Blog:Dulce et Decorum Est
From Bolton Interweb
Sir Coffe Cyrup, Defence Correspondent, 2 August 2009
At school I seriously contemplated a military career, Navy or Air Force, and was an Air Cadet for a couple of years. However, this came to an abrupt end when, in English Literature class, we studied World War I poetry and, in particular the works of Wilfred Owen, killed a week before World War I ended in November 1918. Owen's most famous poem, written in 1917, was Dulce et Decorum Est. The final verse, etched on my mind ever since, changed my views forever:
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
We were taught that dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is translated as "there is honour and glory in dying for your country" although I have seen "sweet and glorious", "sweet and fitting", and "sweet and beautiful". Whichever you use the sentiment remains the same. Instead of joining the armed forces and the practice of war, I studied international relations and the causes of war.
With the recent death toll rise in Afghanistan, the Government is already on the back foot, defending a lamentable lack of helicopters and troop numbers with less than credible bull. The shabby and shameful attempts by the Government to reduce compensation to injured soldiers, one of whom was shot, whilst it is announced that the senior House of Commons official, Malcolm Jack, received a pay rise of about 11%, do not help their cause. Mr Rammell, Defence Minister, said that failing to appeal the compensation levels would breach "the crucial principle that the most compensation should go to those most seriously injured". So it is about saving cash, less cash than Mr Jack's pay rise. Rammell denies it is about cash, but what else can his words mean?
Young men and women thinking about joining up should heed Owen's words, 92 years ago on the front line, that if they go to war, whether it is in the trenches of France and Flanders, or the wilds of Afghanistan, that the concept of honour, glory, and being a fitting end to die for your country is a lie. If you fight and die, politicians will lament and you will get a funeral in the glare of TV and press cameras with Ministers taking a press conference and photo call. If you are injured or wounded, the MoD will fight you to reduce your compensation. Do not join the armed forces and fight the politicians wars for they are the only ones who will take the glory.
Also in the news is the story of L/Cpl Joe Glenton, of the Royal Logistic Corps, who refused to return to Afghanistan and claims the war in Afghanistan is being fought in the interests of US foreign policy. Glenton faced a preliminary hearing at a martial court in Wiltshire accused of desertion today. Some have accused Glenton of cowardice but it takes a lot more courage to stand up and publicly speak out and inevitably suffer humiliation at the hands of critics. Had this been Iraq, there is strong evidence that the war was illegal and a case is there to be made on the grounds that following an unlawful order is not a valid defence against charges of war crimes. But the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, however you may feel about it's moral validity and mismanagement, was not illegal under International law. Glenton may be right in all he says but he volunteered to serve in the armed forces and part of that means you lose the right to refuse a lawful order. It has to be that way or you may as well disband the armed forces altogether, a necessary evil. Glenton should have left the employ of the army, and then spoken out. That would have been the honourable course.
What I can't understand is why part of the British Army's remit in Afghanistan is to destroy poppy fields. These are the poppy fields that are the raw materials for a significant amount of the world's illegal drug trade. But there is a legitimate medicinal use for the same drugs so why not encourage this industry? There is even an opiate poppy operation in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Perhaps encouraging Afghans to put their poppy agriculture to legitimate pharmaceutical use is not in the commercial interests of some other countries.
The poppy is the global symbol of Remembrance Day originating in John McCrae's World War I poem In Flanders Fields and chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders during World War I, the red colour symbolising bloodshed. McCrae, a Canadian, died of pneumonia in January 1918. The last of Britain's World War I veterans to see active service died this year, Henry Allington and Harry Patch. Only three veterans now remain worldwide. In July 2007, on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, Patch described war as the "calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings" and said that "war isn't worth one life."
Ninety years on we seem to have learned nothing other than different words from the politicians as they attempt to convince the public and servicemen and women, of their just cause. Often, but sadly, it works, pumped up by some of the more jingoistic of the British tabloids. Maybe more should read Wilfred Owen rather than The Sun.
See Also: Blog:The Average Military Man
© Evrose, 2011
