Monday, February 23, 2004
Baring the iron hand
At the end of a fairly interesting article that compares the U.S. entry into World War I following the revelation of the Zimmerman telegram with the wars we are fighting today, Edward A. Burke gives us a bit of Melville's poetry to consider:
Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, from beneath the shroud draping the northern half of the nation, Herman Melville found words to depict the relentless ability of Americans to confront evil and attempt to vanquish it, while shouldering the overbearing sorrow that seeks retribution and demands redress:
"There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand:
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand."
Q: What do you call (A) the defeat, if not the total desctruction, of the Taliban, (B) the removal of Saddam Hussein and the reconstruction of Iraq, (C) the capture and killing of hundreds of Al Qaeda's finest, (D) the capitulation of Libya, (E) peace overtures from Syria, (F) the engagement of the House of Saud, (G) the revelation of Pakistan's nuclear proliferation, (H) the emerging strategic relationship with India, (I) the encirclement of Iran, and (J) the Fence?
A: A start.
Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, from beneath the shroud draping the northern half of the nation, Herman Melville found words to depict the relentless ability of Americans to confront evil and attempt to vanquish it, while shouldering the overbearing sorrow that seeks retribution and demands redress:
"There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand:
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand."
Q: What do you call (A) the defeat, if not the total desctruction, of the Taliban, (B) the removal of Saddam Hussein and the reconstruction of Iraq, (C) the capture and killing of hundreds of Al Qaeda's finest, (D) the capitulation of Libya, (E) peace overtures from Syria, (F) the engagement of the House of Saud, (G) the revelation of Pakistan's nuclear proliferation, (H) the emerging strategic relationship with India, (I) the encirclement of Iran, and (J) the Fence?
A: A start.
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