Mark Twain, "The War Prayer" (ca. 1904-5)

Stanford Reader AYP ^ | ca. 1904/5 | Mark Twain

[cmj328]

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...

[cmj328]

The American writer Mark Twain wrote the above satire in the glow of America’s imperial interventions.

[JennysCool]

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

[DiogenesLamp]

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;

If they hadn't been invading other people's land, they would not be writhing in pain in the fields.

The tragedy is that the people defending their land had to writhe in pain. The invaders deserved it.

[Flick Lives]

Twain’s writing always looks simple, but its message is always deep.

[Qui is]

This is a very poignant post for me because although not about war, I was thinking something along the same lines yesterday.

I was waiting to board the Metro train in Downtown LA and overheard a comment from one man to another on the platform. The first man found a $1 bill on the ground and mentioned to his friend that somebody must have dropped it and that that person’s loss was his gain. He then said he wished it had been a $100 bill. I thought to myself to myself how very selfish and callous it was for him to say that since somebody must first lose money before somebody else can find it, and for most people that ride the Metro $100 is not pocket change.

Later during my commute home it occurred to me that wishing to find money on the ground is the same as wishing for somebody else to lose money. Our gain due to somebody else’s loss.

[TheDandyMan]

I’m disgusted with the pro-Putin troll faction around here. The people who for months brayed that Russia was merely wargaming and any suggestion that would invade was neocon fearmongering, who effortlessly pivoted once the invasion commenced to claiming Russia is entirely justified in invading.

All that said, this is entirely the fault of Putin and his faction. They aren’t bleeding. I don’t believe 18 year old Russian conscripts deserve it. The greatest tragedy of war is that the ones who start it seldom suffer the consequences of their actions. Someone else’s teenage sons do.

I’m glad Ukraine is putting up a hell of a fight by all appearances, but when the Twitterati put videos of Russian soldiers being killed, and hordes of brain dead leftists who don’t know up from down comment cheerfully about “kill the invaders” like they’re watching a Star Wars movie , and MSM outlets run photos of dead Russian soldiers laying in the snow, it turns my stomach. Those kids didn’t wake up one day and say, hey let’s invade Ukraine! Their leadership put a gun to their head and herded them in.

The good qualities of soldiers — duty, patriotism and loyalty, bravery — are being squandered to a terrible end and I hope Putin feels every ounce of the weight of that when he passes.

[Dr. Sivana]

Later during my commute home it occurred to me that wishing to find money on the ground is the same as wishing for somebody else to lose money. Our gain due to somebody else’s loss.

I sometimes wondered whether the coin the apostles found in the mouth of the fish to pay the tax was created "ex nihilo" or was first lost by somebody. I am saving that question for the Afterlife, since I won't get a definitive one in this one.

[Tell It Right]

What exactly is meant by "in the glow of America's imperial interventions" in 1904 or 1905?

The media might want us to forget that their yellow journalism is what drove us into the Spanish-American War. Nobody wanted to war with Spain over the explosion of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba until Joseph Pulitzer and his competitors made it their lifeblood to routinely give us "new information" on "the scandal" that somebody ought to "do something" about. They're so proud of their fake news that they name their most honored prize after Pulitzer.

Or maybe Twain was talking about the Moro (Muslim) insurgency in the Philippines (and us having had enough of Muslim attacks on us in the prior hundred years).

[bravo whiskey]

I look for coins dropped in parking lots and gas stations. Any I find go into a “found jar” for the year which I place at significant spots in my house according to feng shui.
I have containers from 2000. Most have $3-$4 total for the year.

[JennysCool]

it occurred to me that wishing to find money on the ground is the same as wishing for somebody else to lose money. Our gain due to somebody else’s loss.

Fear not, for it may have been a politician who dropped it, and therefore it is fair game.

[Qui is]

OK. You got me there. But instead of dropping only a $100 bill, I would hope for sake of fairness and justice, the politician would drop his wallet or her purse with all their bank cards and passwords. 😉

[Srednik]

Historical factoid. Remember, Sam was no Christian believer. He told his sweetheart he was in order to marry her, and then broke her heart long-term by revealing in his contact he was a liar. I mention this only because not only was he a cynic when it came to war, but also when it came to prayer.