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ONCE MORE, INTO THE BREACH DEAR FRIENDS

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 14 July 2005
4 comments

Wars and conflicts Books-Literature

ONCE MORE AND YET AGAIN

By Peter Fredson

July 14, 2005

Shakespeare’s Henry V urged his troops as follows:

“Once more into the breach, dear friends, once
more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favor’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.” (III,i)

And in THE HISTORY OF THE PERSIAN WARS by Herodotus, Book I, we read:

“On the death of Alyattes, Croesus, his son, who was thirty-five years old, succeeded to the throne. Of the Greek cities, Ephesus was the first that he attacked. The Ephesians, when he laid siege to the place, made an offering of their city to Diana, by stretching a rope from the town wall to the temple of the goddess, which was distant from the ancient city, then besieged by Croesus, a space of seven furlongs. They were, as I said, the first Greeks whom he attacked. Afterwards, on some pretext or other, he made war in turn upon every Ionian and Aeolian state, bringing forward, where he could, a substantial ground of complaint; where such failed him, advancing some poor excuse.”
“In this way he made himself master of all the Greek cities in Asia, and forced them to become his tributaries; after which he began to think of building ships, and attacking the islanders.”

Soldiers will ever close up the walls with dead bodies, while megalomaniacal leaders, avid for power and wealth put on their royal robes to stroll around their conquered cities. Rulers will prate endlessly about morals as they prepare new adventures in violence. Some will pretend that their gods favor them, speak to them, while they prepare blood baths, murder, deceit and great vile deeds. Sycophants will surround them and place laurel wreaths on their heads, while they give glorious speeches designed to please rulers and gain great rewards. While rulers loll about on soft couches feasting on plundered food and drink, their conquered subjects will starve while giving thanks for their lives to the great leaders.

Has anyone read Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Julius Caesar, Tacitus, or any of the great Asian writers on warfare, with a view to avoiding the shedding of blood? How is it that people are still gulled into believing the most appalling lies, misrepresentations, and fabrications of dishonest leaders?

How is it that many cultures have sayings like “Thou shalt not kill,” which they supposedly revere, but will take to the sword at the slightest bit of aggressive rhetoric? It seems that all the swords that were supposedly beaten into plough-shares are again being melted to make deadly weapons.

Once again read Herodotus to find how the breasts of thousands of women were cut off and nailed onto a city wall as an example of leadership.

We don’t seem to learn from history. We will go on “summoning up the blood”, filling breaches with dead bodies, and finding pretexts to make war or advancing some poor excuse for it. The excuses, the pretexts, are endless, ingenious, clever. They are designed to “summon up the blood.” They do their dirty work.

The beating of war drums make an intoxicating hypnotic rhythm, to which people must march, come what may. Then the cannon will roar, the cruise missiles will swoop, and bunker busters will destroy many collaterals. The people who make the arms, the weapons, the stuff of war, will profit endlessly, gloriously, gleefully. And the leaders will preen and posture and perhaps smirk.

Eventually death by sword or guillotine, even old age, will take away the despots. Their wrinkled old bodies will be clothed in purple robes while their adoring followers will place them in marble tombs, with statues of angels hovering about them. Once they were sculptured astride proud horses, but today it is difficult to put them into Humvees or Helicopters.

Meanwhile powerless people will suffer endlessly in order to support the scum that rose to the top.

Forum posts

  • At least Henry V (the real one, I mean) had the guts to lead his troops on the battlefield and risk his life, along with them. I notice that not one of our noble "leaders" is willing to risk *their* lives with their troops, nor have they ever. If they did, maybe they would have a different perspective on the matter. Maybe we should call the government "trailers," since they seem to keep themselves as far away as possible from the realities of war.

    • You hit the nail on the head. Our "leaders" all all draft-dodgers that were unwilling to put their lives on the line for their country. But they are pefectly willing to let YOU put your life on the line for THEIR country. All these blood-thirsty sycophants, like Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, etc. should be put in the front line of whatever battles they have brought about. If you break it, you should fix it. But they stand on the sidelines, beating war drums, urging others to go in and make them rich with arms deals and oil. They are despicable cowards, and I often ask how they got into power in the first place.

    • I’ve noticed that the government of Bush is now trying to pressure parents to get their sons and daughters to enlist in the army. These good "Christian" leaders are asking parents to sacrifice their children on the alter of murder for profit. These same good Christians would not think of sacrificing their children in their oil war, noooo, they want the dumb shit deluded "patriots" to send their children off to fight their money wars all based on one lie after another...these people are sickos who value nothing more than their bottom line. If you gave them every dollar that was ever minted, that would still not be enough to satisfy them in their satanic push for power and greed for wealth.

  • Clues seem to be as expensive as ever these days.