Remember The Fallen

On November 11, 1918, the main players in WWI signed a treaty to end the conflict. Officially known as Armistice Day, it is observed in many parts of the world not only to commemorate the end of the war but to reflect on the lives lost due to war and the need to prevent it from happening again.

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for those young soldiers to sign up for a war, knowing that they may never make it back alive or might make it back severely wounded. Even those soldiers who survived unwounded had deep emotional scars left, and were never the same afterwards. Yet, I have always struggled with the idea that the soldiers went to war to "fight for our freedom." Were the nation's leaders of the time really concerned with freedom and human dignity? Did they wrap up their ambitious causes in the cloak of freedom as a means of getting people to support them? How many of the leaders who made the decisions to delcare war had any firsthand experience with it or were connected to the effects it had on average citizens? What makes the tragedy of German civilian lives ruined in Allied bombings or German soldiers coming back with their baggage any less so than a Canadian, American, or British soldier?

This year has been a major year for veterans in many respects. It is the Year of the Veteran, the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, and the death of Smokey Smith. Remembrance Day is an important event for me. Yet, for me, it's not so much about remembering a fight for freedom, a thought that goes unchallenged each year during Remembrance Day, as it is to reflect on war, its root causes, and the destruction and hardship it causes everyone. With the exception of WWII, were any of the wars fought in the past 150 years really necessary, or were they part of a sick game on the part of the nation's leaders to enrich themselves and their friends at everyone else's expense? Yet, amid the destruction, there is also hope. The hope of all humanity that one day "they will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."

I'd like to close by mentioning the song "It Could Happen Again," by Collin Raye. The song takes place in the trenches of WWI. It's Christmas, and the soldiers have been given a few days leave. During this time, German and British soldiers who had been busy shooting at one another, put aside the conflict and joined to celebrate Christmas. Amid all the death and destruction happening around them, they put aside their differences and shared the common bonds that make us human. I think that is the best way to honour the fallen soldiers.