"We went on down the road and there came another salvo. As the last of the crashing, soul-tearing smashes rang in my ears I saw Mickey spin and fall. I let go of Hughes and jumped to him. He had been hit in several places and could not possibly live.
"Mickey – Mickey!" I called his name and raised him up and he nestled to me like a child, his white face upturned to mine.
"At last," he murmured, "I'm through." Then his whisper was shrill and harsh. "I never had a white tunic or a red one," he said. "I don't want – to kill people. I hate war – and everything. Why did they do it – why – did – they?"
He seemed delirious and I tried to soothe him, but he would not listen. He talked about what we had read in my little guide book, the way boys trained for fighting, the soldiers killed in France and Belgium, the other wars that had been fought, the futility of the endless repetition. "And we just go on and on," he finished. "Doing things because – because – "
His voice sank so low I could not hear but his lips still moved. Little white-faced Mickey! I held him there, held him tight, and tried to comfort him as he grew weaker and weaker. Then he twisted, strained in my arms, "... and we go on – on – on – on," he shrilled and stiffened."
- Will R. Bird, And We Go On, p. 91-92

A bad sign of what is to come.

Unfortunately I have not been paying close enough attention to events, but it seems like escalation is certain.

Russia not invited.
I can't believe I fell for the Zelensky trick.

"Quicker to the field of blood than to a wedding. Quicker to a ravens' feast than to a burial..."

A beloved friend was Ywain,
It is wrong that he is beneath a cairn.
It is a sad wonder to me in what land
Marro's only son was slain.

Journey's End is a 1928 dramatic play by English playwright R. C. Sherriff, set in the trenches near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, towards the end of the First World War. The story plays out in the officers' dugout of a British Army infantry company from 18 to 21 March 1918, providing a glimpse of the officers' lives in the last few days before Operation Michael.

https://youtu.be/DceQRpKxWdw?si=ukGPu8Y1-8jnHBIM

"Weapons are becoming continually more abstract, developing in stride with the technological world in general; increased mechanization makes them more mobile and effective at greater distance."
~ Ernst Jünger

"It is enough to reflect that this war was a confrontation of mythical proportions, a struggle between the most intimate figures of life, the meaning of which true warriors grasped in their blood and knew how to express in battle."
~ Ernst Jünger