Dulce et decorum est...
To Mr 'Undisputed Top Gun', from one who was in the Last Lot:
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 gurgling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitten 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 (killed in action just one week before the 1918 Armistice)
Sir (Madam?)
Your enthusiasm does you credit, but, may I suggest, could (and should) be more creatively directed. I suspect that few readers of this forum who are already, or are about to be, deployed to the Gulf share it. Having participated myself in the last Gulf conflict, I should imagine that their emotions about the whole business are ambivalent. This is emphatically not an insult to the members of our armed forces: professionals to a man (and woman), they will, as always, selflessly do our country credit in whatever capacity they are called upon to serve.
For yourself, I should thank your lucky stars that you are not five years older and going with the RAF. Just hope that, if the job has to be done, it is finished off properly this time - or else you may yet get your chance to try your hand at war poetry.
For the lads and lasses, good luck, God bless and homebound tailwinds.
Gadget
Last edited by Captain Gadget; 7th Feb 2003 at 08:56.