Response to 'War Prayer"

The following was my father's response to my most recent posting.

---

Twenty-five years ago, someone made a TV series based on stories by Twain. One installment was "A Private History of a Campaign that Failed," in which a gang of young Missouri knuckleheads join the Confederate Army and end up murdering an innocent traveler. Twain was one of those boys, and he deserted immediately. This experience could explain his drinking problem. It certainly explains his pacifism. Anyway, the "Campaign" TV episode was followed by the War Prayer. The actor Ed Herrmann, who had played the murdered traveler, came back as the angel who delivered the prayer. It was a brilliant portrayal.

If Twain had written the War Prayer today, he could have published it easily but he would have had rocks thrown through his windows, crosses burned on his lawn, and his grandkids would have been beaten up at school. The FBI would be tapping his phone (without a warrant) and he would be getting strip searched at airports. He would not be allowed to speak in public in Utah County.

Lots of Twain fans are glad that he died before World War One. His War Prayer was so prophetic that it's chilling. Just last year I read "The Guns of August," Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer-winning account of the first month of WWI, and I think it and the War Prayer should be bound in the same cover. Of course, morons of Dubya's ilk wouldn't agree with anything Twain, Tuchman or I have said. (For one thing, they don't read books--especially history books. That's obvious.)

I have also recently read a biography of General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was probably the greatest soldier this nation has ever produced. He hated war passionately and would do anything to avoid it, but when it was unavoidable he did his duty and fought so hard and ruthlessly that his enemies were crushed completely. At the same time, he was magnanimous to all who surrendered and as generous as possible to noncombatants who asked for his help. He only did what he felt his duty compelled him to do, then he stopped. He held politicians and popular opinion in the utmost contempt, which is why he could never be persuaded to become president. Too bad; he would have been far better than his old friend Grant, who turned out to be one of our worst presidents until he was bumped up in the ratings by Dubya. It's a rotten shame that our armed forces and--especially--our government don't have men of Sherman's foresight, integrity and decency in charge, but sometimes I think we have the president we
deserve.

Here's a quote from H. L. Mencken: "As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folk of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Whaddaya know--Mencken was a prophet, too.