A generation comes, a generation goes, but the Earth abides forever:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13289607

The last combat veteran of the War to End All Wars has died. Three more years and it would have been 100 years since the start of the war that began the modern era and sealed it in blood. That war, tragically, despite how vital it was to all those other things has become forgotten. The veterans of the war of 1914 accomplished so many great things (oh hai Tolkien and Truman) and some terrible things (the you-know-whos). Their war was the moment that the 20th Century became what it was later notorious for and started its bittersweet cycle, and now the last combat veteran of the war is dead.

The last veteran is one Florence Green of the United Kingdom.

Theirs the last generation in the West able to say with a straight face: Ave Rex! Nos morituri te salutamus! and theirs the first generation to realize that the world no longer worked thus, though it had never really worked thus.

In my view this is a moment by all rights to be remembered. World War I has been overshadowed by World War II even though it was actually the more important of the two wars, and the veterans of that war went through a war horrible even by the standards of modern war. May this man rest in peace.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Comments

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Something messed up with your cut very badly.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite sure what happened.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Wolfgang and John McCrae too.

Fitting.

RIP the heroes.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[lai-choi-san.livejournal.com]

That war, tragically, despite how vital it was to all those other things has become forgotten.

I always thought my great grandfather was an only child. Recently I've learnt that they were seven brothers, all of them fought in the trenches. My great-grandfather was the only survivor.

(http://img857.imageshack.us/i/tardi.jpg/)

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The French army in WWI was one of the great armies of history, not so much because of the battles it fought but just for surviving those nightmares intact. A great deal of armies would have suffered a complete collapse after something like Verdun. My great-grandfather was a doughboy.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

That war is connected with both lots of pain and lots of triumphs here. It was when two national catastrophes happened for my country, which saw vast portions of its ethnos being cut out and divided between various neighbors as a punishment for us siding with the wrong side. In the meantime the prideful meme was born that the Bulgarian army has never surrendered a single flag to be captured by enemy troops, and has been honored even by its adversaries as a badass army (I actually saw a BG-dedicated WW1 monument in the center of London, which is quite telling). It's an episode which is soaked with lessons for us and our rulers, like the one which says that smart rulers could bring you to the highest heights, especially when having the trust and respect of their people; and meanwhile stupid and short-sighted, selfish rulers could bring you back down in no time with incompetent, inadequate, idiotic decisions that have far-reaching consequences for entire nations. It's a lesson that should be carved at the inner side of our skulls for all to remember until there's life in the Universe. Be careful about your rulers. Hold them accountable for their actions, never stop the pressure, demand to be informed and be able to take informed decisions. The moment you give them room, they'll fuck you up as bad as they can.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The Bulgarian Army *was* very badass in WWI. It, like the Ottomans, fought the British Empire to a standstill for years and participated in the two great Central Powers victories of the war. WWI should have taught that lesson to *everyone* involved, on both the winning and losing sides but it took another and worse war to make the lesson sink in.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

My point is, what's the point of being so badass on a grassroots level? (even officer level; in fact the Serbo-Bulgarian war in 1886 where the Serbs attacked suddenly from the back after the Unification, as they were butthurt that a big neighbor was appearing next to their borders, showed that even the simple privates could carry out a whole war on their shoulders and kick some ass). It's pointless unless this badassery is doubled with some decent politicians with heads on their shoulders, as opposed to morons. And I fear at the moment we're approaching a dangerous point of over-saturation of our political scene with the same type of morons we had around WW1 and WW2.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Fortunately the EU makes it impossible for a general European war. O.X

But yes, that is a good point. Good armies with bad political leadership tend to mean less than good armies with good political leadership.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Curiously, bad armies with awesome political leadership trumps good armies with bad political leadership. That must tell us something important about leadership. :-)

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Or more accurately that a good politician can trump a good general and that soft power is always superior to hard power. ;P

Which is the same principle you stated, just phrased somewhat differently.

[harry-beast.livejournal.com]

How do you define "soft power"? The term has a specific Canadian connotation, meaning attempts to influence through moral authority that is not backed by military, diplomatic or economic strength. Unless you use the term differently, I would say that World War I proved that hard power was far more persuasive than soft power in bringing an end to hostilities.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, the British Empire stayed an empire mostly thanks to soft power (persuasion, threats, trade techniques, diplomacy). It kept most of its colonies in line not through a constant stream of bullets, but through talking the appropriate words at the proper moment and to the proper ears.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Use of economic power as opposed to brute force.

Disposable Heroes...

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

[terminator44.livejournal.com]

Such a shame that few people even remember it.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The most meaningful war of modern times is also one of the most obscure. It's like whoever wrote reality had a twisted sense of humor.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Btw today is St. George's Day according to the Orthodox calendar, and St. George is the patron saint of the Bulgarian army. So it's a big holiday, because the name George (in all its forms) is the most popular and celebrated name in BG, and meanwhile the army is probably the institution whose reputation has remained unstained during all those years. Besides, my dad was Georgi.