Pish and tush, Damien, you were obvious when you palmed that card...
you elided the crucial first lines:
Oh, thus be it ever, that free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation
...the object being, presumably, to point out that even free men
might properly be reminded that their loved home(s) (not their Emperor)
might be worth dying for.
A benighted sentiment, given how many wars _have_ been fought that
perfectly fit General Smedley Butler's description: "War is a racket."
And this from a man who was awarded the Medal of Honor _twice_.
For actions in... Veracruz and Haiti. Hard to argue with the man.
MMB
PS: several born-Americans have reported not recognizing even the first
two lines of this; curiously, most of the naturalized Americans I
have quizzed can identify it. It's the _second verse_ of the US
National Anthem.
Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> And to be even more explicitly and, ahem, politically incorrect:
>
> At 05:52 PM 8/23/01 -0700, Lee wrote:
>
> >the Japanese were very willing to do or die for the Emperor [etc]
>
> Ah yes.
>
> Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
> Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
> Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
> And this be our motto: "In God is our trust":
>
> Damien Broderick
> < catchy hymn, though >
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