand, has taken the most vacations of any president in history.

Anyway, the problem here isn't with the Utopia of Wells' that Sidewinder mentioned. Wells, at least, doesn't have the gall to see it all as some game. He's not lamenting the fact that, "Were I only a a bit younger, how eager I'd be to join your ranks. To help you fight the good fight."

Bush is so out of touch that he thinks it's all some glorious cause, a noble sacrifice. He's so damn gung-ho, it's too bad that he's also conveniently in his early 60s.

[FSTargetDrone]

Well, this is attributed to Bush the Elder, but I don't know for sure if he said it:

I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war.

Good. Not great.

[Broomstick]

That bullshit spouted in the OP can only come from someone who never been in the front lines. I am ashamed that the president of my country sounds like Arnold Rimmer.

[Shroom Man 777]

I recall sometime ago I spouted some incoherent diatribe asking how disconnected those in power are to the common man. I mean, they're up there on their pedestals, their way of thinking, what they see, hear, taste and smell, their entire world must be viewed on a whole 'nother wavelength from how we see things. And, well, now we know.

[Surlethe]

"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell."
-- William Tecumseh Sherman

Also relevant:

"In our Country... one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out."

[The Spartan]

Captain Chucklefuck sounds like someone who got his notion of war from reading the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Or maybe watching too many John Wayne films, which sounds more like his level, for lack of a better word.

I had a close friend who served a tour in Afghanistan. He didn't serve in a combat unit, but he came back... changed. Bush is full of shit.

[Zwinmar]

There is no romance in war, only a fool who has never been there, or a psyco thinks there is.

[Admiral Valdemar]

That bullshit spouted in the OP can only come from someone who never been in the front lines. I am ashamed that the president of my country sounds like Arnold Rimmer.

Lister: How many survived?

Rimmer: Well, we haven't had time to make a full official estimate. But at a rough guess, and obviously this is subject to alteration pending information updates, round about: none of them.

Lister: So you wiped out the entire population of this planet?

Rimmer: You make it sound so negative, Lister. Don't you see? The deranged menace that once threatened this world is vanquished.

Lister: No it isn't, pal. You're still here!

"Meltdown", Red Dwarf IV

[Broomstick]

Yeah. Like that. And don't forget Rimmer is also a great coward when it comes to his own person.

[SAMAS]

Bush's statements seem like a disservice to the friends and relatives of those who've died performing Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Since you brought it up...

Found this sucker on Crooksandliars. Don't know if it's been posted here yet.

[SAMAS]

The Original source of the picture.

[Darth Wong]

I recall sometime ago I spouted some incoherent diatribe asking how disconnected those in power are to the common man. I mean, they're up there on their pedestals, their way of thinking, what they see, hear, taste and smell, their entire world must be viewed on a whole 'nother wavelength from how we see things. And, well, now we know.

You don't really need personal experience to know that war is unpleasant. Anyone who has even a smidgen of intelligence could easily figure out ... oh yeah, we're talking about Bush.

[Coyote]

Winston Churchill, I believe it was he (after the Boer War) said "There is nothing so exilerating in war than to be fired upon, to no effect".

That was what I got to experience-- fired at, never hit, never even saw another person get hit (our side or theirs) although I did get to see the results in a way, doing inventories of personal effects to send home.

So in theory I got the best possible experience one could ask for in a war.
I still wouldn't wish it on anyone.

[FSTargetDrone]

Rimmer, at least, has the positive quality of not being real. Bush, well, look at that mosaic SAMAS linked. I think that says it all. That grinning simpleton has all the class and tact of a dead skunk.

[Adrian Laguna]

I present the following quote, not to excuse what the President has said, only those who have experienced war first hand have warrant for such talk, but merely to point out that not all veterans dismiss the thing as futile horror.

"Time only strengthens my conviction that it was a good and strenuous life, and that the war, for all its destructiveness, was an incomparable schooling of the heart."
--Shock Troop Commander, Lieutenant Ernst Jünger

[Durandal]

Let's not forget that, not only is Bush an idiot, but he's also a liar. He had ample opportunity to be on the front lines to help a young democracy succeed. He chose to sit at home in the Texas Air National Guard instead, and he couldn't even be bothered to show up for that half the time.

Or maybe he only had this profound realization of war's romantic qualities after he became too old to fight. How convenient.

[FSTargetDrone]

Or maybe he only had this profound realization of war's romantic qualities after he became too old to fight. How convenient.

Oh, I fully expect that after he turns over the presidency, he will lobby to be allowed to join as the country's oldest recruit.

And why not? He's quit fit, physically, and, um, well... he can drive. That's got to be worth something. He's certainly well-rested.

[Durandal]

If a 20 year-old kid can serve 3 tours in Iraq, a 60 year-old man should be able to serve 1. Them's just basic maths.

[FSTargetDrone]

If a 20 year-old kid can serve 3 tours in Iraq, a 60 year-old man should be able to serve 1. Them's just basic maths.

I'd like to see Bush assigned to a combat medical unit in theater, if this hypothetical enrollment came to pass. Let him see firsthand the sad results of what he's started.