Someday, I have no doubt, the dead from today's wars will be seen with a similar sense of sorrow at needless loss and folly as those millions of men who lie in the cemeteries of France and Belgium - and tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others' lives.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the futility of war and the future perspective of those who suffer its consequences.
Adam Hochschild's quote expresses the belief that, in the future, society will view the casualties of current wars with deep sorrow and regret, much like how we view the soldiers buried in cemeteries from past conflicts. It critiques the leaders who so carelessly expend lives for their agendas, suggesting that, with time, people will recognize the senselessness and tragedy of such actions.
In practice
During a memorial speech for veterans, one might use this quote to emphasize the costs of war.
For the better part of two centuries, outsiders have been offering explanations that range from racist to learned-sounding - the supposed inferiority of blacks, the heritage of slavery, overpopulation - for why Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
The nature of finite things is to have the seed of their passing-away as their essential being: the hour of their birth is the hour of their death.
You wanted to kill your father in order to be your father yourself. Now you are your father, but a dead father.
Doctors will have more lives to answer for in the next world than even we generals.
Part of the reason people abroad resent the United States is something Americans can do very little about: envy. The richest, most powerful country in the world attracts the jealousy of others in much the same way that the richest, most powerful man in a small town attracts the jealousy of others.
With the strength of his spiritual sight and insight the distance, and as it were the space, around man continually expands: his world grows deeper, ever new stars, ever new images and enigmas come into view.
My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing.
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