Today’s dedication ceremony and reenactment in Balaclava, Ukraine, in honor of the valiant charge by British cavalry during the Crimean War brings to mind once again Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s stirring poem of heroic duty. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” has immortalized the consequences of a mistaken command on a battlefield; a “blunder,” as Tennyson puts it. How this poem thrilled me as a child before I was aware of the true nature of war, how the horsemen of the Light Brigade bravely charged the enemy cannons even though they knew they had been given a suicidal order by mistake.
Who will be the poet to immortalize our brave troops in Iraq? They too are charging into harm’s way based on a huge mistake, a momumental blunder; a war based on erroneous data and out-and-out lies, a war which should never have been started. No one questions the courage of our troops, and a proud nation salutes their sense of duty. But again, will there be a great poet to immortalize their sacrifice, or will they be silently forgotten to history as an uncomfortable reminder of a great mistake in judgment?
Read the poem, and think of our troops over in Iraq:
The Charge of the Light Brigade