Off for a soldier

[Walsingham]

Gorth, I'm sure it wasn't your intention, but the spirit in that poem may have worked in the Sudan, but abused by a lackwitted doctrine it comprehensively minced an entire generation. Very saddening.

Umm... it was a bit intentional. It was written for the Boer war in South Africa in the 1890's, not Sudan. It may have been abused decades later, but I thought it illustrated the mindset of Victorian England quite well (that and Cricket).

 

The Boer war is also sad, marking as it did the incomparable generalship of Redvers Buller. The only general I can think of who actually punished his reconnaissance troops for bringing him news of an impending ambush, and then walking into it.

[Gorgon]

That the same genious who lost all the horse on a forced march, no water ?

[Gorth]

The Boer war is also sad, marking as it did the incomparable generalship of Redvers Buller. The only general I can think of who actually punished his reconnaissance troops for bringing him news of an impending ambush, and then walking into it.

 

Well, I always thought the british soldiers to be of far superior quality to their high command.

 

The reason why I saw as a fitting comparison was the fighting of elusive insurgents in a large country and then this sense of invincibility that the english empire seemed to have at the end of that century. No adversity too big and no enemy too numerous to be overcome by a handful of men.

 

My Africaans speaking friends and colleagues of course have different points of view of those events

[Walsingham]

Indeed, we had evolved a system of soldiering that created the finest mass-produced soldiers in the world. Unfortunately this permitted our leadeers to get away with a system that only thought a man fit for command if he was about 70 years old, plagued by gout, flatulence and terminal timidity.Lord Elhpinstone, the man who lost us the first Afghan war, _after we'd won it_ is a good example.

 

A.E. Houseman Last Poems (XXXVIII)

 

"Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough

The land and not the sea,

And leave the soldiers at their drill,

And all about the idle hill

Shepherd your sheep with me.

 

Oh stay with company and mirth

And daylight and the air;

Too full already is the grave

Of fellows that were good and brave

And died because they were."

[Walsingham]

To give some idea (the TA are actually sent on deployment, not just sitting at home these days):

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7005126.stm

[Walsingham]

Right I'm off. I'll see you the other side of pain.

[Gfted1]

Have fun storming the castle.

[Gorgon]

So, who will give me odds on Walsh washing out miserably ...

[Dark_Raven]

The Doors The Unknown Soldier

 

 

Wait until the war is over,

And we're both a little older,

The unknown soldier.

 

Breakfast where the news is read,

Television children fed,

Unborn living, living, dead,

Bullet strikes the helmet's head.

 

And it's all over

For the unknown soldier.

It's all over

For the unknown soldier, uh hu-uh.

 

Hut!

Hut!

Hut ho hee up!

Hut!

Hut!

Hut ho hee up!

Hut!

Hut!

Hut ho hee up!

Comp'nee,

Halt!

Pree-sent arms!

 

Make a grave for the unknown soldier

Nestled in your hollow shoulder,

The unknown soldier.

 

Breakfast where the news is read,

Television children fed,

Bullet strikes the helmet's head.

 

And, it's all over,

The war is over.

It's all over, war is over.

It's all over, baby!

All over, baby!

All, all over, yeah!

Aah, hah-hah.

All over, all over, babe!

Oh! Oh yeah!

All over, all over!

Ye-e-e-ah

[Fenghuang]

So, who will give me odds on Walsh washing out miserably ...

 

Wasn't having health problems recently? I am thinking this is more of a mid-life crisis situation. Our Wals is trying to live out his youthful fantasies one more time before he admits to himself that he's old.

 

And DR, as much as I like The Doors, the lyrics to their songs really aren't poetry. Besides, it's just not the same without Morrison's trademark wailing.

Edited September 22, 2007 by Fenghuang

[Musopticon?]

And the wailing lack of pot.

[Gorgon]

So, who will give me odds on Walsh washing out miserably ...

 

Wasn't having health problems recently? I am thinking this is more of a mid-life crisis situation. Our Wals is trying to live out his youthful fantasies one more time before he admits to himself that he's old.

 

And DR, as much as I like The Doors, the lyrics to their songs really aren't poetry. Besides, it's just not the same without Morrison's trademark wailing.

Well his mid life crisis seems to be keeping him fit, better than buying a ferari anyway.

[Pop]

I'm gonna rise up

I'm gonna kick a little ass

Gonna kick some ass in the USA

Gonna climb a mountain

Gonna sew a flag,

Gonna fly on an Eagle

I'm gonna kick some butt

I'm gonna drive a big truck

I'm gonna rule this world

Gonna kick some ass

Gonna rise up

Kick a little ass

 

ROCK, FLAG AND EAGLE!

[Dark_Raven]

Mandatory Suicide

 

Murder at your every foot step.

A child's toy sudden death.

Sniper blazes you thru your knees

Falling down can you feel the heat,

Burn!

 

Ambushed by the spray of lead

Count the bullet holes in your head.

Offspring sent out to cry,

Living mandatory suicide.

Suicide.

 

Holes burn deep in your chest,

Raked by machine gun fire.

Screaming soul sent out to die,

Living mandatory suicide.

Suicide.

 

Lying, dying, screaming in pain.

Begging, pleading, bullets drop like rain.

Mines explode, pain sheers through your brain,

Radical amputation, this is insane.

 

Fly swatter stakes drive through your chest.

Spikes impale you as you're forced off the crest.

Soldier of misfortune

Hunting with bated breath.

 

A vile smell, like tasting death.

Dead bodies, dying and wounded

Litter the city streets

Shattered glass, bits of clothing and human deceit.

Dying in terror,

Blood's cheap, it's everywhere.

Mandatory suicide, massacre on the front line.

[Walsingham]

Ya gotta love rock songs about war written by people whose only knowledge of war comes from watching Hollywood movies.

 

Anyway, nuts to alla youse. I passed with flying colours! Thanks for all your support (or otherwise, Gorgo). I have to tell you that it's worth doing if only for the experience, especially you young chaps.

 

..Oh I nearly forgot. Physical Training Instructors are neither born, nor excreted, they are condensed balls of misery.

[Gorgon]

Congrats

[samm]

Ya gotta love rock songs about war written by people whose only knowledge of war comes from watching Hollywood movies.

Don't use such reasoning, please... It's a) certain not to be always true b) actually good to know war only from film c) probable that not many people having survived a war are able to express that in music.

 

Anyway, I'm glad that you have had success in what you wanted

[Gorth]

I passed with flying colours!

Good to hear. Just keep working on that "staying in one piece" thing

[Walsingham]

Ya gotta love rock songs about war written by people whose only knowledge of war comes from watching Hollywood movies.

Don't use such reasoning, please... It's a) certain not to be always true b) actually good to know war only from film c) probable that not many people having survived a war are able to express that in music.

 

Anyway, I'm glad that you have had success in what you wanted

 

Would you accept songs about sex written by virgins?

 

I appreciate the good wishes, tho!

[Gorgon]

So you would have to be a professional soldier/rockstar. Aren't many of those around, and that James Blunt, wasen't he stationed in Bosnia, sings emo lovesongs.

[Walsingham]

So you would have to be a professional soldier/rockstar. Aren't many of those around, and that James Blunt, wasen't he stationed in Bosnia, sings emo lovesongs.

 

Elvis? Jimi Hendrix as your PTI? Somehow I can see that. It's terrifying.

 

"Squad! See that mountain? You will chop it down with the edge of your hand! NOW!"

[Brdavs]

Status Quo - In The Army Now?

 

heh, stay safe...

[Gorgon]

Jimmi never wrote any war songs, dunno about Elvis. But really, a war song by Elvis, probably a good thing I don't know about it.

 

Funny thing about Hendrix, somehow he retains a left wing image, Purple Haze is supposed to be about Vietnam, it ain't, Hendrix himself made it clear several times in interviews that he wanted communism to be fought actively.

 

Hej Dude is supposed to be an anti-gun anthem, it ain't, it's a blues song with a very common blues theme, 'ohh woe is Joe, he shot his girlfriend'. It's very Woody Leadbelly and not political at all.

[Gfted1]

Purple Haze. I always knew of it as the reefer reference.

 

The song is believed to refer to Hendrix's experiences with a similarly-named batch of LSD produced injello 1966 by Owsley Stanley. (In a 1967 BBC session, Hendrix recorded a cover version of the Beatles' "Day Tripper" in which he shouts, "Oh, Owsley, can you hear me now?" during the climactic guitar solo.) Others believed that the song's name was derived from a strain of marijuana, called "purple haze." However, in interviews Hendrix would disclaim any association with recreational drug use, asserting that the song was drawn from a dream he had where he was walking under the ocean, surrounded by a purple haze. At another point, Hendrix said he took the phrase "purple haze" from Night of Light, a science fiction novel written by Philip Jos

[Walsingham]

That's really interesting about Hendrix. I'm thinking I completely misunderstood him.