90 years since the guns fell silent
Nov. 11th, 2008 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julesjonesI was going to post something longer for today. And find that I can't. Instead, have a link to Making Light:
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010790.html
One thought from watching the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in London -- the Royal wreath-laying party, with three generations who have seen active service in war. The Queen was an ambulance driver and mechanic during the Second World War, a post that was far from a safe sinecure. Prince Philip was in the navy. A generation later, Prince Andrew was a helicopter pilot acting as a decoy for Exocet missiles in the Falkands. And now Prince Harry has served in Afghanistan. War takes fewer of my countrymen and women nowadays, as shown by the toll of numbers for each generation -- but it has not ceased.
War is a terrible thing. Sometimes it's the lesser of two evils, a choice that must be made because the alternative is worse. Sometimes it's foolish, vainglorious, profiteering. Sometimes it's something in between. I remember the price of war. I will remember that sometimes it was worth paying, and that sometimes it was not, lest I forget to ask which it is the next time a generation is called to sacrifice.
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010790.html
One thought from watching the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in London -- the Royal wreath-laying party, with three generations who have seen active service in war. The Queen was an ambulance driver and mechanic during the Second World War, a post that was far from a safe sinecure. Prince Philip was in the navy. A generation later, Prince Andrew was a helicopter pilot acting as a decoy for Exocet missiles in the Falkands. And now Prince Harry has served in Afghanistan. War takes fewer of my countrymen and women nowadays, as shown by the toll of numbers for each generation -- but it has not ceased.
War is a terrible thing. Sometimes it's the lesser of two evils, a choice that must be made because the alternative is worse. Sometimes it's foolish, vainglorious, profiteering. Sometimes it's something in between. I remember the price of war. I will remember that sometimes it was worth paying, and that sometimes it was not, lest I forget to ask which it is the next time a generation is called to sacrifice.