The Horror... The Horror (670 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.88 on 15 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by d'ohnuts (View user info) at 2004-05-13 09:21:24 EDT
"The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism...
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside--which the startled minister did--and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
"I come from the Throne--bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import--that is to say, its full import. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it--that part which the pastor--and also you in your hearts--fervently prayed silently."
"O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it--for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."
"I could watch a burned infant trying to nurse from its dead mother's breast, see young men with their faces blown away, witness a boy deliberately gutted...and never protest."
"But [bombings] arouse a completely personal hate that no one can really understand who has not huddled in a cellar or burrowed his face in a field to escape dive bombers or seen a mother search for her son's torn-off head or smelled the stench of burning schoolchildren."
"I became a fucking animal. I started fucking putting fucking heads on poles. Leaving fucking notes for the motherfuckers. Digging up fucking graves. I didn't give a fuck anymore. Y'know, I wanted... They wanted a fucking hero, so I gave it to them. They wanted fucking body count, so I gave them body count."
"Over by the...gate lay five civilian victims on stretchers, waiting for their coffins to arrive. They were terribly mutilated and very dirty, for the force of the explosion had tattooed their flesh with gravel and sand. Beside one corpse was a brand-new, undamaged straw hat. All the bodies looked very small, very poor, and very dead, but, as we stood beside one old woman, whose brains were soaking obscenely through a little towel, I saw the blood-caked mouth open and shut, and the hand beneath the sack-covering clench and unclench."
User Reviews
Submitted by dohnuts (user info) at 2004-05-18 12:28:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
funk_boy: Yeah, 18 or 19 years at this point (guess you read that in a review somewhere?)...and I've got ruined knees and an arthritic hip to show for it. Not to mention the half-dozen or so shoulder separations. Still won't give it up until the Dr. or my body says I've got to, though. My mental health depends on it.
Submitted by funk_boy (user info) at 2004-05-18 06:43:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 because you've been skating for longer than me..
Submitted by Judoka (user info) at 2004-05-14 12:08:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Sicgrrl (user info) at 2004-05-14 11:32:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"I became a fucking animal. I started fucking putting fucking heads on poles. I didn't give a fuck anymore. They wanted a fucking hero, so I gave it to them. They wanted fucking body count, so I gave them body count."
Bring it on!!!
(great answer phone message)
Well put together d'ohnuts.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-05-14 08:42:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yep.
Submitted by dohnuts (user info) at 2004-05-14 08:30:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
whataefag: thank you, thank you, thank you... not so much for the positive review (ratings and hits don't mean too much to me), but for letting me know that at least one person understood.
Submitted by whataefag (user info) at 2004-05-13 14:16:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Poignant. I don't know why people have negative responses to this: hello, it's fucking reality!
Submitted by dohnuts (user info) at 2004-05-13 12:04:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
oops... "me"
Submitted by dohnuts (user info) at 2004-05-13 12:03:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Fair enough, guys. Oddly, it's pretty much that same sentiment that spurred my to do this post. In a room (Ubersite) full of people spouting off about the war in Iraq, I felt something should be said about war in general.
Oh well.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2004-05-13 10:38:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I'm with NotApologising here, except I won't crap a big -2 onto something that somebody put effort into. I just won't read it.
Enough with the Iraq already!
Submitted by NotApologizing (user info) at 2004-05-13 10:25:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No, I read it. I expected to care but I found myself mentally numb to the descriptions and images that appeared there.
It's not your fault; you just happened to be the last straw resting on my now-broken back (I'm a camel).
I had to -2 it because I realized I personally have been reading too much about Iraq, torture, and how everyone thinks the US should kneel in penance before the enlightened rest of the world.
Submitted by dohnuts (user info) at 2004-05-13 10:16:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I hope you at least read the post, NotApologizing. It isn't about Iraq, per se. It is about war, and how some people are all comfy and cozy with the idea of it, as long as they can keep things in black and white; a nice, clean and sanitary version of war in which it is us versus them, good guys against bad guys, civilization versus barbarism.
And that's just not how war is.
Nonetheless I'm hearbroken, really, that all who dare to actually discuss Iraq must now suffer your -2's as a result of me.
Submitted by circle_of_willis (user info) at 2004-05-13 09:40:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
No Comment
Submitted by NotApologizing (user info) at 2004-05-13 09:33:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Congratulations! You've pushed me over the dge of wanting to even think about the war in Iraq. You will receive a -2 here, and you've ensured that every post after this one talking about Iraq will receive a -2. Way to go!
Submitted by dohnuts (user info) at 2004-05-13 09:22:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Words by Samuel Clemens. Quotes from Anonymous Soldiers. Photos courtesy TMO.