By... Yemen

As the Defense Department prepares to scale up in / invade / attack / open a new 'front' / kill more people in / focus on Yemen, Mark Twain's bitter "War Prayer" comes to mind:

""O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

Samuel Clemens / Twain was referring to the escalating US role in the Philippine civil war in 1905 when he wrote it, but it is still relevant today. I'm sure we'll win lots of hearts and minds with drone missile strikes, and wrap-up this war on Terre right quick.

Tip of the hat to my friend JohnK of Carbonne France & South Florida for this link.