"the pencil of nature"

Its Remembrance Sunday in the UK:

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them"

The eleventh is the actual memorial day - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, to mark the Armistice that ended the fighting in the War to End All Wars (and the following 'peace' treaty which paved the way for the even more global war that would follow it). There's usually a minute's silence at 11am on the 11th too, but the main ceremonies are held on the Sunday closest to the 11th, so up and down the UK, in tiny villages and big cities there will be ceremonies and the laying of poppy wreaths, the poppies being the first flowers they saw growing back after the battlefields were abandoned (I think in France they use the cornflower?).

Today as the nation remembered the BBC news announced another British soldier dead in Afghanistan. Why is is that the most horrible parts of history repeat themselves again and again? And why are none of our so called world leaders capable of learning from it and using intelligence and wisdom and compassion to solve problems instead of the brutal, uncivilised method of warfare?

Some of the markers are plain, others have names of the fallen, regiments, squadrons, ships and campaigns written on them. This one simply said "for all in Afghanistan, 2009"

This tiny marker is in the

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