In the Humble Opinion of LittleBill, Socialist, Atheist, and Humanist
"Don't cheer, boys.The poor devils are dying." (re-post)

 
Originally posted by LittleBill on Monday, February 26, 2007

George F. Will, of the Washington Post Writers Group starts his column with this heart-rending quote by Capt. John Philip of the Warship Texas, to his crew as they watched the Spanish ship Vizcaya burn off Santiago Bay, Cuba, in 1898. Mr. Will has written a very thought-provoking account of the cruelty which humans feel and exhibit toward each other during a war. It is a good reminder to those of us who were grownups at the time of World War II and an excellent lesson to those who were not yet born.

San Francisco Chronicle column

 

3 comments:

Messenger said . . .

This is an unusually readable comment for George Will; he doesn't slip in his usual quota of Weimar Republican zingers, perhaps because he is only commenting on Clint Eastwood's prize-winning Letters From Iwo Jima.
February 26, 2007

pekka said . . .

To expect outstanding human values and the war to prosper and to coexist simulataniously, is more or less a fantasy. I agree, that the way our world is, military, unfortunately, has it's justifiable role to play but only for those unfortunate ocassions when being attacked.

The 20th century was the bloodiest in human history and, as an European, I am not able to forget the sheer barbarity that was exhibited by the Germans and the Russians when they were fighting each other. Not that the rest of the particippants were Prince Valiants either.
February 26, 2007

LittleBill said . . .

Thanks for your comments. I was surprised to find such a really perceptive column by George Will, especially in this current world of Bush, in which we are all good, and our enemies are all evil.
February 27, 2007

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