Angry and defrauded young

If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied. -R. Kipling

Often, the lines above are used in reference to the Vietnam War and Nixon’s and Johnson’s and McNamara’s lies or now to the war in Iraq and to the lies of George W. Bush.

I think of one killed in each of those wars - and the utter waste.

There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them,
For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization,
Charm, smiling at the good mouth,
Quick eyes gone under earth’s lid,
For two gross of broken statues,
For a few thousand battered books.
— Ezra Pound, 1920

I wish George W. in death, an afterlife, as in more words of Kipling:

A DEAD STATESMAN

I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?

The hard truth that Vince and Guy before him already knew and my promise to them both that I will never forget.