Seventy years ago (Thoughts on September 1st 2009)
by cricketjeff on September 1, 2009. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
September nineteen thirty nine a battleship let fly;
It’s shells were just the start of Europe’s war.
The next six years saw more than fifty million people die,
So what the hell are we still fighting for?
The madmen who had come to power cared not one jot for man,
The Hitlers and the Stalins of the time.
They only cared to strut their might and implement a plan
That honest men could only call pure crime.
And even now apologists, like Putin on the News,
Cannot admit their nations’ part in wrong.
We’ll never learn if we ignore the truth to push our views,
It isn’t good to only back the strong.
It’s wrong to fight, it’s wrong to kill, it’s wrong to rob and steal;
But sometimes it is worse to turn away.
If you believe in honest peace then tell “them” how you feel,
Our leaders soon forget the price we pay.
The war that battleship began was fought across the world,
Too many gave what none should have to give.
Now why can’t stupid men take heed and keep their banners furled?
There has to be a better way to live.
Author notes
At 5am the German Destroyer Schleswig-Holstein (Most Polish histories seem to
call it a battleship as I have above) which was on a visit to the free port of
Danzig opened fire on the Polish Garrison above the town and other Polish
targets. This is usually regarded as the start of WW2 in Europe, of course
Japan had been laying waste to China for several years by then.
English