JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: SOMETHING OF THE REAL FACE OF WAR AMIDST ALL THE REVIEWING-STAND CLAPTRAP - WHY GOVERNMENT COMMEMORATIONS ALWAYS LIE ABOUT WAR

John Chuckman


COMMENT TO AN ARTICLE BY TOM PECK IN THE INDEPENDENT



“Ninety-four-year-old Eric Chardin spoke fiercely articulately on live television for 15 minutes. His words were worth a thousand times more than any marching band or military fly-past”



https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/d-day-veteran-brexit-theresa-may-trump-europe-eu-a8946041.html



Well said.

These are the truly stirring words of D Day, not the claptrap coming from officials on the reviewing stand.

War is ugly, ugly beyond description, not heroic, not inspiring, not beautiful.

But governments and the bulk of the press, which serves government so faithfully, will never stop insisting the opposite.

It not only keeps the general population ready to accept still more war, it actually represents a kind of self-deception by government over past acts it should be ashamed of. It comes with a sense of a priest’s graveside eulogy for a scoundrel or a Mafioso.

Readers may enjoy:



https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/what-we-truly-learned-from-the-great-war-and-the-absurdity-of-remembrance-day/



https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/john-chuckman-essay-this-is-what-war-does/