Sunday, May 29, 2016

Just A Common Soldier - A Soldier Died Today

Via Billy


Just A Common Soldier, also known as A Soldier Died Today, is one of the most popular poems on the Internet. Written and published in 1987 by Canadian veteran and columnist A. Lawrence Vaincourt, it now appears in numerous anthologies, on thousands of websites and on July 4, 2008 it was carved into a marble monument at West Point, New York. This year marks the poem’s 25th anniversary.
Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 30, 2016 at 7:33 PM

    Truly beautiful and beautifully recited. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brock TownsendMay 30, 2016 at 8:37 PM

      Thanks and an amazing actor to be able to keep it on the verge of tears without breaking down. No way I could have done it.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousMay 30, 2016 at 10:49 PM

    In the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, a certain percentage of young American men from blue collar families would typically join some branch of the US military to gain employment, free medical and dental care, free meals and housing, technical training, perhaps some college, and above all, have an adventure and see the world.

    No one of those decades had any inkling of what the Pentagon was really about and just how rotten are the scoundrels and liars of Washington DC who connive with their pals in banking and the military-industrial complex to create the pretext and excuses to wage war against innocent people in far away lands, so said scoundrels can generate obscene amounts of profit and booty for themselves, and all at taxpayer expense.

    Following the treachery leveled against US service men in the first Gulf war (1991) by its own government in which hundreds of thousands of men and women were subjected to vaccinations that caused the intentionally introduced, lab created "Gulf War syndrome (or illness)", you would think that far more young people would think twice about joining a Pentagon killing machine that had all the earmarks of satanic stewardship.

    After the traitors in our military and government, working with the Mossad, orchestrated the events of 9/11, they send US military personnel into Iraq and Afghanistan to engage in such depraved levels of barbarity, cruelty, and murderous savagery (mostly against civilians), that for the first time in the history of the United States, we have scores and scores of returning military men committing suicide because they can no longer take the mental torment that their conscience has forced upon them for their unconscionable conduct in the Middle East.

    The only way you can stop this process is to stop cooperating with it and that means to stop enlisting in the military and subject yourself to the Pentagon's sorcerers (and I mean that literally). In 2005, all the signs were in place for the calling of a draft, but ultimately they decided to not follow through because the war in Iraq, I think, was beginning to lose popular support and the institution of a draft would lead to anti-war protests on campuses across the country and that in turn would lead to an eventual pullout of US troops in the Middle East (as in Vietnam).

    So they start sucking up recruits from Mexico, Central America, South America and the Philippines to fill American military boots and make up the shortfall with promises of a fast track to US citzenship and other financial perks and incentives (at taxpayer expense, of course). In earlier decades, you could believe the party line that we were the Good Guys of the world and that our mission was to 'maintain the peace' and 'provide stability', and all the flag-waving crap that they throw at naive, inexperienced, and trusting young minds. But today there is no excuse.

    With the internet, anyone can find out exactly who and what the Pentagon is and understand the price you will pay if you foolishly decide to join that killing machine. You can't blame the veterans of earlier decades because we thought we were doing the right thing and assumed that the military was on the up and up. But today, everyone should know the score and we should do nothing to encourage or enable that killing enterprise-including celebrating its 'commemorative' rituals.
    Smedley Butler knew all this. A racket.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brock TownsendMay 30, 2016 at 11:31 PM

      Thanks. http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2016/05/smedley-butler-knew-all-this-racket.html

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMay 30, 2016 at 11:26 PM

    Brock, click on the word 'Capture' for video. Video
    cannot be shared for whatever reason.
    https://whatdidyousay.org/2016/05/30/must-see-video-3/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brock TownsendMay 30, 2016 at 11:50 PM

      Thanks and I had no idea the few who are buried in Flander's Field considering the marvelous poem.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)