War is the Business of Barbarians

No doubt, war is the science of destruction. This is confirmed by the recent Iraq war and the ceaseless violence in Libya. The First World War (1914-1918) was fought on a scale unprecedented in any previous century. The Battle of Verdun between France and Germany caused 700000 casualties. A total of about 40 million artillery shells were exchanged by both sides.

The moral lesson is quite clear that the Great War was a blunder and a crime. It is high time that the great nations calmed down again and occupied themselves with peaceful pursuits, and destroyed all nuclear weapons. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), the Soldier poet who was killed in World war I, reveals the futility of war in his immortal line: “Was it for this the clay grew tall?" Edward Grey remarked: “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime” (July 1914).


The eastern battles the Great War were useless and stupid from the military point of view. The ominous clouds of the World War III hovering “through the fog and filthy air”(Shakespeare, Macbeth) prove the fact that we are nuclear giants and ethical infants.

I hope another world war will be prevented by the efforts of the poets and philosophers. Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) rightly says: “The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”

I’ve tried to reveal the futility and tragedy caused by the Great War in my following lines:

Two million soldiers in Verdun

And one million died-

The dead soldiers rise from their graves

Will anyone welcome them, and answer their questions?

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