Everyone ALWAYS forgets the Crimean War.

[Guaranteed]

The Crimean War gets NO respect. And, to tell you the truth, I'm pretty damned sick of it.

[mitchtv]

1. you want wars that get no respect?

try the War of the Pacific. the Chaco War, and the War of the Triple Alliance.

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. How about the Boer war?

talk about no respect!

[Guaranteed]

4. Psssh. Never heard of 'em. nt

[no name no slogan]

34. Yeah, Bolivia is still pretty sore over the War of the Pacific

After all, they lost their only access to the Pacific Ocean.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. I don't!

I watch 'Charge of the Light Brigade' at least once a year.

[nmvisitor]

12. Half a league, half a league

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

etc.

[signmike]

24. My favorite poem of all time

I especially like the Alfalfa version, with sound effects

[TheCentepedeShoes]

31. LOL

I can't think about the Charge of the Light Brigade without remembering Alfalfa and the firecrackers.

[Bridget Burke]

30. A classic poem--still makes sense today....

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Not for the fake heroics, but for the stupidity of it all....

[cruadin]

5. Florence Nightingale deserves better from us, and frankly...

I'm pretty damned sick of it too.

[Guaranteed]

I've had just about enough of it.

In fact, I'm thinking of sitting down and writing a letter.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. Hell, what about my war? The war in Cambodia that NO one

has ever heard of? Whilst we poor fucking 9th Marines were slogging around looking for Pol Pot, little did we know that our own CIA was hiding him from US!
What a fucking waste that was.
It just gets lumped in with VietNam all the time.

[Zuni]

22. The CIA was not aiding Pol Pot

The US, through the UN sent 'humanitarian relief' to refugees in Cambodia during the Vietnamese-Cambodian War (during the 1980s), most of which ended up in the hands of the Khymer Rouge guerillas and their allies, as well as backing and supporting China, who was aiding the Khymer Rouge and their non-communist allies. The US also provided diplomatic support to the Cambodian government in exile, which included Khymer Rouge elements.
But during the Vietnam War, we were not aiding Pol Pot, the North Vietnamese were. After 1975, relations between the Vietnamese and the Khymers soured over territorial disputes, cross border terrorism, ancient hostilities and prejudices between Cambodia and Vietnam and the Chinese-Vietnamese-Soviet rivalry.

[American Tragedy]

7. What about KOREA?

Goddammit your elders saved democracy and American freedom from Red China and you young 'uns just sit and bitch and whine about some old fuckin commie war what about our sacrifice why didn't America remember us blah blah blah blah blah blah

-American Tragedy's long-suffering great-uncle

[Guaranteed]

8. I left three legs in Korea! nt

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. You had legs? In Korea?

damn, you were lucky... ours froze off faster than we could grow em.

[Guaranteed]

14. Yeah, some of the other boys just jumped over from

Japan already missing appendages. They didn't complain, though, dammit.

[Zuni]

19. I parachuted into Panajumon with nothin' but stumps for legs

froze off in the plane---forgot to wear my thermals

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. No one EVER

expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!!

[skygazer]

35. Our chief weapon is fear

Fear and surprise... our TWO chief weapons are fear and surprise...

I think of that sketch ever time they raise the terra alert level!

[Baja Margie]

11. Let's see,

It was England,France, Turkey and Russia. Didn't Russia feel that Turkey was encroaching in Palestine? The charge of Light Brigade, and all that. Hmmm...better go over to the History group !

[Swede]

13. Who can forget the charge of the Lightbrigade?

Who?

[babylonsister]

15. Enlighten me? I forgot.

[Baja Margie]

17. Well,

There was just an aniversary of the Charge last October. You might want to go over to BBC & take a look at their archives. More than ever, historians believe that it was so terribly disastrous because of a bungled misread message. Anyway,they charged, they were boxed in, and wiped out by the Russians. Sorry, I'm cooking...

Go here, many links and a reading of Tennyson's poem:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3949975.stm




and the poem:


http://eserver.org/poetry/light-brigade.html

[babylonsister]

28. Thanks for taking the time,

while cooking no less!, to edumicate me!:hi:

[truthbetold]

16. Just like they ALWAYS forget Poland!

[Zuni]

23. and Poland's war against the USSR in 1919-1920

[On the Road]

18. Hey, What About the Taiping Rebellion?

Something like 30 million people died and it was only 160 years ago. Never heard of it until a couple of years ago.

And the Great War of LaPlata -- that's another big one. (Although it may be known under some other name.)

[Zuni]

21. Yup---one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, although the majority

died of diseases and starvation.

[Zuni]

20. What about the Opium Wars?

I fought there in China and got high as hell to boot.

[signmike]

25. What about the Zoot Suit Wars?

Hm?

[Zuni]

26. That was a Zoot Suit Riot, not a war.

[Guaranteed]

27. Yeah, it was just a police action.

There was only 250,000 troops used.

[signmike]

29. Haha yeah, I remember...

I remember when Viet Nam was called a Police Action. Didn't that one eventually come to be referred to as a Conflict?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

32. A disagreement even

[Guaranteed]

33. LOL a discussion. nt

[no name no slogan]

36. Crimean War? Try the Punic War

The Punic War doesn't get half the respect the Crimean War gets. Hell, most people don't even know it was actually THREE seperate wars.
:grr:

[underpants]

37. Well they were a bit of a Boer

:bounce:

[Nevernose]

38. Indirectly caused by English anti-Catholic sentiment in prior years

Granting Catholics more rights in the 1820's and '30s lead to the election of a new, more conservative government, one that also happened to be more hawkish with Russia.

It's of course more complicated than that, but that's it in a nutshell. I wrote a paper once on how "Idylls of the King" serves as a political allusion to anti-Catholic sentiment in England, and was planning further research into how "Idylls" and "Charge of the Light Brigade" paralleled anti-Catholic sentiment and the Crimean War.

So I guess, I, for one, have not forgotten the Crimean War.