Mark Twain - “The War Prayer”

JMK Comment: For some reason, this story reminds me of the fervor that attended America’s entry into World War I. Yet, this story was written well before 1917. Mark Twain died in 1910, after all. Despite that, the fever pitch of Americanism is all over it. The song Over There by George M. Cohan includes this line “And we won’t be back, until it’s over over there” We won’t come back [here], until the war and kill[ing] is finished [over there]. You know, because we fight OVER THERE so the bad [stuff] doesn’t make it over HERE. I spent a year in Switzerland, and 30 years since, feeling some kind of solidarity for a European mindset. World Wars I and II, and Korea, and Vietnam, and Iraq, and Afghanistan, and wherever is next. They all meant Americans went over there to wage war on THEIR SOIL and kill the OTHER GUYS, and so forth. The brutal calculation is still true. People who’ve seen and dealt in war are the ones most hesitant to put anyone else through it. [Yet] the wars keep coming… [https://thecapableone.com/2021/06/15/war-prayer.html]

Hal Holbrook (noted Mark Twain interpreter) recites “The War Prayer”

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