War is nothing to celebrate

This week we can take pride in - but not glorify a war that claimed millions of lives

By Michael Gartner

AMES, Iowa - World War II was a great victory.

It saved freedom for big chunks of the world, and it saved the world from madmen.

So it's right that we commemorate that victory this week, 50 years after the Allies won in Europe. It's right that we listen to stirring speeches and fond remembrances. It's right that we feel the pride of patriotism.

But it's wrong that we glamorize and glorify the war.

For war is neither glamorous nor glorious. Here are some non-glamorous, non-glorious facts about World War II:

All told, 292,131 Americans died in battle; another 115,185 died off the battle-field. Another 671,278 American men and women were wounded.

More than 13 million Russian soldiers died; more than 3 million German soldiers were killed. All told, about 20 million soldiers from 27 nations died in battle - and another 20 million civilians were killed.

The impact of those deaths is still being felt. Those men - and most victims in and out of uniform were men - left babies who grew up never knowing a father, whose own babies now are growing up never knowing a grandfather. Those men left young wives, now old with photos of husbands and memories of love - but, for many, still alone.

Wander through the villages of France, and notice there are no old men. Watch television this week and see how many old men you can count in the sea of old women in Moscow and Kiev. Visit the veterans hospitals in America and talk to the old men there about war. There still are in this country 37,000 soldiers who were totally disabled in that war that ended 50 years ago, around 750,000 who were partially disabled.

About half the 16 million Americans who served in World War II still are alive. As they look back, many view the war romantically, through the mist of 50 years, and remember the camaraderie, the patriotism, the zeal. Those are the memories we are hearing this week.

And that's fine. Just as watching M*A*S*H is fine.

But World War II was not about camaraderie; it was about death. And war is not funny; it's horrible. "It's only the glamour of war that appeals to people. They don't know real war", an Army nurse who ministered to eyeless, noseless, earless, faceless men told Studs Terkei in 1984 for The Good War, his badly titled oral history of World War II.

The terror of war is a lesson we must emphasize as we commemorate V-E Day this week and, later this summer, the victory over the Japanese.

For there are nearly 75 million young people in this country - more than a quarter of the population - who have never seen this nation in a real war. They know war as history-book statistics, funny TV shows and crisp, bloodless, patriotic movies. They do not know war as messy, bloody, deadly horror. They were born after the end of Vietnam.

It's a lesson the world has not yet learned, either.

Since the end of World War II, there have been more than 150 wars in the world, and they have killed nearly 25 million persons - pushing 20^th century war deaths toward 100 million. We read little about most of those wars and see even less of them, for we'd rather bask in nostalgia about yesterday's wars than view the blood of today's.

That will lead to no good.

For if we romanticize war, if we glorify war, if we glamorize war, we will think war is romantic and glorious and glamorous - when, in fact, it is frightening and horrid and murderous.

That is why it is quite all right to commemorate V-E Day this week. But quite wrong to celebrate it. (USA Today)

Allies - the countries, including Britain, the USSR, and the US, who fought together during the Second World War.

M*A*S*H* - an American TV program made in the 1970s and 1980s and popular in the US and Britain, about an American army medical camp during the Korean War. Although a comedy, it also showed the effects of that war has on people.

Q u e s t i o n s:

1. Analyze the structure of the story.

2. Find the lead and supporting facts.

3. Are the supporting facts and statistics convincing?

4. Does the writer manage to persuade you that war is horrible?

5. What syntactic means does Michael Gartner use to be more emotional and emphatic?

6. Find the definitions of the words «commemorate» and «celebrate». How are they different? What is the purpose and meaning of opposing these two words in the story?

7. How effectively does he use comparison and contrast to enhance his message?

8. How is the ending related to the main theme?

Assignment 12.

Read the following editorial and find means of expressing the writer’s personal attitude to the discussed issue.