tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post3997585821485643456..comments2023-04-23T13:10:44.188+09:00Comments on this is how she fight start: Britain's War Machinekamohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10785763841038321633noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-71932372918933929342012-06-01T19:53:00.644+09:002012-06-01T19:53:00.644+09:00As well as history, we did a load of WWI poetry in...As well as history, we did a load of WWI poetry in school. I've got a couple of draft posts with the working title 'Pro Patria Mori', but I can't decide whether they're too glib or too depressing. I'll sit on them a while longer, I reckon. Unfortunately they're unlikely to become irrelevant any time soon.kamohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10785763841038321633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-63305041126833889102012-06-01T17:37:56.163+09:002012-06-01T17:37:56.163+09:00LMAOLMAOἈντισθένηςhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06199983680204710885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-88887171939365266662012-05-31T22:42:36.975+09:002012-05-31T22:42:36.975+09:00Though it is a bit early in the season, Hardy'...Though it is a bit early in the season, Hardy's poem - Christmas 1924 - went through my mind as I read your post and comments...<br /><br />’Peace upon earth!' was said.<br />We sing it,<br />And pay a million priests to bring it.<br />After two thousand years of mass<br />We've got as far as poison-gas.<br /><br /><br />A shame he didn't live long enough to see what the next big war would bring.Willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09661426960326013304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-55176874173293472972012-05-29T22:13:13.249+09:002012-05-29T22:13:13.249+09:00The EU started as trade agreements between France ...The EU started as trade agreements between France and Germany post WWII, as I recall. Quite brilliant.Ἀντισθένηςhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06199983680204710885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-32903743442721099272012-05-29T20:03:52.773+09:002012-05-29T20:03:52.773+09:00I reckon this is one of the less obvious dangers o...I reckon this is one of the less obvious dangers of the current Eurozone shitstorm. A strong motivating factor behind European integration was trying to bind states together in a way that would make another war impossible. If Greece left the Euro it would be the first undeniably backward step that project's taken.<br /><br />Not that this stuff is limited to Europe, of course, but we have shown an uncomfortable knack for dragging loads of others down with us.kamohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10785763841038321633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-77874387057479707052012-05-29T20:00:09.792+09:002012-05-29T20:00:09.792+09:00I think the world would be a better place if Slaug...I think the world would be a better place if Slaughterhouse 5 were required reading in schools.<br /><br />Funnily enough, got another Vonnegut book coming up tomorrow. So it goes.kamohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10785763841038321633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-88808906774012626572012-05-29T19:58:03.236+09:002012-05-29T19:58:03.236+09:00The Eastern front is massively overlooked in weste...The Eastern front is massively overlooked in western histories and culture. I read a discussion about a book in Eisenhower and someone started banging on about this 'being no way to talk of the general who defeated the Nazis'.<br /><br />To which some other commenter replied, 'Zukhov? What's he got to do with this?'kamohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10785763841038321633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-91726043426303331082012-05-28T13:08:49.474+09:002012-05-28T13:08:49.474+09:00"... just cherry pick the best bits and ignor..."... just cherry pick the best bits and ignore any inconvenient contra-indicators like, say, willful and indiscriminate obliteration of civilian targets on a biblical scale."<br /><br />On a biblical scale indeed. With as much as historians like to talk about WWI being the point where mechanized warfare showed us how truly horrific wars would be in the future (which it did), WWII is where we showed that we truly don't give a f@#k about it...Billyhttp://www.earthdenizen.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-66999251929399931162012-05-28T10:36:06.861+09:002012-05-28T10:36:06.861+09:00Many are quoted as saying, "History is writte...Many are quoted as saying, "History is written by the winners." It seems most meaningful coming from Orwell. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_OrwellἈντισθένηςhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06199983680204710885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-45221066644378380632012-05-28T09:48:17.611+09:002012-05-28T09:48:17.611+09:00I think the Brit General that supported the incend...I think the Brit General that supported the incendiary bombing of civilian targets policy is...well...maybe that's where Malcolm X REALLY got his "By any means necessary" way of thinking.Chrishttp://badboyinjapan.blogspot.jp/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-596203844533164378.post-8197919676065454592012-05-28T09:15:48.104+09:002012-05-28T09:15:48.104+09:00My father was in industrial Yorkshire as a child d...My father was in industrial Yorkshire as a child during the war, which is probably why he ran off to Canada as a young adult... His stories were mostly about the tin bomb shelter in the garden being the only time he got candies, and that he refused to eat lamb later as mutton was a ubiquitous and disliked wartime protein.<br /><br />Not to put down Britain, which I am sure you could do more convincingly, but I have become more interested in the Soviet experience: that's where Hitler lost his war (threw it away, more like). Just finished 'Life and Fate', which is a great read: 'War and Peace' in Stalingrad.<br /><br />Vasily Grossman bravely compares Stalinism to Nazism and finds little difference, apart from the ovens. Yes, that is a huge difference, but both were similar police and gulag states with irrational and brutal leadership. If anything he shows the Nazis as more rational, if more blood thirsty. The story of its publication is fascinating. The book was 'arrested' rather than the writer, as Grossman was too much a hero of Stalingrad reportage.<br /><br />The post war Soviet Union had fantastic graphic design and far more mature science-fiction than the west. The more you look into that period of history the more you realize 'we' were the aggressors of the Cold War. Trostkyvite 'world revolution' was already destroyed in the '37 purges. Even if the USSR had the will, they did not have the means, as we found out after its post '89 disintegration. Rather they were beggaring themselves not to be wiped out by our rising-tide. 'Plus que ca change...'Ἀντισθένηςhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06199983680204710885noreply@blogger.com