Dunkirk...

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_Quasimodo
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _Quasimodo »

Chap wrote:I am glad you said 'lost in that war', not 'gave their lives'. Some soldiers may perhaps choose do some very brave action in the knowledge that what they are doing is likely to get them killed, even though it is essential that it should be done. Those people do, I suppose, give their lives. Most who die just get killed, after having (quite reasonably and properly) done their best not to be.


I think most people that are forced into battle are hoping to survive. Those that fought in the rear guard action near Dunkirk must have known that that their chances were bleak. They didn't choose to be there, but they did as they were ordered. They stayed and fought tenaciously to allow as many of their comrades to escape as possible.

I have no idea what was going through my cousin's mind while all this was happening, but he stayed and he died. To me, that makes him a hero.
This, or any other post that I have made or will make in the future, is strictly my own opinion and consequently of little or no value.

"Faith is believing something you know ain't true" Twain.
_MeDotOrg
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _MeDotOrg »

Dr. Shades wrote:
MeDotOrg wrote:As far as the second argument goes, I'm sure people are asking how a man could be indispensable if he died. The word indispensable is shorthand for the idea that the world might have lost a cure for cancer, or a scientific breakthrough, or a great writer who would have enriched the world, when millions of men are cut down in their prime.

I'm reminded of how J. R. R. Tolkien was a soldier in World War I. Imagine a world utterly bereft of Lord of the Rings, and everything it inspired, had a bullet claimed him as well.

It really makes me wonder what we're currently living without that we otherwise couldn't imagine living without.


I must admit, the argument has been made both ways. Hitler survived the war. I think we definitely could have survived without him. Of course Hitler wouldn't have been Hitler without the experience of The Great War. I guess I feel we lose more good men than bad in a war because I basically believe more men are good than bad. War is a crucible. It hardens some men, breaks others, kills many and scars most.
"The great problem of any civilization is how to rejuvenate itself without rebarbarization."
- Will Durant
"We've kept more promises than we've even made"
- Donald Trump
"Of what meaning is the world without mind? The question cannot exist."
- Edwin Land
_Choyo Chagas
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _Choyo Chagas »

Choyo Chagas is Chairman of the Big Four, the ruler of the planet from "The Bull's Hour" ( Russian: Час Быка), a social science fiction novel written by Soviet author and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov in 1968.
Six months after its publication Soviet authorities banned the book and attempted to remove it from libraries and bookshops.
_The CCC
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _The CCC »

I honor them for their brave sacrifices. I was so much older then I'm younger than that now to enjoy watching war movies.
SEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywHD3_4kTRQ
_Quasimodo
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _Quasimodo »

The CCC wrote:I honor them for their brave sacrifices. I was so much older then I'm younger than that now to enjoy watching war movies.
SEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywHD3_4kTRQ


I understand your point. This one is a little different, though. It's very much a cautionary tale. Nothing is glorified. There are no patriotic speeches. No German soldiers are ever seen. The word "German" is never uttered. Just "the enemy".

From the moment it begins, you are there. No computer graphics were used.

You might enjoy reading this:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/why-mark-rylance-hopes-dunkirk-speaks-younger-viewers-thanks-harry-styles-1022869

The Hollywood Reporter wrote:Why Mark Rylance Hopes 'Dunkirk' Speaks to Younger Viewers (Thanks to Harry Styles)


Rylance was brilliant in this movie.
This, or any other post that I have made or will make in the future, is strictly my own opinion and consequently of little or no value.

"Faith is believing something you know ain't true" Twain.
_The CCC
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _The CCC »

I grew up on WW2 movies. I liked the Band of Brothers series. Nowadays I just see war as an incredible waste of lives, materials, our very conscience.
_Doctor CamNC4Me
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _Doctor CamNC4Me »

The CCC wrote:I grew up on WW2 movies. I liked the Band of Brothers series. Nowadays I just see war as an incredible waste of lives, materials, our very conscience.


As a guy who bamboozled the US government for 20 years into giving me a job, I can absolutely tell you that war is an incredible waste of time, money, and resources. The ROI is often disastrous, the pain and suffering inflicted on nations is based in selfishness, and despite us having a wealth of historical evidence that war is incredibly stupid that fact will change nothing and we'll keep going to war. Because we're animals, and that's what animals do.

I worked with a guy who was caught in a IED blast. His back was useless. Two hearing aids since his ear drums were blown out. His brain, as he would describe it, was "mushy" and he felt constantly disoriented if he wasn't on prescription medication which would then stone him into oblivion. The sad thing is he never really did anything overseas. He himself talked about his deployment and how he never really accomplished anything, but was more of a body because it was a numbers game to fill a slot. One day he's moving from this Camp to another and that was that. Our tax dollars spent millions developing him into a Soldier, millions getting him there, and will now pay millions in retirement benefits and medical care for nothing. It's a shame.

- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.

Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
_The CCC
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Re: Dunkirk...

Post by _The CCC »

I served during Vietnam. We are animals, but animals with a very large brain. I just wish we'd use it more often. :wink:
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