Happy Veteran's Day, Bush and Cheney. Dulce et Decorum Est

[11 Bravo]

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, out-stripped 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 flound'ring 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.

Wilfred Owen

I wasn't fighting for my country so much as I was fighting for the guy in the next hole.

11 Bravo


Yeah, Happy Veteran's Day, you murderous bastards. Sure, there will be thousands of families with an empty seat at the Thanksgiving table this year, not to mention untold Iraqi families wondering what the hell their loved ones have been killed for.
But hey, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right? I mean, after all, Georgie, you got to call yourself a "war-time President", and that's all that really matters.


To all the guys who didn't make it home; to those who are still out there; and to those who did get back, but remain at war every night when they try to close their eyes ...
Rest easy, brothers.

[democrank]

1. ~PEACE~