Remembrance Day and the costs of war

Today is Remembrance Day, the day on which World War I, the war to end all wars, ended. Yet the UK is still involved in a war in Afghanistan which has now lasted longer than both world wars combined. The body count this year, both among NATO troops and Afghan civilians, was the highest yet in this war and continues to rise. The war continues to cost millons, while today Ian Duncan Smith announces futher savage cuts to welfare and benefits which will penalise both unwaged and disabled people. Yet there is still plenty of money flowing to the war in Afghanistan.- despite the fact that the vast majority of the population are opposed to this war.

Listening to Radio 4's Today programme this morning I heard an interview with ex-servicemen, many of whom have ended up unemployed and homeless - the very people who will be on the sharp end of Duncan Smith's 'reforms'. Next Tuesday I will be addressing a public meeting on the war in Lambeth organised by Lambeth Stop the War Coalition, also on the platform will be my former opponent from the general election camapaign in Vauxhall, Kate Hoey, who, to give her credit, has been one of only a handful of MPs to vote against the war recently - Caroline Lucas being one of the others.

And mentioning World War I reminds me of the brilliant war poetry of that era of doomed youth. Here for Remembrance Day is a war poem for our generation.

To mark Remembrance Day, we reproduce this traditional song/poem, written and first performed way back in November 2009.


There's rats in the trenches
A thousand foul stenches
Of piss, pus and puke, blood and death
Jim's screaming his head off
'Cause Frank hasn't got one
And Joey's just drawn his last breath
While back home in Surrey
They try not to worry
And keep all their doubts locked inside
For in a few years
There'll be no more tears
And they'll all wear their poppies with pride...


She can't understand
As she holds the girl's hand
That her daughter's no longer attached
They were all blown to hell

As a terrorist cell

Though a wedding was all that they'd hatched

And back in the West

They're so sure they know best

Though they've tortured and murdered and lied

And they don't want to know

What the body counts show

As they all wear their poppies with pride...

Oh, they all wear their poppies with pride...

At the annual board meeting
Arms dealers are greeting
Reports of their profits with glee
They'll always be willing
To make a quick killing
From slaughter and mass misery
And when it's all over
They'll head off to stuff
The big bellies their suits cannot hide
And they won't spare a thought
For the carnage they've brought
But they'll all wear their poppies with pride...
Yes they'll all wear their poppies with pride...

Whoever you mix with
There's bound to be someone
Whose mind is still caught in the mesh
Those soldiers aren't heroes
They're nothing but fodder
For the thing that grows fat on our flesh
And you show no respect
For the ones left behind
Or the miserable sods who have died
If you can't face the truth about why they were killed
And you still wear your poppies with pride...
If you still wear your poppies with pride....
Do you still wear your poppies with pride?

(Paul Cudenec, 2009)