Theirs to lose, ours to keep

From Shakespeare through World War I England’s literary and military traditions reflected a greatness unexceled in the Western World. Today, a liberal, politically correct nanny state is all that’s left of the kingdom on which the sun never set. The following examples make my point about what’s has been lost.

An unforgettable poem published on 12/06/1915 by John McCrae called "In Flanders Fields, was to become the most popular poem of World War I and a worldwide favorite after it was anonymously printed in Punch magazine.

The following poem was penned by William Noel Hodgson two days before he was killed in the Somme attack during the Great War, 1914-1918.

By all the glories of the day
and the cool evening’s benison,
by that last sunset touch that lay
upon the hills when day was done,
by beauty lavishly outpoured
and blessings carelessly received,
by all the days that I have lived
make me a soldier, lord.

I, that on my familiar hill
saw with uncomprehending eyes
a hundred of thy sunsets spill
their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
ere the sun swings his noonday sword
must say goodbye to all of this:
by all delights that I shall miss,
help me to die, o lord.

This prose analysis by American historian Barbara Tucuman about the British habit of "raising the idiom of warfare" makes the case for Britain’s traditional, nationalistic pride.

No nation has ever produced a military history of such verbal nobility as the British. Retreat or advance, win or lose, blunder or bravery, murderous folly or unyielding resolution, all emerge alike clothed in dignity and touched with glory... Everyone is splendid: soldiers are staunch, commanders cool, the fighting magnificent. Whatever the fiasco, aplomb is unbroken. Mistakes, failures, stupidities, or other causes of disaster mysteriously vanish. Disasters are recorded with care and pride and become transmuted into things of beauty... Other nations attempt but never quite achieve the same self-esteem.

Let’s hope that whatever’s grandiose in the spirit and soul of America will never be lost.