Not far from where we live on the edge of Cambridge UK is the thought-provoking American War Cemetery and Memorial. With unnecessary wars raging across the world, this place of squandered lives seems more than usually poignant.
Madingley
Here in ranks and files,
more regimented
than those they commemorate
could have ever been on parade,
are white memorials,
representing more than a quarter-of-a-million years
of squandered human potential.
More than five thousand young lives
brought to a premature end
to bring the dreams of a madman to a halt.
This is but a glimpse
of a far further-flung scenario:
just one of many fields of death
planted after the second world war:
the war that made a mockery of its predecessor,
the ‘War to end all wars’.
Yet today,
increasingly indiscriminately,
increasingly violently,
increasingly remotely,
played out over and over
in theatres of war
initiated by madmen.
(Cambridge cemetery – basis for estimate of potential lost)
5127 dead and missing
US Age expectancy 1990 = 75.19yrs
So 5000 x (75 -19)= 280,000 years of wasted potential)
