What Does the Future Hold?

Vokzalna Street of Bucha (Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine)
where a Russian military column was destroyed on 27 February 2022.
(Source)

Yesterday's re-run generated a number of interesting comments. You'll have to pardon my somewhat abrupt answers to some of those, I tend to bristle when information is presented and expected to be taken as a given. Have a controversial viewpoint? Go for it, but be prepared to cite your sources.

I spent a good part of the time I should have been writing original material looking into the current Russo-Ukrainian War and that is a lot of history. You have to go all the way back to Kievan Rus (and perhaps even further back) and then come forward to the Euromaidan protests to have even an inkling of what's going on over there these days.

All that being said (research is continuing), all I can say for certain is that Ukrainians and Russians will continue to die in horrible ways while politicians sit down to fancy dinners and seek money for whatever causes they're promoting.

The French have a saying, “Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose“¹ – The more things change, the more they stay the same. War, greed, destruction, it won't end any time soon.

The following was Part IV (yesterday was Part III) of a four part series I did back in 2022. As the French say ...

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov
(Source)

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

 

Revelation 6:1-8 (KJV)

So will war be the end of us as a species?

As the population of the world increases, as competition for resources increases, somewhere, someone, is going to pull the trigger which could set off Armageddon. I don't know if that's a maybe or a certainty. But it lies well within the realm of possibility.

The Scriptures foretell of the end of this existence ...

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

 

Matthew 24:35-37 (KJV)

What follows is beyond our ken.

It has been said that "violence never solved anything," of course that's nonsense. Violence certainly ended the threat from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Perhaps it's wise to understand that aggressive warfare is not an answer. That's why it's been outlawed. Regardless of what we think of the situation in Ukraine, they were attacked.

Were the Russians provoked? They seem to think so, well, at least Putin and his cronies think so. But one could make the argument that Japan was provoked into attacking Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941. You would be correct, we were trying to get Japan to back off in China, where they were indeed waging a war of conquest. So yes, we provoked them, but that did not justify their attack on the United States.

Wars of conquest have caused more grief and horror than anything else in our history, it should be opposed, vigorously, perhaps even through the force of arms. But when?

That is indeed the question.

I weep for the fallen ...

Those in the past, and those to come.

No Man’s Land

written by Eric Bogle

 performed by the Dropkick Murphys

 

Oh how do you do, young Willie McBride

Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?

And rest for a while in the warm summer sun

I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done

And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen

When you joined the great fallen in 1916

Well I hope you died quick, and I hope you died clean

Or Willie McBride, was is it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drums slowly?

Did they play the fife lowly?

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?

Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind

In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?

And though you died back in 1916

To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen

Or are you a stranger without even a name?

Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane

In an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained

And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

Did they beat the drums slowly?

Did they play the fife lowly?

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?

Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

The sun shining down on these green fields of France

The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance

The trenches have vanished long under the plow

No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now

But here in this graveyard that's still no man's land

The countless white crosses in mute witness stand

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

And a whole generation were butchered and damned

Did they beat the drums slowly?

Did they play the fife lowly?

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?

Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And I can't help but wonder oh Willie McBride

Do all those who lie here know why they died

Did you really believe them when they told you the cause

Did you really believe that this war would end wars

Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame

The killing and dying it was all done in vain

Oh Willie McBride it all happened again

And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drums slowly?

Did they play the fife lowly?

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?

Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

(Source) 

Pray for Peace, Prepare for War.

The original post was here.

¹ French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849.