Bodies upon Bodies: The Horrors of War! When Will We Ever Learn ….

thuppahi

3 years ago

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 passing?
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?

*** ***

When will we ever learn; ….. Long time passing ….

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.