{"id":130,"date":"2003-09-29T13:44:57","date_gmt":"2003-09-29T20:44:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2003-09-29T13:44:57","modified_gmt":"2003-09-29T20:44:57","slug":"story-of-isaac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2003\/09\/29\/story-of-isaac\/","title":{"rendered":"“Story of Isaac”"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a supplement to today’s article, “Toward a Meaningful Yom Kippur,” I’ll include these lines from Leonard Cohen<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You who build these altars now
\nto sacrifice these children,
\nyou must not do it anymore.
\nA scheme is not a vision
\nand you never have been tempted
\nby a demon or a god.
\nYou who stand above them now,
\nyour hatchets blunt and bloody,
\nyou were not there before,
\nwhen I lay upon a mountain
\nand my father’s hand was trembling
\nwith the beauty of the Word.<\/i><\/p>\n

–from “Story of Isaac”<\/p>\n

I think this pretty well captures the madness of the pseudoreligious militarism that plagues the Middle East (not just Israel). <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As for American militarism, well, Leonard Cohen wrote a darkly humorous song about that, too. It’s called [url=http:\/\/www.serve.com\/cpage\/LCohen\/lyrics\/VariousPositions.html#62]”The Captain.”[\/url]<\/p>\n

[i]Now the Captain called me to his bed
\nHe fumbled for my hand
\n“Take these silver bars,” he said
\n“I’m giving you command.”
\n“Command of what, there’s no one here
\nThere’s only you and me —
\nAll the rest are dead or in retreat
\nOr with the enemy.”
\n“Complain, complain, that’s all you’ve done
\nEver since we lost
\nIf it’s not the Crucifixion
\nThen it’s the Holocaust.”
\n“May Christ have mercy on your soul
\nFor making such a joke
\nAmid these hearts that burn like coal
\nAnd the flesh that rose like smoke.” <\/p>\n

“I know that you have suffered, lad,
\nBut suffer this awhile:
\nWhatever makes a soldier sad
\nWill make a killer smile.”
\n“I’m leaving, Captain, I must go
\nThere’s blood upon your hand
\nBut tell me, Captain, if you know
\nOf a decent place to stand.” <\/p>\n

“There is no decent place to stand
\nIn a massacre;
\nBut if a woman take your hand
\nGo and stand with her.”
\n“I left a wife in Tennessee
\nAnd a baby in Saigon —
\nI risked my life, but not to hear
\nSome country-western song.” <\/p>\n

“Ah but if you cannot raise your love
\nTo a very high degree,
\nThen you’re just the man I’ve been thinking of —
\nSo come and stand with me.”
\n“Your standing days are done,” I cried,
\n“You’ll rally me no more.
\nI don’t even know what side
\nWe fought on, or what for.” <\/p>\n

“I’m on the side that’s always lost
\nAgainst the side of Heaven
\nI’m on the side of Snake-eyes tossed
\nAgainst the side of Seven.
\nAnd I’ve read the Bill of Human Rights
\nAnd some of it was true
\nBut there wasn’t any burden left
\nSo I’m laying it on you.” <\/p>\n

Now the Captain he was dying
\nBut the Captain wasn’t hurt
\nThe silver bars were in my hand
\nI pinned them to my shirt.[\/i] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a supplement to today’s article, “Toward a Meaningful Yom Kippur,” I’ll include these lines from Leonard Cohen: You who build these altars now to sacrifice these children, you must not do it anymore. A scheme is not a vision and you never have been tempted by a demon or a god. You who stand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}