which three parts of this excerpt from editha by William Dean Howell's denote the meaninglessness of war

a. They think they'll come marching back, somehow, just as gay as they went

c. some of those foreigners, that weren't there because they had any say about it, but because they had to be there, poor wretches

d.  You thought it would be all right for my George, your George, to kill the sons of those miserable mothers and the husbands of those girls that you would never see the faces of."

Explanation:

The short story "Editha" by William Dean Howell revolves around the character Editha who thinks that war is glorious and 'forces' her fiancé to enlist. But in the end, the man died, thus showing how useless war is.

After Editha persuades George to enlist for the war, he did not return alive, which led to the outburst of George's mother. She lamented that just because she (Editha) "thought it would be all right for my George, your George, to kill the sons of those miserable mothers and the husbands of those girls that you would never see the faces of" doesn't justify the war. She also commented on how people "think they'll come marching back, somehow, just as gay as they went". She also referred to the foreigners who weren't there as "poor wretches".

Thus, options a, c, and d shows the meaninglessness of war.  

tree and the cat in the tree