There is “great rejoicing at the nation’s capital”. So says the morning’s paper.
The enemy’s fleet has been annihilated.
Mothers are delighted because other mothers have lost sons just like their own;
Wives and daughters smile at the thought of new-made widows and orphans;
Strong men are full of glee because other strong men are either slain or doomed to rot alive in torments;
Small boys are delirious with pride and joy as they fancy themselves thrusting swords into soft flesh, and burning and laying waste such homes as they themselves inhabit;
Another capital is cast down with mourning and humiliation just in proportion as ours is raised up, and that is the very spice of our triumph…
This is life–this is patriotism–this is rapture!
But we–what are we, men or devils? and our Christian capital–what is it but an outpost of Hell?
Ernest Crosby, “War and Hell”, 1898
(Written at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.)
On Israel and Lebanon : Robert Fisk, ‘The child lies like a rag doll…’, The Independent, July 20, 2006.
