Dear csteele,

Thank You for sharing your experience with us. It must have been really something - to have accomplished what you did - and you are to be congratulated. As for the topic of war - it would be great if we could achieve peace in our time - it scares the living daylights out of me quite frankly - the possibility of nuclear war. The proliferation of nuclear weapons adds to the danger.

I can understand your thinking about our diggers as you did your climb. In each war there are numerous courageous men and women. Some are known, but most perish and are known only to God. These heroes embody human nobility in its highest form and stand as beacons in its otherwise bleak history.

We need new ways of thinking to cope with the nuclear age. It's here that writers, with their concern for the human condition and their special skills with language, can enable us to imagine the horrific reality of nuclear arms and nerve us to build an alternative future.

as a death[as a way to die]
nuke bomb is a fast way to move on
[ok the slow radiation death can get messy
but a direct blast..and in a flash our body is gone

of course the spirit survives
and the trouble with the blast 'death'
is the relitive lack of warning..given the spirit

i recall after ww2
[the bombing of heroshimera..and naggersussy]

those who died had a good case
for not believing they had actually passed over
it took 4 years to close the last of 'that' wars..healing centers

anyhow
now we know
if all of a sudden we think we are in heaven
or hell...[we can think oh we got nuked..im dead..yet im not dead]
worse case senario...

we are eternal [from now on]..spirits..
having an incarnate life experience...

we all die..some just had a better shopt at life
lets hope they didnt waste their life gift on petty things

didnt just talk
but actually did
tried to do good

once we all do good
it will be just like when god walked ammoung us
[no jesus wasnt/isnt 'god']

god walks ammoung us
once we recognise
the god with/in

as well as..
the good [god]..without

nuked
gone in a flash

Dear csteele,

Last month I was at Alotau, Milne Bay, in PNG. Raw Australian troops who had never seen combat before and US air force men who were there to build an air field defeated Japanese ground forces for the first time after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese were battle hardened marines. The defenders were helped by the fact the Papuan guide purposely led the Japanese landing parties to a site farther from the allied air fields than they wanted to be. The Japanese killed the guide when they became aware of what he had done. I saw the marker at the point of the furthest Japanese advance. 600 diggers and Americans along with 10,000 Japanese died there. They fought ferociously from 25 August 1942 until 7 September 1942 when the Japanese retreated. We can only honour them. That victory contributed to the later victory at Kokoda since the Japanese were denied the air support they would have had by taking the air fields.

hey david a good sumation...
but as i see it....i wrote as a response to this
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=12013&page=0

i said what i thought here
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12013&page=0

to fully read your comments

but lets summerise

""We can only honour them.""
dont waste a breath on honouring those you call DEAD*

they live on in the aether
those deserving the hopnours of demons
are getting it

and those derserving of the honoyurs of the good
are getting theirs...

so now lets get it clear/here

surving murder..
has its own rewards

but how we survived..
is OUR OWN GUILT/creddit/shame
that you that have NEVER killed..simply cannot fully grasp

the laws of the good
SAYS we shalt NOT MURDER
dropping bombs on children
IS MURDER...is but one innocent DIED
by your hand..of your chosing...

we who..are allready..in hell
'we'..NEED..NO MORE.."honouring..
from the demons..who haunt us..in this..war guilt realm

""That victory contributed to""
that victory...involved MEN TURING ionto
[reverting]..back into..*BEAST

how can war
not bear
the mark of the bea-ss'ts..[of war]


""the later victory at Kokoda""

ensured the islanders/natives...would in future
be abused...by the us installed dictaiters..impirialists..
ran from java..by new york bankers

[black faced slavemasters
insttead of yellow faced]


""since the Japanese were denied""

the natives mearly serve their next 'king'
wanting to exploit their resources...
and violate their bodies

while building up great billions
in bonds gold silver
in swiss banks

while their sacred trust
[the people and THEIR estates]
are decieved..into bound servitude]
sold by fear guns bombs and wars gore

Dear Johan (OUG),

Leonard Clark writes in his introduction, "Our own century is, alas, very rich in the poetry of warfare." And it seems that even though the ghastliness and degradation of warfare does come across in his selection, the selection also brings to the surface some of the finest qualities in human nature.

I personally prefer though, what Christopher Marlowe had to say:

"...Accursed be he that first invented war,
They knew not, ah, they knew not simple men,
How those were hit by pelting cannon shot,
Stand staggering like a quivering aspen leaf."

"Tamburlaine the Great." Act 2, Sc.iv.

In a nuclear war however, there will be nobody standing, and there will be no leaves remaining to quiver.

John Dryden said it equally well when in, "Alexander's Feast," he wrote:

"War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honour but an empty bubble.
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying,
If all the world be worth the winning,
Think, oh think, it worth enjoying."

Dear Lexi,

One can give due honour to those who fought without honouring those who caused them to be fighting. One can also give due honour to those who refused to participate in slaughter or encourage others to participate. Bertrand Russell and Eugene Debs are far more worthy of honour than Alexander the little and Napoleon.

Alexander the little wept because he had no more worlds to conquer. A little imagination would have made him realise that there are many more worthwhile things in life than subjecting peoples and being an efficient organiser of slaughter. We name an excellent brandy and a fine pastry after Napoleon who lowered the average height of Frenchmen by two inches.