This is an excerpt from a manuscript unpublished in Sam Clemens' life and surpressed for decades after. It was finally included in "Letters From the Earth,'' a collection of Mark Twain's most cynical, vitriolic writings finally published in the mid-1960s, if memory serves. It was written in circa 1900 as reaction to America's hellacious post-Civil WarAmerican military technology then being employed in the Philippines during the so-called Spanish-American War. It was often cited during the late War of Agression in Southeast Asia and -- like the Peace symbol -- is now back by popular demand! What do you think?

THE WAR PRAYER

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!

We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.

Amen.

 

I'm a fan of Mark Twain and have read that before. Seems like I even saw it illustrated somewhere if you can imagine that. It's a bit more direct and lacking in humor than most of his writing.

 

You're not equating this poem with what America is doing now, are you? Say it ain't so....

 

Perhaps not literally or specifically to this war, but doesn't the poem in essence describe what humans do in war? Each side believes that their cause is just and righteous, dehumanizes the enemy, and devoutly believes that a supreme being is on their side.
Our technology these days allows for much more precision in targeting the enemy and limiting "collateral damage", but the overall behavior remains the same.

Dean

 

Yea Dean, that's my thinking too. I have a wehrmacht belt buckle from WWII (the Big One!) that is embossed "Gott Mit Uns" (God is with us). I appreciate the irony - Hitler was a Christian, too - but it never fails to piss off some ancient vet when i wear it.

Am I making a connection between Twain's screed and current events in the Mideast? Maybe. Check the civilian body count over there lately? That's a lotta dead folks, people, a lot of indiscriminate Shock & Awe, no matter whose Big Guy in the Sky the locals happen to subscribe to.

 

You left out the last line in the prayer.

"It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said"

This was in response to the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed. This was Twain at his sarcastic best.

 

I'm simply referring to the terms of engagement that we follow--how we drop leaflets warning citizens (and combatants) to leave before we attack, use smart-bombs to limit collateral damage, and punish our own when they cross over the line.

We don't rape and pillage like Ghengis Khan, cut off ears, etceteras and so on.

War is hell, but it is an acknowledged means of 'conflict resolution', and isn't going away any time soon.

Oooh, this thread is going to get me in trouble! Flame (or respond logically), but I'm done!

 

CarolS2000, I understand your point by posting but somehow on the same day that I read a headline reading the head of CARE International's operation in Iraq is kidnapped and believed dead, I think maybe the prayer's misplaced in this war.

 

[QUOTE=cordycord,Nov 16 2004, 11:21 PM] You're not equating this poem with what America is doing now, are you?

 

It's self-righteous, and NO, I really am not getting pulled into this thread!