Alignment with this war has awakened hope, for war is life to us, not death— romantic violence, chivalrous at last under technology’s rule. The President called as Pope Urban did, preaching the first Crusade, admonishing us, who waged wars for self-interest and plunder, to remake ourselves— Soldiers of Democracy, achievers of stature, of warrior nostalgia. I was fired with utopian ideals then, engaged in the tragedy of war, among frauds and adventurers —now a lingering silence—