First page from letter home

When he wrote this letter, he was recuperating at the 1st Canadian Corp Division based in Shorncliffe, England.  I could never decipher the woman’s first name but the envelope is addressed to a Mrs. Wm Sine.  I’ve corrected the punctuation a little to help the letter flow a bit better:

27th June 1918

Dear ?

Yours of 9th June to hand, sure I was a little puzzled at the change of address. But pleased to hear from you under the changed conditions.

So you have taken to farming, that’s very good. This is the 1st intimation of your marriage, I send you my best congratulations, Hoping you are well and happy. And lots of life.

Cannot say I am very well but I am out of Hospital. I would rather be over there roughing it, than go throu what I am going thro now, one round of pain and inconvenience. The Doctors here cannot find anything wrong but they are not suffering what I am, and can only see a healthy looking soldier, which I am, but only twice in about seven weeks have I felt fit. When I came out of Hospital I felt fit for anything; but I have to do a certain amount of training again, which instead of helping me has thrown me so far back, that I dare not get too far away from my hut. A wounded man is in far better care than a gassed man, for his wound can be seen and attended to, but, gas, “A cure is not found for it yet”, result you must suffer and drop, get up and carry on, I dare not go far by myself, for sudden outs take me and the nearest part of the world catches me, and hurts at times. Still Dr. says “nothing wrong, gas nonsense”, However I am now excused drills, just take walking exercise about 1/2 a mile out and back four times per day.

So I will come in very handy on a farm, watching the flowers and vegetables grow in the home garden. Get your husband to plant two shrubs where one blade of grass would grow, wishing you everything good.

32.2 hrs. W. A.

His life would never have been the same, even if he made it home. His lungs were compromised and he would have suffered the rest of his life. The use of gas during the war was one of the most horrific events of the entire conflict. It wasn’t enough they lived a life of hell in the trenches, they had to live in constant fear of gas attacks wafting across no man’s land. Chlorine, phosgene, mustard gasses ripped their lungs apart and left many men disabled and in pain for the remainder of their lives.  One result of the use of gas during the First World War, has been an enduring fear, world wide of their use.  A little shy of 100 years since their first use, and we still blanch at the thought of their use.  W. A.’s problem was compounded by his doctor’s scepticism about the long term effects the gas had. The old “if you can’t slap a bandage on it, you aren’t sick” mind set.

The war wouldn’t end for nearly 5 months after the posting of this letter.  Can’t help wondering what happened to W. A. and did he get to see the ” two shrubs where one blade of grass would grow”.

“what [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did.” (I’m working on figuring out what those things were. If I figure it out, I’ll let you know) …”We had no domestic attacks under Bush, …We’ve had one under Obama.”

Later he amended the statement by saying he had omitted to include the words “since 9/11″. Oh that makes it all right then! We’ll just forget about Richard Reid the shoe bomber shall we?

Former Bush press secretary, Dana Perino, said in November that the Clinton administration was to blame for the 9/11 attacks, which occurred  8 months after Clinton left office. I guess Bush should be forgiven for not having enough time to read the security alerts regarding Al Qaeda – the two syllable words must have stumped him. Bush was given a briefing a full month before 9/11 occurred, entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”, yet the Bush administration did nothing to stop the attacks. It came out later that, despite growing concerns and warnings from the intelligence community in the US, the Bush administration didn’t follow up the warnings, nor did any of Bush’s advisors try to discuss the issue with the President again. Despite the overwhelming evidence that a terrorist attack did occur on US soil under the Bush administration, in November, after the Fort Hood attack, Perino said “We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during Bush’s term”.

Are these people memory impaired? Or are they laying the groundwork for the next election by reworking history? Not a group to let facts stymie them for long, they simply prevaricate (if you are a Bush/Palin fan, you might want to buy a d-i-c-t-i-o-n-a-r-y). If you repeat the lie enough, you begin to believe it. As will large numbers of voters. In rehabilitating George Bush’s reputation, they are making it easier for Palin (or any other far right candidate) to establish the moral high ground for any future elections. What’s next? Burning all the footage of 9/11 and all books that mention it?

With the hardline extremist group Al Shabab gaining so much control of Somalia, I think I’ll leave this country off my “must see list”

Nice to see American ideals of right and wrong creeping back into the political arena.

Waterboard for charity

Soldiers were handing out bibles to this very, very conservative and largely illiterate nation. Just having a Bible in their possession could jeopardise the lives of the poor Afghan that does not understand they are being used in a new cold war between the Taliban and the Christian Right.  A number of accusations have flown in the past few years over the hijacking of the military by right wing Christian groups, this is just the latest. Listen carefully to the tape and you will see the soldiers involved know they are violating military policy, and to compound the violation, talk about ways of circumventing them. The US military said the Bibles in question have been destroyed. But a new question comes to mind: how has the US military allowed such open prostylization to occur?

Peggy Noonan, Republican speechwriter and pundit, made this statement on the weekend concerning the Obama administration’s release of torture documents:

“Some things in life need to be mysterious,” “Sometimes you need to just keep walking. … It’s hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking, oh, much good will come of that.”

If the Republicans had discovered the Democrats were sanctioning torture, you bet your ass they would be releasing all the documents.

I’m a bit baffled how any member of the human race can maintain torture is just one of those little mysteries in life – it implies the torture somehow enriched someones existence. Her statements also have this little worm of deceit lurking in it that is saying by facing up to the nation’s use of torture and letting the light of day in, somehow, the Obama administration is being UnAmerican. True American’s would “just keep walking”.

Yes folks, turn a blind eye to what went on, “Move along, nothing to see here. It’s all over. Just keep moving along folks”. Don’t stop too long or you will see just how heinous the use of torture is. And when that moment arrives, there will be a reckoning. After years of employing torture, the Bush administration had bugger all to show for it. Torture someone long enough and they’ll tell you anything to stop it. Doesn’t mean you are getting the truth, just hearing what you want to hear.

The Republican party expended far more energy on Clinton’s extra marital affairs than they did protecting Americans from the erosion of freedoms and assaults on the US Constitution. They just marched in line with the Homeland Security fear mongers rather than risk questioning what was happening. Torture was just the cost of doing business.

It takes more courage for a nation to face up to it’s dark past. It takes none to bury it.