| The Past is Prelude |
17 November 2003
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A Soldier's Declaration
A soldier writes, "I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those how have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe this War, upon which I entered as a war of defense and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this War should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible for them to be changed without our knowledge, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.
"I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolonging those sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.
"I am not protesting against the military conduct of the War, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.
"On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practiced on them. Also I believe that it may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those as home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize."
Written by Sigfried Sassoon, read before the House of Commons, July 30, 1917, printed in The Times July 31, 1917. Appropriately enough, that was also the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele, which cost the Allies about 300,000 dead (35 men for every metre gained) and the Germans a further 260,000. As a basis for comparison, the 560,000 combined dead is about the same as the populations of Seattle or Denver in the US, or Sheffield in England.
Drawing parallels across time is not always an accurate way to deal with history; today, there is no enemy with whom to negotiate. Yet certain themes never seem to go away, like political leaders who fail to tell their soldiers, sailors and airmen the real reason they are put in harm's way. The only difference between then and now, apparently, is the number of zeros on the casualty figures.
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