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A portion of The War Prayer
By Mark Twain, written ~1904
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle - be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it - for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."
I FULLY support the actions of my government and the troops who are fighting and dying for their country. Look at how Iraq treats our POW's. I can't imagine the HORROR those people are going through, especially the woman.
War is hell. Talk to any war veteran. My dad fought in Korea, so I know of what I speak. But our freedom does not come without cost and sacrifice. While I respect my fellow citizens right to protest, I disagree.
We had 3000 people MURDERED on 9/11. What would it take for you to fight for your country? A nuclear attack on a US city? Millions dead? Probably not even then. You take your freedom for granted. At least you won't have your tongue cut out, be put in an acid bath or a human shredder as is done in Iraq.
Now that we are in Iraq, I say that we must win. If we back out now, it only shows the terrorists that we don't have the HEART to defend our principles. That would do more damage than anything that will happen in the war.
I remember Bush saying after 9/11 that it's time for the countries of the world to decide: Are you with us or against us? We are starting to see how things will shake out.
Iraq is only the beginning. We still have at least 2 other axis countries to deal with. It is really the beginning of WWIII. A fight the survival of our civilization. We just don't know it yet.
War is a part of human nature. Look back on human history. And only the strong survive. To put it more bluntly, it is kill or be killed, plain and simple.
MNKid
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