Well another Anzac day splutters on by and why not make a cheap shot at all those whining about not getting a day off – Just be thankful you’re not charging up a bloody great hill headlong into machine gun fire. Stop.
*Wonderwall by Ryan Adams comes on - notices it’s only got a **** rating so changes it to a *****.
Watched Saving Private Ryan on Saturday – I’ve seen it plenty of times but it still blows me away – the sacrifice and so on. Like many people my age I have no concept of how I would feel if forced to fight in a war – Yes completely spoiled and softened by comfort.
I found myself watching that opening scene with the charge up Omaha beach saying ‘Our generation could use a good war’. What the bollocks do I mean? Dunno really – but I often ponder the fact that these dudes were in a just war fighting true tyranny – it was very black and white to them – The evil of fascism needed to be stopped (yes a disputable yet common opinion). You don’t really get wars like that these days – look at the American invasion of Iraq – what a bubbling mass of confusion that is. But it’s very easy to firmly say that war is wholly a waste of life - but there must be some occasions when fighting is just - surely.
Martin Luther King Jr said, ‘War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow’… Sanguine but true… Hmmm what if there are no other tools in the tool box? I’m reminded of an idiom involving omelettes and broken eggs. What if the men and boys of World War II hadn’t sacrificed themselves against what was oozing through and out of Europe? How would the world be now? Better? Worse? Hard to say – but an instinct deep down tells me that it’s the former… I’ve always held the opinion that war is muddy – there is no truth only a buzzing confusion, a fog of darkness – I think I’ll stick with this opinion as it sings to me.
So could the world use another good war? Well it certainly would solve the population issue – but it’s a loaded question really – of course not. But I do believe the last 50 years or so have left people soft, weak and spoiled – most of us couldn’t fight a war if our life depended on it – or could we?
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Einstein
