I know what to do. We’ll settle it by declaring it war.
War? Is it really the best way to settle political disagreements between groups of people—showing others that they are wrong about how best to govern themselves by killing them?
War, from Da Nang to Madison and back again
Oh yes, I remember now. It was Woodstock 50 years ago, and for me it was also Vietnam three years before that. I managed to hit both places at a time in my and my country’s life when the toll of these phenomena on what had been a long-standing culture was visibly alive and swayed differently in the minds of citizens. One said, “Go kill an evil enemy.” The other said, “No, that in itself is evil. If you’re going to kill anyone, make it one of those so-called leaders who feel it incumbent to make killing and dying a badge of honor.”
Outdoors in World War I country
The French know how to honor their dead, and they have many to mourn. In 1914, France had a population of 40 million. By the end of the Great War, the war to end all wars, one in 20 French citizens was dead. In the first year of the war, 1914, every day on average 2,200 Frenchmen died. It’s hard to get your head around these numbers.