A Quote from Sir Ralph Turner

Another Saturday afternoon and I was reading some war histories - specifically the Vietnam War - and seeing how one event (Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution) could lead to war and a terrible aftermath (Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Pathet Lao, and the Third Indochina War to name a few) when it ended in 1975.

Really, depending on how and where we read something, we'd always end with different conclusions and I've always maintained an open mind when it comes to that. I've always liked history (no, not the textbook history involving dates and nothing else) for that; it saves something for posterity, to mull over, to learn, and to decide who's who (if he or she ever wants to take sides).

War is definitely and ugly thing. It's funny how total war is outlawed in the Geneva Convention but then the act of taking lives in war seem to be legal. Figures! Man and his nature.

Crawling the web I inadvertently came upon blogs chronicling life during the Emergency and the bravery and honor of soldiers fighting for their country slash beliefs. I leave with the words of Sir Ralph Turner on the memorial of the Gurkhas:

As I write these last words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your fires, on forced march or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you.

-Sir Ralph Lilley Turner, MC (1888 - 1983)