Sad as it is, not every husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter comes back. And even if they do come back sometimes they left a piece of them behind. Tomorrow it's Armistice, and we remember those that payed the ultimate price. But I would ask everyone to also remember the families, forgotten by many, that lost a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, a son or a daughter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXKSd9WpdeU
Le soldat
Florent Pagny
A l'heure où la nuit passe au milieu des tranchées,
Ma très chère Augustine, je t’écris sans tarder,
Le froid pique et me glace et j'ai peur de tomber.
Je ne pense qu'à toi,
Mais je suis un soldat (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
Mais surtout ne t'en fais pas.
Je serai bientôt là (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
Et tu seras fière de moi.
A l'heure où la guerre chasse des garçons par milliers,
Si loin de la maison et la fleur au canon.
Ces autres que l'on tue sont les mêmes que moi.
Mais je ne pleure pas,
Car je suis un soldat (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
Mais surtout ne t'en fais pas.
Je serai bientôt là (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
Et tu seras fière de moi.
A l'heure où la mort passe dans le fleuve à mes pieds,
De la boue qui s'en va, des godasses et des rats.
Je revoie tes yeux clairs, j'essaie d'imaginer
L'hiver auprès de toi,
Mais je suis un soldat (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
Je ne sens plus mes bras.
Tout tourne autour de moi (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
Mon Dieu sors moi de là.
Ma très chère Augustine, j'aimerai te confier
Nos plus beaux souvenirs et nos enfants rêvés.
Je crois pouvoir le dire nous nous sommes aimés.
Je t'aime une dernière fois.
Je ne suis qu'un soldat (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la, la la la, la la
Non je ne reviendrai pas (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la, la
Je n'étais qu'un soldat (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
La la la, la la, la
Prends soin de toi (La la la, la la la la)
La la la, la la la la
Songwriters: Marie Bastide / Maurici Joseph Calogero
Songteksten voor Le soldat © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc
Comments
Lest We Forget
The price was paid by Frenchmen, Brits, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and others on our side and by Germans on the other side, and for what? A return match twenty years later.
Indeed
Troops from all over the British and French Empires served with distinction in WW1.
If you visit the battlefields you will soon realise why it was called the first worldwide war.
Then end your visit to Ypres and witness the ceremony at the Mennin gate at 8:00pm every evening.
Very moving.
As for the return match as you put it. A lot of the root causes of that was IMHO contained in the 1919 Surrender treaty. The desire to humiliate Germany by certain of the Allied nations is cited by many historians for the rise of the Natinal Socialist Party from 1923 onwards.
We must never forget the sacrifice that everyone made in WW1. I lost eight relatives in WW1 and three in WW2. Three of them in two days on the Somme in 1916. Two of the eight have no known grave. That was how brutal the conflict was.
I shall be attending the ceremony at my local memorial tomorrow morning.
Samantha
We've learned nothing...
Lines from old anti-war songs go through my head:
And another:
Or Katniss Everdeen:
I lived through the Vietnam War era. I remember, once it was over, people saying, we've learned our lesson, we won't get into that again. But the US never stopped using war as an instrument of policy — often badly thought-out, incoherent policy, and sometimes no policy at all. Sometimes directly, sometimes in proxy wars. The only lesson they learned was to make sure the US public is never forced to be aware of what is actually going on. And now we're directly involved in three wars (Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq) and involved by proxy in war in Yemen and probably other places. There are people old enough to vote who weren't born when they started.
It feels like war, torture, and mass killing are my country's first resort, rather than its last. Even though experience should tell us that violence simply begets more violence. But it's a handy substitute for thinking and facing reality.
I used to get upset and ranty about this stuff.
But I'm old now, and I've seen too much.
Now I'm just tired.
not only WO1
Overhere Armistice is not only for WO1. It also for WO2 and every other conflict Belgium was involved in. (WO1, and 2, Kongo, Korea, Balkan, Gulf 1 and 2, ISIS and I am sure I am forgetting a few) Just wantend to remind people that it's not only serving military personel or vets. It is also their family that serve in a way by lettig their loved ones go and do their duty .
I am not someone that believes that humanity has grown enough to be able to live without conflict . There will be a need for the sheepdogs for at least the near futur and I see no wrong in honoring them or their families.
Does it alway work??? No. Mostly it doesn't. I just is the lesser evil. But it's soldiers that are send when diplomacy fails (be it by having no faith, in one another, one party being irational ( > ISIS ). And it is the politicians that send them. (How many of the kids that got send to Vietnam wanted to go??? )You won't ever hear a career soldier say they want war except when a fool or that still believes he or she can't die
.
100 years
Yep, a full century. I may have mentioned before, my family fought on both sides of both 'world wars', family members were lost in both conflicts, a double tragedy. On the other hand most of the family came through, at least physically unscathed. To the best of my knowledge not a single relative has been in the military since 1947 when my Grandfather (half German but serving in the British Army) was demobbed other than compulsory National Service.
That doesn't mean we don't 'celebrate' Rememberance Day, In fact we remember those that perished almost every day, it's not Christmas, our ancestors died on every day of the year.
So wear your poppy, attend your parade tomorrow but remember them every day.
Mads
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Lip Service on 11 Nov
The UK does Remembrance Day as a sense of tradition, it saddens me that there is little thought by the Govt and public between wars of our service personnel.
As a veteran with 23years service 1970 to 1993, did several tours in Ulster during troubles, the Falklands, Bosnia, Kosovo and Desert Storm 15 months before my retirement, I've seen the brutality, and death of war.
It infuriates me that there between 80,000 and 125,000 ex service personnel that are homeless, in the UK thanks to Tony Blair immigrants have more rights than we who served and the present Govt have carried on the same way.
The Public are no better oh they show support when the troops are away fighting but they couldn't give a damn when the troops return.
Then we have the likes of FIFA who were going to levy fines against the UK national football teams for wearing poppies because they reckon it is a political thing.
Yes apathy reigns on Rememberance Day in the UK
Remembrance
Especially for UK Rudyard Kipling said it best in “Tommy”.
BAK 0.25tspgirl