The General & War Mania - Canadian Style!

For Hillier & all you fools, helpful reading, for the criminally imbecilic. There are many such things, but it's Forester, so it's an easy read. You should read it tonight, but since I can't be sure such a bunch of morons have the attention span to read the book, or even the Wikipedia article, here's a short sharp summary from Fantasticfiction: "Herbert Curzon is a former cavalry officer who earned fortuitous distinction in the Boer War. He knew little then; he learned nothing since. But the army, desperate for officers in the opening months of WW I, hands Curzon, a new division to train. A few months later his formations dissolve at the Somme, hosed down by German machine guns. Uninstructed, Curzon still thinks himself a leader. When a German offensive threatens his remaining troops, he gallops suicidally into the fighting. He prefers death to self-knowledge." There is even an entire blog from an SFU project from years ago, with reflections on the book, war and (in)humanity, with a post titled The War Mania - Canadian Style!, referencing Leacock's The War Mania of Mr. Jinks and Mr. Blinks. These girls' final blog entry could not be more appropriate. How is it you never learn? Questions: war aims? Realism? Odds of success? Cost, human and material? Cold-blooded cost benefit calculation, for warm hearts? You are criminally imbecilic, you really are:

Lest We Forget
We've learned so much in this class this semester - not just about literature, but also about the horrors of a war we can hardly even imagine. I think it's important for our generation to learn and understand what happened back then so we can prevent anything like it from happening again. It is especially important for us because (most likely) there is no one left to remind us what it was like to live through it. Even if we can't grasp the horrors of this war, at least we can try to prevent anything like it from happening again.