In Memoriam and Unmemoriam
Louis de Cazenave was one of the two last surviving French veterans of World War I. When he died this week, President Sarkozy gave a tribute to the man and the heroism of his generation.
Three weeks earlier Erich Kaestner, the last surviving German veteran of World War I, died. There has no comment, let alone tribute, from the German government. What is German for awkward silence? The Kaiser’s army was comparatively well-behaved; when Belgian civilians were arbitrarily executed, the victims were limited to adult males. Nonetheless, there must be a certain stigma to starting a war and then losing it (except in the American South).
Losing my good man. Why we southerner gentlemen never lost we simply redirected our conflict internally until all the knuckle draggers who’d fought had forgotten what it was all about. Now we run the joint even if we do it badly it don’t matter ‘cuz we’ve got the bestest PR flacks around. And we pay well so noone seems to notice we are NEVER right and alway misguided AND ARROGANT.