I remember the old novels and the war-mongering speeches of old lauding the 'glory' of war heralded by flagwaving, the marching cadence of drums, the tearstained but proud faces of those waving them off...

I guess their imagination didn't encompass blood and guts and fear and loss, the spirit-brutalizing panic, the empty seat at the table, the generation gone forever...

May the day soon arrive when war is seen clearly as the most archaic of methods in achieving peace.