2 March 2012 — In These Times
Who gets to write a war’s history determines how it is viewed for generations. But in the case of World War I, one of the best accounts of the milieu that triggered the conflict was a novel — or three, to be exact: John Dos Passos‘ trilogy, U.S.A., published in the 1930s. Any attempt to understand the war since has had to contend, directly or indirectly, with the granite truth of Dos Passos‘ objections to the flood of blood unleashed by that immense and needless slaughter.
If a bunch of street toughs decided to gang up and beat the crap out of some guy in the neighborhood because they feared he might be planning to buy a gun to protect his family, I think we’d all agree that the police would be right to bust that crew and charge them with conspiracy to commit the crime of assault and battery. If they went forward with their plan and actually did attack the guy, injuring or killing him in the process, we’d also all agree they should all be charged with assault and battery, attempted murder, or even first-degree murder if he died.
The New Dark Age 