Other than that long chat you used to have with your boss, just in case he’d been thinking about giving you a raise, but wasn’t because he felt you were earning far too much money already, “parlay” means this silly — and apparently (for its day) — risqué song from World War I. It’s about the young ladies of France, but really … it’s about wanting to go home.
Come to think about it, isn’t that what most war songs are really about? When all is said and done … beat them up, then let’s go home, please.
World War I was the longest war, the ugliest war, and we are still fighting its battles today. We give the old battles new names, but they are the same, old battles.
WHAT’S A HERO? 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
It’ll be a great day when schools get all the money they need and the militaries have to hold cake stalls to raise funds to buy weapons!! 🙂
I don’t expect to live long enough to see it.
love.
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Wouldn’t that be a peach? I’d LOVE to see it!
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Anglicised from the French – Parlez vous? – (Do) You speak…?
I find is a source of amusement that we all call them ‘Defence Forces’ but they are rarely, if ever, used strictly for the actual defence of our homelands.
Also ‘amusing’ is the fact that my country of 25 million has spent hundreds of billions of dollars, that the people desperately need, on submarines* and J35 strike fighters and countless other useless pieces of defence equipment (and constant required upkeep and servicing of same) when we have only ever been attacked once in our almost 250 year long history and never had a single foreign invader on our soil. And no – that has had nothing whatsoever to do with our well equipped army/navy/airforce of some 10,000 or so men and women, who just like yours are highly trained in how to kill but have nearly no training in how to recover after the horror they live through afterwards.
To my current knowledge we also do not possess any nukes as deterrent.
love.
*We have 6 subs at a cost to taxpayers of $630 million per year. First introduced in 1990 and now expected to be replaced (at a cost of over $80 Billion for 12 new subs) by 2030 (lasting 40 years or some 25 billion taxpayer bucks!). They have never fired a single shot in anger or our defense and are never likely to and most of the time are unseaworthy spending more than 50% of time in drydock attempting to be fixed/upgraded). Our Minister of Defence is proud of the job he does ‘for’ Australia.
War is largely about the money. Not that i need to tell you that 😉
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Weapons of war keep a LOT of nations in business. If guns and subs and aircraft were free, you think we’d have so many? Betcha not!
It’s all about money. It is ALWAYS about money.
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Post Script: The first two J35’s arrived in Aus for a week of demonstrations so we get to see what our 75 billion is buying us… Today’s display was cancelled due to bad weather!!!
“Errrr… sayyyy… would you guys mind postponing the war till Tuesday? It’s raining and we can’t fly our jets!”
(Eye-roll)
love.
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I think they said it (WW1) was to be “the war to end all war”…well they were wrong.
Leslie
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More like the war to begin all wars.
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Exactly!
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In France people called WWI “La der des ders” meaning ” la dernière des dernières (guerres)” or in Englsih the very last of all wars. How wrong, right?
There is nothing romantic in wars. The Germans were so humiliated after WWI that they sought revenche.
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War breeds war – it is endless.
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It’s still a long way to Tipperary.
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For sure, Garry.
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When I was young, my maternal Gramps told me stories about serving in the Danish Navy during WW1. It sounded romantic.
My Dad was a WW2 Vet. Didn’t talk about it til near the end of his life. Grim and heartbreaking.
I saw Vietnam closeup as a reporter. Horrendous and stupid.
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War IS stupid. But I don’t see it ending anytime … ever.
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War = $$.
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Oh yes, I know that song very well. I grew up in a post war family with dad telling me about the second world war and grandads telling me about the first world war, although it was all very child friendly explanations. I didn’t have any thoughts as a kid about why with the wars, it was just part of growing up. I saw the bombed ruins of London and my dad’s sister lost her leg at the age of 16 whilst working as an auxilliary in a London post office when one of the few bombs hit it in the first world war. Grandad was called up to France and spent his war years collecting the bodies of the soldiers left on the war fields. It was a senseless war and even today no real sensible reason has been found why.
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My mother said that the whole world was armed to the teeth and all they wanted was a reason. Someone shot the Grand Duke of whatsisname and voila, the entire world went to war. AND when they were done, they just needed a short intermission to move on to the next war.
We always have great reasons for war. We never seem to have good reasons for peace.
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There even exists a film of the assination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajewo in all details. It was some revolutionary that did it, and plunged Europe into a senseless war. My impression in the last few days is that someone somewhere decided to win the arms race and has inspired others to join in and countries that have been biding their time, are now beginning to retaliate with threats and new missile developments. We will never learn. I remember once the Swiss army decided to do a show of tanks and they passed down the street where we were living. They were big tanks, noisy and frightening. I think it was the first time I had seen so many together – and all in the name of a show.
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That was my mother’s opinion, too. AND her opinion that WW II was just the second part of WW I. She was the one who told me “there will always be money for war, but we will never have money to take care of problems at home.” I always thought she was just cynical, but the older I get, the more I realize that she was way beyond cynical.
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