I have no Quarrel – a poem for Remembrance.

Posted on by Opher

I have no Quarrel

 

I have no quarrel with you

As I take aim.

I mean you no harm.

Yet I would shoot you dead.

 

We could meet as friends

And share a pint,

Laugh together;

Our lives not so different.

 

We sat around similar hearths

With our wives

Families and children,

Dogs at our feet.

 

Now, cold and wet,

Squatting in slimy mud,

Numbed in mind

I would seek your blood.

 

We have more in common

Than those who sent us here.

We are faced the wrong way.

As I hold my breath and pull.

 

Opher 9.11.2018

 

 

All too often we find ourselves at war with people for whom we hold no enmity; people who, like us, merely wish for a peaceful life with their family and friends.

If the everyday people of different countries were to meet they would find so much in common. They could find plenty to laugh about.

Yet politics and religion pit them against each other as leaders clash and pawns are deployed.

Why I don’t wear a red poppy!

Posted on by Opher

Back in the sixties, where my philosophy stems from, we were a generation who wanted peace. We stood against war. We took the attitude that violence creates violence and there were better ways of dealing with problems.

The Vietnam war was raging. American boys were being brought back maimed or in body bags. Vietnamese people were being bombed and napalmed. There were atrocities, agent orange, the My Lai massacre, rape and torture. War is horrific and disgusting.

We opposed war.

The red poppy was seen as a symbol of war, and the Remembrance Service was run by the State that caused and ran that war. It really did not represent the ordinary soldiers who had fought, died and been mentally or physically maimed by that war.

The people organising the Remembrance Service were the same people who, in the 1st World War, had ordered the shooting of young soldiers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. There was an element of jingoism and unpleasant nationalistic patriotism in that Remembrance Service that felt hypocritical.

In America I met US veterans who were traumatised by what they had seen and done. They despised the way they had been treated. They felt used and discarded.

I felt that the Vietnam War, like most wars, was not a just war. It was about politics and power – not justice.

Since then we have had what I consider to be illegal war after illegal war – Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and Syria. More body bags, torture, rape and atrocities – more horror. All in the name of profit and economic imperialism.

If only as much money and energy had been put into solving the underlying problems we wouldn’t have the festering Palestinian situation, the rise of militant Islam or mass migration. But no. They want war.

It is quite apparent that the soldiers who are sacrificed in these conflicts are being used. They come back physically maimed or suffering from Post Traumatic Stress and are largely discarded and forgotten. They rely on poppy sales and donations to gain any reasonable treatment. While the Remembrance Services perpetuate the same old hypocritical lie.

So my sympathies lie with the soldiers and not the politicians and generals who wrongly deploy them.

I would wear a poppy to support them, to acknowledge their bravery, and in recognition that we do need a military force to protect us; that there are forces out there who would threaten us.

I would wear a poppy to recognise the sacrifices made by our troops – the deaths, the injuries and psychological trauma.

I would wear a poppy to salute the brave men and women who protect us.

But I won’t wear a poppy for the warmongering politicians or generals.

I won’t wear a poppy for unjust wars.

So I choose to wear a white poppy.

The white poppy stands for peace. It supports our troops and the victims of war. It recognises their valour and their role in protecting us while not supporting the war machine that is causing such wanton destruction around the world.

I wear a white poppy.

 

Just Imagine If We Didn’t Need an Army, Navy and Airforce?

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Just imagine if there was no longer any need for wars? If we did not need to spend huge sums of money on an army, air force and navy? If we didn’t keep reducing cities to rubble and spending huge sums rebuilding them?

Isn’t war the most ridiculous thing that humans do?

So who benefits from war?

Why do the powerful wish to attack and destroy?

Do ordinary people in one country really have a problem with ordinary people in other countries?

Just imagine if all the money wasted on these military exercises and rebuilding could be deployed to make the world a better place?

Just imagine if all the people presently in armies carrying out destruction and pointless military activities could be diverted into positive action and building?

We could end poverty.

We could save the environment.

We could make life brilliant for everyone.

Just imagine.

Neil Young – Ohio – A protest song of magnitude!

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This is one of my favourite Neil Young tracks. It has real emotion and fury.

Richard Nixon had just announced an escalation of the Vietnam War at the beginning of May in 1970. There was an expansion into Cambodia. The student antiwar protest movement was infuriated. There were widespread protests.

Trouble had been fermenting for days. On the campus of Kent State in Ohio a large group of students protested. The National Guard were called out in strength by the governor of the State Rhodes. State troopers with fixed bayonets and live ammunition confronted the protestors. The protestors did not disperse and the State troopers fired into the unarmed crowd killing four students and injuring nine others one of whom was paralysed.

The incident became known as the Kent State Massacre and provoked widespread fury and protest across the States.

Neil Young was incensed and wrote Ohio. It was quickly recorded by CSN&Y and put out while the venom was hot.

I rate it as one of Neil’s best songs.

Neil Young – Ohio

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Read more: Neil Young – Ohio Lyrics | MetroLyrics

The Best Anti-War Song Ever – An Untitled Protest – Country Joe & The Fish

Posted on by Opher

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Is this the best anti-war song ever? It was written about the Vietnam War with the poem more or less recited over a swelling organ dirge. The effects, with Country Joe’s incredibly clear voice, was chilling.

Country Joe and the Fish were one of the first and foremost Acid Rock Bands to come out of San Francisco in the sixties. They lived in the Haight Asbury area along with other great bands including the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Big Brother & the Holding Company. That was quite a scene going on there. I visited in 1971 and it had decayed away but the vestiges were still to be found.

Country Joe and the Fish had their roots in Jugband agitprop and were one of the most political of the West Coast bands. They were, and still are, one of my favourites.

An Untitled Protest by Country Joe & the Fish

Red and swollen tears tumble from her eyes
While cold silver birds who came to cruise the skies
Send death down to bend and twist her tiny hands
And then proceed to target B in keeping with their plans
Khaki priests of Christendom, interpreters of love
Ride a stone Leviathan across a sea of blood
And pound their feet into the sand of shores they’ve never seen
Delegates from the western land to join the death machine
And we send cards and letters.

The oxen lie beside the road their bodies baked in mud
And fat flies chew out their eyes then bathe themselves in blood
And superheroes fill the skies, tally sheets in hand
Yes, keeping score in times of war takes a superman
The junk crawls past hidden death its cargo shakes inside
And soldier children hold their breath and kill them as they hide
And those who took so long to learn the subtle ways of death
Lie and bleed in paddy mud with questions on their breath
And we send prayers and praises.

The Hull Blitz – Commemoration of the events 75 years ago today – 400 deaths.

Posted on by Opher

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Between May the 3rd and May the 9th 1941 Hull was systematically blitzed by the German Luftwaffe. It had strategic importance as a port and they attempted to take it out of commission. In that week there were 400 civilian deaths and huge amount of damage to housing.

During the war my mother-in-law told me she was bombed out of three houses. They used to hide under a big metal table for protection. I used to joke with her that the Luftwaffe were after her. She told me that Hull was the most bombed city in Britain. She was right.

Extract from Wikipaedia –

Hull was the most severely damaged British city or town during the Second World War, with 95 percent of houses damaged.[1] Hull had more than 1,000 hours spent under air raid alerts.[2] Hull was the target of the first daylight raid of the war and the last piloted air raid on Britain.[1]

Of a population of approximately 320,000 at the beginning of the war, approximately 152,000 were made homeless as a result of bomb destruction or damage.[3] Overall almost 1,200 people were killed and 3,000 injured by the air raids.[4]

More than 5,000 houses were destroyed and half of the city centre destroyed. The cost of bomb damage was estimated at £20 million (1952, £518,985,637 as a consumer price equivalent), with 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2) of factory space, several oil and flour mills, the Riverside Quay and 27 churches, 14 schools or hospitals, 42 pubs and 8 cinemas ruined; only 6,000 out of the 91,000 houses were undamaged at the end of the war.[5][6] The extent of the damage was similar to that of the Plymouth Blitz.[5]

Despite the damage the port continued to function throughout the war.

Let us hope that we’ll never have a war like that again!

Remembrance Day (Veterans Day) – An ambivalence.

Posted on by Opher

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I was dealing my emails this morning and had the radio on. It was the Remembrance Service.

I always find myself ambivalent. I do not find this a simple thing. Emotionally I am in a strange place. Perhaps it is my view towards the Vietnam War and the later Iraq and Afghan wars. Then we have Syria, Iran and Libya. War rarely sorts out anything.

Should I wear a red poppy, a white poppy or no poppy?

I do appreciate the fact that we are safe, that we have a democracy (imperfect but better than not having one), that we are ruled secularly, that we have freedom of speech and equality. I enjoy living in a pluralistic society without the misogyny, racism and intolerance of many cultures.

I do appreciate the huge sacrifice and bravery of our troops. My father and grandfather both fought in the world wars.

I would like to recognise the efforts and sacrifices of our soldiers.

However, I do not have any faith in the decisions made by governments. I believe they lie and misrepresent, that they have political agendas and economic reasons for their decisions. How many wars are created for political or economic reasons and have nothing to do with our security? What distorted propaganda was put out by the CIA and British Intelligence? What destabilising has gone on?

I only have to look at Chile, Argentina, Vietnam, Cambodia and Africa to see the result of political intrigue.

How important was oil? How are we playing one group against another to our own advantage?

Which wars would I support? Which do I think were legal? How much are our views being manipulated?

I do not find these easy questions.

I would like to wear a poppy to support the soldiers who have suffered tremendous life-changing injuries (mental and physical) or death and their families.

I would consider, as a pacifist, wearing a white poppy to show that support while opposing war.

But I do not like the whole pageant of Remembrance Day. I do not like the way the Establishment, who I consider to be behind many of the unjustified wars, take the leading part. The politicians and aristocracy, who made the decisions, now stand there while those who make the sacrifices march past.

I detest the military aspects. I find it very martial and all about military power and to have a triumphal air. The military music is not about remembrance to me. The uniforms, flags and marching speaks of arrogance, strength and war – not sadness.

The whole business reeks of hypocrisy to me!

Terror and Total War – The theory and Practice still put to use today by ISIL.

Posted on by Opher

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There is nothing new about the use of terror as a weapon of war.

Alexander the Great used the tactics in his war with the against the Persians, way back in 332 BC. He was so furious at the way the fortified island city of Tyre held out against him, forcing him to waste much time and energy to defeat them, (it took months and he had to construct a causeway out to the island in order to capture the city) that he made an example of them. His idea was that everyone else should see what happened to people who resisted him.

He destroyed the city. Sold 30,000 into slavery and massacred 8,000 civilians. He had them crucified on the beach for everyone to see.

The message soon got round. Many came over to his side to escape his wrath and people were terrified to stand against him.

We can see the same tactics being used by ISIL. Nowadays they use social media to show mass beheadings, people locked in cars and blown up with rocket launchers, underwater film of people being drowned as they are slowly lowered into the water, people have their heads blown off with plastic explosive, being buried alive, thrown off high building, slowly crushed and people being burnt alive in cages. It is barbaric and gruesome, cruel, heartless and callous (and all in the supposed name of religion!) but, in the short  term it is highly effective.

As with Alexander the Great it sends terror into the hearts of the enemy. Despite the fact that the Iraqi troops far outnumbered the ISIL troops ISIL have been able to take places like Palmira. The Iraqi troops were so terrified at the thought of what would happen to them if they were caught that they ran away.

In the long term it will lead to the utter annihilation of ISIL. The revulsion for their tactics will unite civilised people in opposing them. Even pacifist like myself are so repulsed by their primitive inhumanity that they want them, and their intolerant savage doctrine, eradicated. People will soon recognise that ISIL is not driven by religious conviction so much as megalomania and animalistic blood-lust. Their Jihadists are in it for the sex and excitement, the religious fervour is a sham.

Terror gives short-term advantage and a long-term heavy reckoning. ISIL’s days are numbered. The whole world has had enough of their evil.

Human beings are very delicate.

Posted on by Opher

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I used to think we were strong. People seem so resilient. But I have come to realise just how fragile we really are. We put on a front for the world to see. Behind that is a mess of fear, pain and anxiety.

I was extremely fortunate to have a life that has been free of trauma. I thought it was the norm. It is not.

In the course of my career I have witnessed students torn apart by deaths or break-up in their families. They cease to behave normally.

I have come to learn that the abused are so traumatised by what has happened to them that they become abusers. The same goes for the bullied.

It has made me look around the world with fresh eyes at the raped, the dispossessed, the brutalised and ousted. Those that live in terror, those who starve in the midst of plenty and those who have been tortured or forced to flee.

My father was a soldier in the Second World War. He saw his friends killed. He did not talk about it. Some of my teachers were ex-soldiers from that conflict. They were among the most violent, vicious and disturbed individuals I have ever met.

Around the world we have wars that are affecting tens of millions. We have bereavements as part of everyday life.

I think all those brutalised people, whether victims or perpetrators, carry on the viciousness of the times out of the mental disturbance they have suffered.

Their brains have rewired.

Fascism is probably the result of anxiety and fear culminating in paranoia.

The only way we are going to escape this cycle is to have a generation who are free of war, torture and abuse and to get proper psychological support for the bereaved and traumatised.

Let’s hope we can find a way.

War – Edwin Starr – lyrics about the stupidity of war – there’s always a better way other than violence.

Posted on by Opher

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This is from when Soul really did mean Soul. This song was about the Vietnam War but it could have been any conflict. We build things up and we knock them down out of greed, hatred, fear and fanaticism. There seems no end to the violence and cruelty of human beings.

What we need is peace, love, tolerance, freedom, humanity, sharing, and a helping hand. Help build a positive zeitgeist based on brotherhood/sisterhood.

War – by Edwin Starr

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y’all

War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

Ohhh, war, I despise
Because it means destruction
Of innocent lives

War means tears
To thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives

I said, war, huh
Good God, y’all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain’t nothing
But a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Ooooh, war
It’s an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest
Within the younger generation
Induction then destruction
Who wants to die
Aaaaah, war-huh
Good God y’all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it, say it, say it
War, huh
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y’all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker
War, it’s got one friend
That’s the undertaker
Ooooh, war, has shattered
Many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious
To spend fighting wars these days
War can’t give life
It can only take it away

Ooooh, war, huh
Good God y’all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding
Tell me, is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there’s got to be a better way

Ooooooh, war, huh
Good God y’all
What is it good for
You tell me
Say it, say it, say it, say it

War, huh
Good God y’all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it
Nothing