Thursday, May 27, 2004

 
Shortly after posting and emailing the bit about a bayonet charge during the "First Sikh War," my oh-so-old-'n-wise soul was seized with melancholy and inflicted an unsolicited and sobering corrective upon Mr. Derbyshire's inbox:
Dear Mr. Derbyshire:

Reluctant as I am to rain on anybody's parade grounds, it is not merely onedownsmanship to recall the movie *Gallipoli*-
the final scene, if memory serves, was that of one of the men(another runner who served as a messenger was played by Mel Gibson) who had been a champion runner in civilian life, making a run at the Turkish line without bothering to bring his rifle and bayonet along for the manifestly futile charge.(someone playing with Dazzle or Pinnacle products could add the theme song from *Chariots of Fire* at that point) I am less certain that the movie also depicted the men being ordered to remove the bullets from their guns before going over the top.(Breaker Morant and Gallipoli are available as a package from Amazon)
sigh-The Jerries were, of course, at last routed in europe and Johnny Turk was forced to disgorge the Middle East, but the West had lost much of its pre-war version of "End of History" optimism, and -well- you know the rest...
******
-can't resist hauling one more load of coal to Newcastle, (helped along by Grenier's piece)given that for reasons outlined so devastatingly by you, the "War on Iraq" may turn out to be a battle ranked among the ones at Gallipoli and Dieppe:

"Breaker Morant, of course, plunges us into a world of undiluted Kipling:
"For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' 'Tommy, wait outside';
But it's 'Special train for Atkins' when the trooper's on the tide.'
It brings back the peculiar qualities of Kipling's soldiers, stoical, hard-bitten, unconcerned with political objectives or lofty ideals:
'What was the end of all the show, Johnnie, Johnnie?'
Ask my colonel, for I don't know,
We broke a King and we built a road-
A court-house stands where the Reg'ment goed.
And the river's clean where the
raw blood flowed
When the Widow gives the party.'"

Oh well, Saddam *is* looking broken, and we're not likely to see him in "Lord of the Rack: Return of the King."