war has been given a bad name (Bertold Brecht, 1898-1956)
I am told that the best people have begun saying
How, from a moral point of view, the Second World War
Fell below the standard of the First. The Wehrmacht
Allegedly deplores the methods by which the SS effected
The extermination of certain peoples. The Ruhr industrialists
Are said to regret the bloody manhunts
Which filled their mines and factories with slaves workers
Likewise their unfair treatment. Even the bishops
Dissociate themselves from this way of waging war; in short the feeling
Prevails in every quarter that the Nazis did the Fatherland
A lamentable bad turn, and that war
While in itself natural and necessary, has, thank to the
Unduly uninhibited and positively inhuman
Way in which it was conducted on this occassion, been
Discredited for some time to come.