"Neglect A Little Detail (Or Two)" [Fawcett #26] (Isaiah 42:18-22)
So did you win, or did we lose?
Sometimes it’s close, so we must choose;
But getting facts is difficult
From either side, to score result.The winners like to save their face,
And obfuscate their own disgrace;
So flutter flags and medals cast,
Keep focus on such victor’s tasks.The losers (’specially if the start
Of war was theirs), play down their part
All through such conflicts – obfuscate
The facts of war, and parts they played.Take World War I – the German side –
Ten years they played with plans – to hide
It from the allies (that’s us guys)
They hid it from themselves – not wise.“To keep from tipping off the foe,
We’ll call reserves near start – then go
Into our war before they see
Us start, or we’re the enemy.”Divisions twenty to add in
Made “fool-proof plan” to French war win;
They did not raise their men, but plan
Became there only way at hand.While ten years passed, the Britts and French
Had joined, in case it came to trench
And guns against a German foe –
The Germans thought it was not so.At five and twenty miles a day,
The horses would not need much hay;
But bog them down, two million men
And horses? Better think again!But start without contingency
Just “More of same” then “Wait and see”
Meant four long years in swampy trench –
Both sides mired down in rot and stench.Two corps went east to Russians meet
Then wandered west, the French to beat;
By then they were too late – a mess
Had settled in with trench-war stress.So if you’ve just one plan which flops
Contingency you have not got,
You’re up to ears in mess all right –
Much better you not pick that fight.Thanks Lord for this.
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