At This Time Of The Year

We hear and read much about past and present wars. History unwinds itself slowly. Something  is always being revealed  that we never knew before.

For many years, much of my reading was about history, politics and wars. I was young during the second war. My impression was  that politics were suspended for the duration. I was amazed to discover, twenty years later,how wrong I was..

Now it's sixty-three years  since the end of the war and  I'm still discovering how terribly wrong I was.
 
Last night on television, it was a story about the chief yobo in the American navy. I only watched snippets. I can never  bear to watch it all.

He hated the British. He  was determined  he would  take no advice from them when the Americans joined the conflict.

Five thousand lives were lost to German U-boats ,thousands of tons of shipping  and supplies. Britain was on her knees before he could be persuaded that  convoys across the Atlantic Ocean were the only way to go.

Probably fifty years ago,  I read how the Italian campaign was within a week of ending.  Italians do not like to fight.  Eisenhower withdrew  allied forces from the Italian front  to send them to France to  make sure General De Gaulle, who spent the war in the U.K., reached Paris before the French Underground,  They were communists.

The Italian campaign continued for  years  after that with  thousands of lives lost.

Last night  I went to bed  and  remembered  why we  committed to remembering those who died.

We promised to remember them, how they died and why. So that their deaths would not be in vain. we promised we would never let it happen again.

That was before we  discovered some of  the vainglorious jackasses who were  in charge  and responsible for their  deaths were not always the enemy.

Wars are not won. They are lost by the side that makes the most mistakes.

We haven't  kept  our promise.

We are still spending billions of dollars on weapons of destruction , sending  young people  into harm's way to die horrible deaths ,in God forsaken places, thousands of miles from home.

Does anyone really believe wars  and weapons of war are the right way  to  change a barbaric culture?