Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

- Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), published 1920

Wonderful. I had forgotten this from my childhood.

You know what's more horrible than war? Not being able to wage war. I'm from a country (Bangladesh) that fought a war, in which about half a million people died, to free itself from Pakistan, which was treating us like second-class citizens. In doing so, we were able to separate ourselves and plot our own course. And lucky for us--as theocracy has overtaken Pakistan, Bangladesh went from being significantly poorer than Pakistan (40% lower GDP per capita) to catching up and on a path to overtake. Not to mention, being a (relatively) freer society. War is a fundamental tool in the exercise of self determination.

Most people who talk about how "horrible war is" have never been in a context where killing or being killed is preferable to the status quo.

And yet war is still terrible, and people should know it, even if it's sometimes less terrible than the alternative. The choice should be made with eyes wide open, not lulled into its fangs unbeknownst.

I always wonder why did they go ahead with the idea of being a part of Pakistan in the first place, especially when their ties to the language was stronger and older than ties to a religion/politics. Was autonomy out of question ?

At the time, East Bengal was almost completely agrarian, and highly dependent on the industrial centers in West Bengal (which went to India), and Pakistan.

I see, that does make sense. Best wishes for Bangladesh want to visit sometime.

Defending or fighting for independence seems quite different from imperialism.

I can’t tell if you’re calling for an end to war or for keeping it around so that we can show it to people as a reminder of how horrible it is.

War memorials and museums should include as many depictions as possible of the horrors of war, including sounds and smells, to better vaccinate new generations against it.