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The following is a reply I made to a post on A Mischief Of Magpies(linked below). It has been re-touched a bit, but the essence of the original rant remains. Ill Man. Something approaching the wave of gut wrenching emotion that overtook me a year ago in a small war cemetery on the outskirts of Ypres hit me when I read this post. Theres something about standing before the final resting place of someone who's remains could never be identified or standing in the room where deserters, some as young as fourteen, driven mad by the lunacy of the trenches were shot. It hits you for six and crashes through your emotional defences. It hit me a day later at the massive Tyne Cot cemetery, though not with quite the same intensity for some reason. Maybe once you've seen one unknown soldier you've seen 'em all eh?..... Gordon Gentle, through the actions of his mother will not be forgotten. Another name to add to the list of those who died defending our way of life. Thing is Gordon Gentle died for nothing, as did every other soldier and civillian trapped in this blood soaked folly. His mother would like the whole world to know this. He didn't die to make our lives better or safer. He did not die to defend all that we hold dear. The exact opposite. He died to sate the vulgar hunger of corporations and further the vainglorious posturings of ludicrous men, men who's ego's far outstrip their intellectual capacity. Rightly, she will not let this drop. I defy anyone to tell me exactly how many have died in Iraq. Nobody really wants to know, myself included. We all indulge in the western patented solipsism that keeps us all fat, sane and safe. As long as yer just a statistic pal......... Collective amnesia sets in, nobody cares............Numbers are so much more comforting than blood, guts and death, all of which is tastefully hidden from us by our media. Unless you have a link to Al Jazeera or something. So here's to Gordon Gentle. Here's to every lost life in Iraq. Here's to the lost souls of Flanders Field who's memories are mocked by Mr Blair and his apologistas with every ludicrous excuse and lie used to justify the invasion of Iraq.