A moment of reflection

The following poem is worth reflecting on.

I wrote in nineteen-forty that at need
I'd fight to keep the Nazis out of Britain;
And Christ! How shocked the pinks were! Two years later
I hadn't lived it down; one had the effrontery
To write three pages calling me a 'traitor,'
So black a crime it is to love one's country...
Your game is easy, and its rules are plain:
Pretend the war began in 'thirty-nine,
Don't mention China, Ethiopia, Spain,
Don't mention Poles except to say they're swine;
Cry havoc when we bomb a German city,
When Czechs get killed don't worry in the least,
Give India a perfunctory squirt of pity
But don't inquire what happens further East;
Don't mention Jews - in short, pretend the war is
Simply a racket 'got up' by the Tories.



George Orwell, 1943

With little effort at rewriting,

So black a crime it is to love one's country...
Your game is easy, and its rules are plain:
Pretend the war began in '[forty-eight],
Don't mention...[fill in the blank]
...
Cry havoc when we bomb a [Gazan] city
When [Jews] get killed don't worry in the least
.....