Josh Levinger

I was treated to a helicopter ride over Boston courtesy of the Marine Corps. Yes, I sold my soul for two minutes in a rented helicopter. But the pictures were worth it.

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A thousand troops killed in Iraq. While this “milestone” is truly arbitrary, it does have profound symbolic meaning. Read this poem from another war, and another thousand dead young men.

A Thousand Killed:

I read of a thousand killed.
And am glad because the scrounging imperial paw
Was there so bitten:
As a man at elections is thrilled
When the results pour in, and the North goes with him
And the West breaks in the thaw.

(That fighting was a long way off.)

Forgetting therefore an election
Being fought with votes and lies and catch-cries
And orator's frowns and flowers and posters' noise
Is paid for with cheques and toys:
Wars the most glorious
Victory-winged and steeple-uproarious
... With the lives, burned-off,
Of young men and boys.

Bernard Spencer, 1936
Borrowed from Slate.com