Friday, March 31, 2006

War, What is it good for?

I read this today and had to post it because I think, in general, it is an awesome commentary on war and the devastation it can cause.

…”He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:
American planes, full of holes and wounded me and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. Then did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.
The American fliers turned in their uniforms and became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby.”
- Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five

2 Ripples in the pond:

Addy's Daddy said...

You hippie, with your not wanting to go to war! You make me sick!

Actually, that is a very interesting commentary on war. I didn't know that you were an anti-war kinda guy, Trin. I mean, I knew that you would hate to be in the military yourself (as would I), but I didn't know you didn't like war even if you weren't involved.

Trinity said...

Well, this comment was more a commentary than an opinion. It always depends on the war, and of course opinions can always change.