Real History in Song and Cartoons

In the past the the major cost of fighting a war was paying the war bonds. After the mass participation wars in the western world the major cost of a war was paid decades later in the form of pensions and health care. In earlier less financially stable times armies were laid off and the maimed were sent out to beg their own livings. While on active service armies were permenment host for a host of diseases like thyphoid, plague, cholera, and syphilis. Soldiers died from diseases more than bullets. If we look to Africa now we can see our own past. African armies have horrendus AIDS infection rates of 40-60%. There has been scholarship to suggest that the song St James Infirmary is about a soldier dying of VD in a poorhouse. Without a wealthy society that actually cares about its people that is the fate of ex-soldiers and many others to die in the gutter of some horrible disease while begging for crumbs.

These 2 editorial cartoons highlight the fate of soldiers to end up as diseased beggers.