Dinsdale said:
"Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
Oh damn, we didn't discover gas defense in time"
Wilfrid Owen from Dulce et Decorum Est
Sublime.
In reply, here's the archetypal poem of colonial expansion;
Take up the White Man's Burden
Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Or not, because your POPs won’t leave
To serve your captives' need;
They’ll stay in your factories,
Freed of all their cares.
Your happy industrious peoples,
Making lingerie and chairs.
Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
With a million pounds in the bank,
And piles of tables at your side;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
You seek enormous profits
And build more high speed trains.
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Switch to maximum suffrage,
And watch your high MIL cease;
And pay for maximum healthcare
and ending their filthy habits
Your healthy POPs will settle down
And breed like bloomin’ rabbits.
Take up the White Man's burden--
No iron rule of kings,
But a consitutional monarchy
And all that voting brings.
You review the political parties
And wonder who to ban,
But a sudden change to democracy
Forcibly stays your hand.
Take up the White Man’s burden--
When you’ve achieved your goals.
A fabulous economy,
And ruling half the world.
You gaze across your empire
And wonder what to do.
Why, hang around the forums
And wait for 1.02.
