[Granville-Hough] 18 May 2009 - 16 May 2004 - Interesting Comments from Shakespeare

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Three years ago this was my message.

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     When my son David Hough was about ten I was working in the Pentagon
on Cold War problems, but we together watched the TV rendition of
several of the great Shakespeare plays, one being Henry V.  We saw the
gore at Agincourt, limited in those early TV days, and we heard the
great declaration of St Crispin's Day in Act 4, Scene 3.
     What I do not recall is what went before in Scene 1, where King
Henry is discussing with his knights Bates and Williams the morality of
war and battle. King Henry (aka George W. Bush) states: "Methinks I
could not die
anywhere so contented as in the king's company; his cause being just and
his quarrel honorable."  Then Williams questions how ordinary soldiers
can make such judgements about justice and honor, saying, "That's more
than we can know."
     But Bates (aka Dick Cheney) comes to the king's defense: "Ay, or
more than we should
seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects:
if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it
out of us."  (Note that defense lawyers are using that argument today in
Iraq just as they did at Nuremberg and at Tokyo.)
     Then Williams comes up with the universal truth about Judgment
Day,: "But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy
reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off
in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all, "We died
at such a place," some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon
their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some
upon their children rawly left.  I am afraid there are few die well that
die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when
blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a
black matter for the king that led them to it...."
     Now, is it not amazing that Shakespeare came up with an argument
which fits almost perfectly the situation we are in in Iraq?  It must
indeed be true that those who do not read history are destined to repeat
it.
     St Crispin's Day was an eventful beginning, like the San Diego
landing of the helicopter on the carrier, but 100 years after St
Crispins, and tens of thousands of lives, the English gave up their
claims in France and departed.
     So our task is simple, Get rid of the king that led us to it in Iraq
and depart that place as soon as transportation can be arranged.
     Those are my thoughts for this day, 16 May 2004.