What basic message is twain sending his readers by writing this prayer?

a. the citizens’ support is needed to gain victory in war.

b. it is acceptable to pray for victory in war.

c. praying for victory is also praying for death and destruction.

“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, us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land . . lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives . . 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 . . amen.”

-mark twain, “the war prayer”