On a Really Thick Novel by Tolstoy...ish

An Ode to General Sherman...ish

Hell

This is war
Seven-hundred thousand men
Marching out to save the day
Seven-hundred thousand men
Marching out to meet their fate
Seven-hundred thousand strong
Seven-hundred thousand gone
Ours is not to reason why
Ours is but to do and die
Die and
Die and
Die and
Die and
Kill
So we must
Peace is easy
But war is hard
As women and their children flee
To prevent a further atrocity
And we raise our guns
To attack
The enemy marches on
This is war
The enemy marches on
To attack
And we raise our guns
To prevent a further atrocity
As women and their children flea
But war is hard
Peace is easy
So we must
Kill
And die
And die
And die
And die
Ours is but to do and die
Ours is not to reason why
Seven-hundred thousand gone
Seven-hundred thousand strong
Marching out to meet their fate
Seven-hundred thousand men
Marching out to save the day
Seven-hundred thousand men
This is war

This poem (along with my multiple uses of ellipses and the suffix -ish) probably does a pretty good job of showing how vague are my feelings toward war. They are more vague than my feelings on capital punishment, but far less vague than my feelings on pacifism itself. These have always been very tricky areas for me, and I have never been able to do anything more than lean toward a certain stance for any of them. I cannot commit to a position, although I know how dangerous it can be to sit on the fence. These are such annoying topics. Can there be a necessary evil? I don't know.
For those of you possibly wondering about the General Sherman line, several of the lines in this poem were inspired by his words and actions, though it is not exactly about him.