USA’s AUKUS programme today[i] in the midst of the war raging in the Ukraine demands reflections upon the death-toll and horrors of trench warfare during World War One.
“Every nation was profligate of its manpower and conducted the war as if there were no limit to the number of men who were fit to be thrown into the furnace to feed the flames of war.” …. David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister on the First World War
World War I, Corpses of German soldiers caught by surprise in a trench by French machine gunners. (Photo by Roger Viollet via Getty Images)
In distant Australia and New Zealand, as we know, young men rushed to enlist in the battles for their mother country Britain and many …. so many … died in the battles in the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1914-15 …before proceeding to the muddy horrors of the trenches in the Somme. [ii]
The First World War, 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 claimed the lives of at least 6,000 men a day.[iii]
…. And among them were young Ceylonese men motivated by “Empire loyalism” and bravery that blinded them to the suffering wrought and inflicted via the power of patriotism.[iv]
SO: All of us must sit at the feet of PETE SEEGER and in sombre mood join him in his “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Lyrics
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Twenty-five years later, JEWS replicated the experience of the soldiers of the First World War. They too were thrown into the furnace, feeding the flames…………………………. Jews symbolized the soldiers of the First World War.
END NOTES
[i] See https://thuppahis.com/2023/04/02/aukus-becomes-quadaukus-and-alarms-raucous-aucous/#m …… AND ….. https://thuppahis.com/2023/03/24/peter-jennings-presents-a-manifesto-for-war/
[ii] “Home-Truths from Gallipoli: Those in Office Attics cannot read Death Tolls Anywhere,” https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/a-drama-in-four-acts-dishonest-reportage-by-amnesty-international-and-aussie-journalists-remains-unmasked/
[iii] … Library of Social Science , New York via icontactmai4.com
[iv] See Suren Ratwatte: ….. https://thuppahis.com/2023/03/26/ceylonese-volunteers-in-the-midst-of-trench-warfare-carnage-world-war-one/#more-71327; AN D …. https://thuppahis.com/2022/09/02/fighting-dying-for-britain-during-the-two-world-wars/
A timely reminder.
My impression, based on US defence secretary Lloyd-Austin’s statement that the US is supporting Ukraine to kill as many Russians as possible, is that the same dictum will be used again should war break out against China. The US, with the support of Australia, will use the pretext of “containing China”, whatever that means, to justify a war against China in order to (1) sabotage China’s right to economic prosperity (thereby sabotaging Asian economies in the process), (2) topple the government of China and install a US puppet regime, and (3) kill.as many Chinese as they can.
For the West, it is about killing Russians and soon it will be about killing Chinese. The Western propaganda media can deny this all they like, but listen to Lloyd Austin talk and it becomes clear that is America’s intention. Australia, with a foreign policy that is 100 percent identical to US foreign policy, is behind the US all the way.
The West talk about “democracy verses autocracy,” but it is a false dichotomy. What the West refers to as “democracy” means “US hegemony”, and what the West calls “autocracy” is a label for countries that don’t follow the US Rules based Order. Those countries are not autocracies anymore than America and Australia are democracies. The word democracy is so overblown and discredited today largely due to excessive abuse and misuse of the term.’democracy’ by the West. The Global South recognises that the word “democracy” means “US hegemony” which is why these countries don’t buy into the nonsense that Russia and China are autocracies.