“NEVER SEND TO KNOW
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS;
IT TOLLS FOR THEE”
John Donne 1572 – 1631
These lines are being dictated on a gloomy Friday afternoon at the end of December, 2006. Ordinarily my outlook on life is less than exuberant during the period between Christmas and New Year’s. Today’s news has sent me further into a depressed state of mind in that it appears that Saddam Hussein will be hung. I don’t find the news of Saddam’s imminent death amusing; I find it grossly depressing.
Four thoughts now occur to this feeble essayist’s mind. The first thought is that I am able ordinarily to compose a prose sentence in the English language. On the other hand, poetry is absolutely beyond my grasp. Recognizing this deficiency, I tend to rely on poets who can say things in rhyme much better than I can write them in prose. In this case, the person that I cite today was born 434 years ago in England and was known by the name of John Donne. If my Internet sources are halfway correct, John Donne was an Anglican clergyman who wrote extensively as a poet. There may be some debate about whether John Donne’s work which goes by the title, “No Man Is An Island,” is a meditation, a devotion, a sermon, musings, or perhaps a poem. For this essay, I will treat Mr. Donne’s work as a poem. It clearly and certainly is not a prose work.
Now to proceed to the main points of what I wish to say this dreary afternoon. In the first instance, the news on television and on radio is saturated with thoughts about the imminent death of Saddam Hussein. There is even much speculation as to whether the breaking of the vertebrae in his neck from the noose will cause him pain. All of this sort of thing contributes to my unhappiness and less than gleeful outlook on life today.
I fully agree that Saddam Hussein was an evil person. I fully agree that he should be punished in some fashion. But to take his life does not contribute to or promote the cause of mankind. To take his life by hanging or by any other means simply illustrates the cruelty that the human race has yet to overcome. If Saddam were to be imprisoned under solitary confinement rules until he lives out his days, I believe it would be a just punishment. To kill him is to show nothing less than our failure as a civilized society.
The point here is that John Donne said it right 382 years ago in a series called Meditation XVII. The best known work in these meditations is, “No man is an island entire unto himself.” In that meditation/devotion, John Donne points out that every man’s death diminishes the rest of us. And poet Donne also observes that you need not send to know when the funeral bells ring; at some point, they will “Ring for thee.”
I am an old soldier who is fully familiar with death. Saddam’s demise by hanging does not inspire me. It repulses me. It seems to me that John Donne had it right when he said that every man’s death diminishes the rest of us. Here is John Donne’s Meditation, written in 1624, which states it better in verse than I could ever do in prose.
“No man is an Island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;
Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
John Donne, Meditation XVII
English clergyman (1572 – 1631)
Pastor Donne’s work, particularly in the final sentences, make the case succinctly and powerfully.
The second thought that comes to mind on this dreary afternoon as we wait for Saddam’s execution, is that of an American enlisted man. It goes without saying that the enlisted men in the American Army do all of the heavy lifting. And they do about 90 to 95% of the dying. For example, when a general recounts a battle and says that we lost 5,000 or 9,000 men in that battle, you may be assured that the people who did the dying were enlisted men and not the general, who was safely removed from the hostilities in a location many miles away from the battlefield. The General might even be in Washington, D.C. The overwhelming point is that enlisted men in the military perform the most miserable tasks and in the end, they are the ones who ordinarily wind up in body bags and aluminum coffins.
Thirdly, for the past several days, George Bush, who is becoming much more like Lyndon Johnson in the final days of the Vietnam War, has gathered his advisers around him in Washington, Camp David and now in the center of the universe, Crawford, Texas. Quite obviously, Bush is preparing a marketing effort to sell to the American people more troops being sent to Iraq. The marketing effort will involve a series of slogans that will underlie the sending of a new “surge” of American troops to Baghdad to try to rescue the abominable war that Mr. Bush has started. So far this month, even without the surge being employed, we have lost 113 men killed in action in Baghdad and Iraq. If I were an American enlisted man, which I was in World War II, and if I knew I would be included in the so-called surge which might be my second, third or fourth involvement in Iraq, I would have to conclude that as John Donne states it, in my case, the bell will soon toll for me.
Enlisted men are not dummies. They know when they are being sent to do an impossible job. And yet they go. In this case the Commander in Chief is asking our troops to lay down their lives for an impossible war that should never have been launched at any time. And yet the Commander in Chief sends these young men to die for a blunder of epic proportions.
Mr. Bush is a man of limited intellect. To cover his intellectual shortcomings, Bush usually resorts to bullying. This has always been the case. If you will recall his tenure as Governor of Texas, where he was attended by Alberto Gonzales, now the Attorney General of the United States, Mr. Bush sent dozens of people to be executed. His lack of compassion was widely noted. One of the people who lost her life under the Bush administration was Carla Faye Tucker. Ms. Tucker was condemned to death, but in the years before her execution, she became a devout Christian and lent comfort to others on death row and throughout the penitentiary with her caring attitude. Yet in the final analysis, Mr. Bush, who brags often about his attachment to Jesus, ordered her to be killed. Bush could have saved Carla Faye Tucker; but he did not. He had her killed to show how tough he was.
The surge in troops that Bush now seems to favor in a final hope to quell the violence, will do nothing of the sort. It is intended to show how tough Mr. Bush is and how he disregards the November 7, 2006, election results. It makes no difference what the Jim Baker-Lee Hamilton study group had to say about getting us out of Iraq. Mr. Bush has decreed that the Baker-Hamilton report amounts to surrender. He seems prepared to order a surge in troops which will inevitably result in more needless deaths to Iraqis as well as to Americans. To Mr. Bush, these unfortunate soldiers are just numbers, as was the case of Carla Faye Tucker. How cruel, how cruel.
Fourthly and finally, we come to the ending of John Donne’s Meditation. Donne’s work reminds us, “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” I am aware that winter gloom has descended upon me. I cannot help but think of Saddam’s oncoming death and the sacrifice of hundreds of American enlisted men’s lives which have to add to my unhappiness. While I know that on this particular occasion I am affected by gloom, I cannot escape the fact that somewhere down the road, probably sooner rather than later, George Bush will find that the bell tolls for him as well. This man has sent 3000 Americans to die in Iraq and countless thousands of Iraqis to die also. He has dismantled a sovereign country which could have been our friend. Clearly, for the next 500 years, Iraqis will curse the name of George Bush and the American occupiers.
In 1942 when I was a Buck Private in training for the American Army, Jack Butkowski, a longshoreman from Brooklyn, used the expression, “What goes around, comes around.” It was the first time I ever heard that expression. George Bush has been involved for years as a director of destruction. It could very well be as time goes on, the philosophy of what goes around will snare Mr. Bush. If that is not the case, Mr. Bush may give thought to John Donne’s ancient maxim that “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls.” I suspect that sooner or later, our Commander in Chief will be called to account for the lives that he has needlessly lost. I deeply regret that, because America can do much, much better.
E. E. CARR
December 29, 2006
Postscript:
Within hours after the first draft of this essay was dictated, Iraqi authorities ended Saddam Hussein’s life by executing him in a hanging. George Bush missed a golden opportunity to show the world a touch of compassion. Until his final hour, Saddam was in American custody. He could have been imprisoned for life under solitary confinement rules rather than to kill him.
Bush is again on vacation at his Crawford, Texas ranch. According to the White House announcement, Bush retired for the evening serene in the knowledge that Saddam would be hung before daylight reached American shores. Presumably the Commander in Chief retired to the same bed in August, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. On that occasion, Bush ignored the devastation for three full days and was forced to view a video tape put together by his staff to show him what he had missed. It must be assumed that Mr. Bush, under instructions from Karl Rove, sleeps peacefully with the bed covers securely fastened over his head.
Have we not had enough killing in Iraq? Does one more killing, even if it is Saddam, bring serenity to the American people or to the Iraqi people? The answer is clearly negative.
In John Donne’s words, Saddam’s death diminishes me. The deaths of more than 113 American soldiers in December also diminishes me. The three thousandth American death in Iraq has now occurred. Again, those figures diminish me. During December the body count at the Baghdad morgue reached more than 3,500 men, women and children. I weep for those Iraqi deaths.
John Donne says, “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” Jack Botkowski’s expression conveying the same thought is that, “What goes around, comes around.” George Bush has the blood of the Americans and the Iraqis on his hands as a result of his bastardly invasion of the sovereign country of Iraq. Bush will not escape the verdict of history. That verdict may very well be “the bell tolls for George Bush” and he will become a victim of the philosophy of “What goes around, comes around.” I am demeaned by these needless deaths taking place as a result of our occupation of Iraq. We should leave Iraq posthaste before more deaths occur.
EEC
December 31, 2006
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Kevin’s commentary: I’m reminded here of when American troops killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. I was in my dorm room when people started to whoop and cheer and sing the national anthem. I remember both being glad that a monster was no longer free to continue his activities, but also a little bit surprised at the reactions of those around me. People were really and truly celebrating that he was dead. I’m not entirely sure what that accomplishes, to celebrate a death. It doesn’t bring back anyone that he hurt, all it means is that never really had to answer for any of it.