Civil War here and there

IRELAND - Headlines can be deceiving:

Mayor unveils Ireland monument to 'Fighting 69th'

The mayor is Michael Bloomberg of NYC and the American Civil War monument is in Ireland, no less. He does look stern, in his green tie.

Jackie Kennedy had a great comment about Tom Kean before he became governor of NJ (and long before he became head of the 9/11 commission). She called him "a dinky millionaire." Bloomberg's fortune is not dinky but, having been in a few parades, I think the honor guard here is being terribly sporting about entertaining a dinky mayor. And it's not even an election year for NYC...

FINLAND - Back in the day, I had the great pleasure on general staff in Korea of meeting the military correspondent of Helsinki Sanomat, a veteran of both the Winter War and the Continuation War. He had some damn good stories. He has long since retired and Sanomat could use him, if the depth of this little piece on a new history by Mark Tikka is any indication:

Civil War was Finland's first modern war

Where have we seen that meme before?

NICARAGUA - Our friend Ron Maxwell is editing movies he made about the Nicaraguan civil war:

"RESISTENCIA -- The Civil War in Nicaragua" is being edited from more than 16 miles of 16mm film that Maxwell and his documentary film crew exposed in 1987 and 1988 in Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica. Additionally, the film features authentic never-seen-before Contra/Sandinista combat footage from exclusive private sources.

Mr. Maxwell seems to have both feet planted firmly in the pop history potato patch, so if you ask him questions like "why," or "wherefore," you get answers like,

Now, nineteen years later, I am perhaps a little wiser as well, and am grateful to finally have the opportunity to complete this film -- a window into the soul of the Nicaraguan people, and a magnifying glass held up to the seemingly eternal tragedy of fratricide.

The Nicarguans who view this film will remember what they fought and almost died for. The seemingly eternal tragedy of fratricide may not resonate for them as much as it does with foreign film producers.

What was that comic film in which the running gag was the line "Man's inhumanity to man?"

Thank heaven for pre-emptive satire.