War And Gore Poem by gershon hepner

A series of catastrophes that ends
in victory: thus Clemenceau once defined
war.
Gore
once spilt from victory cannot be refined;
and is the price of all its dividends.


Inspired by a saying of Georges Clemenceau, French Prime Minister after November 17,1917 who supported the policy of total war – “We present ourselves before you with the single thought of total war” ––and the policy of “la guerre jusqu'au bout” (war until the end) , stated: “War is a series of catastrophes that ends in victory.” This saying of Clemenceau was quoted by Robert Messenger in a review of a book about the battle of the Marne,1914 by Holger H. Herwig (“The Cruel Path to Impasse, ” WSJ, December 3,2009) . He points out that the reason why Germany was unable to win the war in 1914 is because the Schlieffen Plan that Helmut von Moltke wsa supposed to implement was too vague and von Moltke “let his disputatious commanders––some brilliant, some over the hill––make their own decisions, all too often conflicting. The result was chaos, and yet the Germans nearly won, thanks to the excellence of their troops.”



12/3/09