My son-in-law is an Iraq vet.
I'm a Viet Nam veteran.
My father was a WW2 veteran.
Pretty sure his father was a veteran of the Great War.
I would really like to think that my nephews and nieces or my granddaughters and/or their boyfriends/husbands won't have the opportunity to serve their country in that manner.
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But Bogle's final verse says:
... and i can't help but wonder, now willie mcbride,
do all those who lie here know why they died?
did you really believe them when they told you the cause?
did you really believe that this war would end wars?
well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
the killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
for willie mcbride, it all happened again,
and again, and again, and again, and again ...
... and i see no reason to expect that we're going to be getting any smarter.
Rather the reverse, if anything.