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Thu

21

Aug

2008

There is Just the Dead
Written by Chris Cook   
Thursday, 21 August 2008 23:19
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There is Just the Dead
by C. L. Cook
There is no law. Justice is dead. There is no honour; just death. There is no democracy. Democracy was killed.
 
A moment of silence please in passing remembrance of three men killed dead for democracy and justice and the rule of law. Three Canadian men gone, killed for a country that predeceased them.
 
 
They left yesterday local time, improvised to smithereens by an explosive device placed by the side of the Kabul road. Their stricken families will be brave, brave as the other 90 were when they heard of the untimely ends of their own. A cousin to one of yesterday's fallen is quoted in the media speaking of his kin. He said;


"He just wanted to make a difference and believe that he was doing right. And he had the support from his family and friends, and that he was doing the right thing."   

Cpl. Dustin Roy Robert Joseph Wasden
was one of three Canadian soldiers killed Wednesday. (DND) 
 
 
 
There is no right thing. "Right" and "Wrong" are gone. Morality is kaput; it ended with history. Belief may remain and comfort and support the survivors, and its as surely finished too.
 
George W. Bush is quoted by a famed dragon slayer of yore  philosophically summing up what it means to have lived and died and represented briefly a portion of the million year continuum of human consciousness. He said;

"History? We don't know. We'll all be dead."
 
Dead like history. Dead like three dead men from a dead country, dying for dead democracy in a dusty graveyard half a dying planet away. Dead like we'll all be; dead, dying for what we don't know.
 
One of the three came from a small town near mine. The premier, representative of the province that claims that ground, is quoted speaking to the media about the local dead man. He said;


"Today, British Columbians are mourning the loss of a dedicated soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice while pursuing the goal of peace and safety for Afghanistan and the world."  

Sapper Stephan John Stock
was one of the Canadians killed on a dangerous strip of Afghan highway. (DND)
 
 
Peace is dead. There is no safety. In numbers, or alone, no-one is coming to your rescue. There is no law, just jungle. Nobody gets out alive. So why not kick back at Life through the only agency provided, Death? 


If History will obscurate me, the nihilist says, "I will it first dead." If Democracy's flame burns too faintly to feed the dictator's desire, the demagogue declares, "Certify it dead." If there be no Peace but ever-after Darkness then there will no safety. "Make a fire of bodies, stoke it ever so the flame never dies and all come to fear the light."

 
And so it is done.  
 
 
More logs will be thrown on that damned pyre before this dictator is done. The media will soon quote the cousins and brothers and sisters and moms and dads of those next lumpen cast into the crucible, sacrificed to the existential vanity of maniacs. They will say;

"He just wanted to make a difference and believe that he was doing right. And he had the support from his family and friends, and that he was doing the right thing."   

Sgt. Shawn Eades was a combat engineer with 12 Field Squadron, 1 Combat Engineer Regiment from Edmonton, Alberta. (DND)
 
 
 
 
 
Comments (1)Add Comment
...
written by Humble Visitor, August 22, 2008
The young and naive are always the ones to pay the price for the fat, old, cynical and greedy bastards this world seems to gestate in unfathomable numbers. And as long as it isn't their rich, useless, worthless little bastards getting blown to pieces, then it is a "good and righteous cause". Actually, it's easy to call someone else's dead child a "hero". Kind of takes the sting out of all the money you're making from the lobbyists who don't ever want the "war on terror", or more appropriately, the war of terrors, to end 'cause they're making more money than can possibly even be imagined and have no problem throwing their favorite politician (who said anything about harper?) a bone to make him/her sit up and beg on command (damnit! I never could spell Pavlov!).
Mammon wins!
We lose!
"the rest is silence . . ."
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 August 2008 18:37 )
 
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