Christopher Hitchens’ bleak yet spirited Memorial Day essay ends this way:
“Always think of it: never speak of it.” That was the stoic French injunction during the time when the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine had been lost. This resolution might serve us well at the present time, when we are in midconflict with a hideous foe, and when it is too soon to be thinking of memorials to a war not yet won. This Memorial Day, one might think particularly of those of our fallen who also guarded polling-places, opened schools and clinics, and excavated mass graves. They represent the highest form of the citizen, and every man and woman among them was a volunteer. This plain statement requires no further rhetoric.
Of course, “Always think of it: never speak of it”, though a worthy admonition, has its own complexities. This particular Memorial Day contains within it, unspoken or not, like it or not, the spectre of Abu Ghraib and now Haditha. I find the likes of Jack Murtha contemptible because in their self-regarding pronouncements on these matters they fail to take into account (probably deliberately) the obvious – that all wars of any serious length have events of this nature. And yet these events are still disturbing. They test us. Just as it looks as if it is getting better, it gets worse. And the reverse. The one thing you learn from this is whom you would like next to you in a foxhole – in the physical, theoretical and emotional senses.
For Memorial Day, my humble advice is this. This time don’y follow the Mafia rule. Keep your friends, not your enemies closer. Make a generous pitcher of margaritas. And salute those who have fought for liberty before. We’re all in this for the long haul. And… as they say… have a good one.
during the time when the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine had been lost.
OT, but the history of Alsace and Lorraine is pretty interesting. They were originally populated by German speakers but suffered greatly during the Thirty Years War, losing much of their population. Louis XIV then started moving in French Catholics in an attempt to take over the territory. During the French Revolution plans were made to finish the settlement by exterminating the remaining German population, ala the Vendee, but Robespierre went to the guillotine before they came to fruition. Shades of the 20′th century, no? So I don’t buy into that French obsession with the loss of the provinces in the Franco-Prussian War. What goes around, comes around.
Roger,
That’s a recommendation that I think Mr. Hitchens would strongly support–no maudlin ramblings though–just heart felt gratitude.
I need to get some ice.
I am watching a show on WWII (the war in colour) on the Discovery channel (My husband is a WWII veteran).
In it, a man is talking about seeing his buddy killed in front of his eyes…(I paraphrase):
I trained with him. I drank with him. I went to parties with him. And now, I saw him dead in front of my eyes…and I was filled with such rage that I wanted to kill them all…
Such things happen in all wars, because the taboos against killing are destroyed, and even “women and children” who hide killers can be killed in such a rage…(one of my German friends lost her fiance when French soldiers, in retaliation for a soldier being killed by post WWII resistance, picked up men off the street and killed them. He was just a boy, but so were the “hitlerwolves”..)
Dr. Sanity has a good post on individual vs institutional evil in war…
Hitchens “Always think of it: never speak of it” seems to bode well with Google?s absent doodle on Memorial Day.
As for Senator (who also served in Vietnam) Kerry; Hitchens “never speak of it” would undoubtedly be anathema.