[Singh]

Many people died in both the wars, so that we could live now. Atrocities have been commited, people have been killed, dictators have risen and fallen.

One would normally say that mourning the past isnt really go to change any of that. But there are some things, some events on such a grand scale, that to forget them, and the sacrifices it curtailed, would nothing short of forgetting one's mother, or indeed, forgetting all person that helped you along your life and have brought you to where you are. Those brave men and women went into the war, and those that came out were scarred forever. Let not only the dead be forgotten, but the generation that passed it as well; for while the soldiers died on the battlefield to ensure we had a future, the generation that followed ensured that their sacrifice never went to waste.

I salute thee soldiers, of not only the world war, but of the cold war that followed, for keeping humanity running despite the worst of odds, and ensuring we never went over the brink into oblivion. May ye rest in peace, and in the knowledge that your sacrifices never went to waste.....

[Ford Prefect]

It occurs to me that while eighteen year-old kids fought and died on the battlefields of Europe and Asia, starved and sacrificed, we today consider it a great injustice and challenge when gas prices rise by a few cents, or when the Internet goes out for a day. So were they supermen, to do what they did? No, just ordinary people. But they were made great by their circumstances. Circumstances which, I might add, no sane person would today defend or exalt. I can't help but feel that we've lost something, in this new world; something very basic in human nature, the wild, warlike element. We've traded in the glare of the sun on spears and sheilds for the glare of flourescent lights on white shirt collars. There's no more death and suffering, but no more heros either.

Just something to think about.

The world is festering with violence, as it always has been and probably always will be. So you needn't worry; humanity will always have a way of flushing its own down the toilet, and then pretending that calling them heroes will gloss over the primal horror of crying for one's mother in a foxhole. I wish you were right, though. I think I prefer flourescent lights, even though they do seem to give my face a rather sickly color. They're working on it, though.

[pyro-manic]

Uhm, pardon, but... what?

You aren't serious..... are you? Eighty million dead, and you managed to miss it?

[Janos]

World War I was stupid, pointless war and nobody won it. Millions of people died and it didn't mean jack ****, except that the inevitable sequel would result in much more death and carnage.

[Sandwich]

Uhm, pardon, but... what?

You're kidding?

No, I wasn't. I didn't know what the occasion was - and wasn't clear-headed enough to figure it out at 4am. :-/

Dude... you remember those things... the World Wars?

I'm not sure I should even answer that, but let's just say that my grandfather fought in WWII. I remember them quite well - what I didn't remember was what day I'm supposed to remember them on.

[Flipside]

Both my grandad's fought in the war. I always have mixed feelings about rememberance day. As my Grandfather said before he died, 'They were doing it because they thought it was the only option they had left. The government can remember them one day a year, but I remember them every day of my life, and it's not like the people that sent us to war had to suffer, they had the thickest walls and the deepest caves.'

I suppose that's where a lot of my own attitude towards war has come from.

[Grey Wolf]

The world is festering with violence, as it always has been and probably always will be. So you needn't worry; humanity will always have a way of flushing its own down the toilet, and then pretending that calling them heroes will gloss over the primal horror of crying for one's mother in a foxhole. I wish you were right, though. I think I prefer flourescent lights, even though they do seem to give my face a rather sickly color. They're working on it, though.

Just shut up. Now.

[vyper]

He makes a valid point though, remember the men for their sacrifice, not the war itself as being noble.

[Rictor]

Well that's what you would think, but is sacrifice is noble, the conditions must exist for sacrficice to be possible. Tell me, what does someone living in the West in the 21st century ever have to sacrifice? What hardship must he/she endure? What challenges must be overcome? Conflict, whether ideological or military or cultural or whatever, drives the power process in an individual that gives them a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

[Janos]

Well that's what you would think, but is sacrifice is noble, the conditions must exist for sacrficice to be possible. Tell me, what does someone living in the West in the 21st century ever have to sacrifice? What hardship must he/she endure? What challenges must be overcome? Conflict, whether ideological or military or cultural or whatever, drives the power process in an individual that gives them a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Have you been reading Nietzsche again?

[General Freak]

Well, almost 48 hours have passed since Remembrance Day (with today being Remembrance Sunday of course). My school has its own tradition on that day, which it has been practising for many years. There was a Remembrance Day assembly on Friday morning and we all entered and left in silence. During the assembly, the names of all the fallen soldiers, who were once pupils of the school, were read and the poem ‘For the Fallen’ was recited. Our teacher let us out of class early, for the Remembrance Day parade so we could get a good view but a crowd was already gathered and was steadily increasing. I still managed to find a good spot at the front line, and stood there with everyone else. The parade was performed by a selected group from our Combined Cadet Force standing in formation on the main square of the school (it is hard to explain what exactly the CCF is in a few words, so see it as a form of Junior Scouts movement combined with close contacts with Britain’s armed forces, mainly the Army). The murmur of the crowd was muted when the recruits were ordered into attention, and we remained silent until the end of the ceremony.

At 11am, the British flag, along with the banner of our school, were raised, and then slowly lowered to the ground, to the sound of ‘The Last Post’, followed by 87 strokes of the school bell, one for every year past since 1918. The signal for the 2-minute-silence ended when the flags were raised up again. For 2 minutes we all stood there, silent, listening to the sounds of rustling leaves and the blowing of the wind. I think we were all a bit cold, but nobody moved. The sky was bright, yet bleak, grey, despite patches of clear blue. I looked at the Union Jack, flapping proudly in the strong wind, and kept watching it, not knowing what I was feeling, but only that something was there. This was the first time I had been standing on the front life of spectators. I was surprised that I found myself almost yawning, or so I told myself. The regimental bagpiper played an unknown tune, after which the recruits marched away, out of sight from us. The previously unchallenged silence was quickly broken and I, too, joined the crowd and walked back into the school.

[vyper]

The piper was probably playing flowers of the forest.