I’m a big Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) fan. Disgusted by the Spanish-American War, Clemens wrote a short anti-war prose poem called “The War Prayer.” His family, friends and his publisher thought it was so inflammatory that they begged that he not publish it. Twain agreed, but instructed that it be published after his death, saying, “None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.”
I remember reading it while in high school during the last years of the Vietnam War.
Washington Monthly’s publisher, Markos Kounalakis, has made “The War Prayer” into a short video. It is narrated by Peter Coyote.