Our young men shall see visions

[sovay]

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
—Rudyard Kipling, "Common Form" (1918)

Comments

[chomiji]

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's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

- Eric Bogle, 1976