With the passing of Remembrance Day, it’s important to centre on and bolster a common sentiment of the ceremonies that took place in the Pontiac and across the country; that
War is a tragedy that we should do all that is in our power to prevent.
Remembrance Day marks the end of one of the most senseless and grotesque conflicts in human history, World War I. During this conflict, empires motivated by nationalist fantasies, nihilistic economic competition and the desire for colonial exploitation caused millions of young men to be slaughtered, maimed and traumatized. This in addition to all the civilians who were caught up in the fighting, starved and manipulated by the warring parties.
World War I was also the first truly industrial and “rationalized” war, as it saw wide scale use of devastatingly effective weaponry, the use of poison gas, economic blockades of entire countries with the explicit goal of starving civilians and the development of modern propaganda techniques.
Beyond that the punitive treaty that ended the First World War contributed directly to causing the Second World War, as the humiliating and economically punishing treaty imposed on the Germans directly lead to the rise of Nazism and the even more destructive warmongering and genocide sparked by the ideology.
While the individual sacrifices and heroism of those who participated in the war should not be forgotten, the greater context of the First World War needs to be emphasized, as despite the hope it would be the “The War to End All Wars,” it turned out to be just the template for the next 100 plus years.
The sad fact is that human beings worldwide are still being dragged into war due to nationalistic delusions, nihilistic economic competition and now, desires for neocolonial economic exploitation.
The War in Ukraine is the obvious example of this, but conflicts ranging from Yemen, Ethiopia, Israel/Palestine, Myanmar, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a looming potential conflict between China and Taiwan all highlight our collective failure as a species. All of these examples and more show that governments are still falling into the same old destructive tropes, except now, the weaponry of war has become even more effective and inhumane.
The Russian government’s and NATO’s brinkmanship in Ukraine has brought the world the closest to a nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Ironically at a time when the world urgently needs to be coming together to avert and minimize the looming catastrophes caused by climate change, it seems that we’ve instead opted to push the world closer to destruction.
Therefore the main emphasis of Remembrance Day should be on the dire need for the human race to eliminate war, which means a renewed emphasis on diplomacy, disarmament, cooperation and peaceful coexistence.
While engaging diplomatically with tyrants like Putin is rightly viewed as distasteful, the alternative is that death and destruction will continue into the foreseeable future and instability caused by economic disruption that will have unforeseeable and possibly disastrous consequences, all the while a nuclear sword of Damocles, as JFK once put it, hangs over our heads.
The emotional need to confront injustice needs to be tempered with the practical reality of the world we live in. Annihilating the Russian Army at the expense of the nuclear annihilation of the planet just isn’t worth it.
Beyond that we need to recognize the world is more complex than good versus evil. The government of Canada plays a role in directly contributing to conflict through its support of governments in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United States and beyond. In order to have any serious credibility on issues like international law, war and peace and human rights we need to first take a look at ourselves and the government that is actually accountable to us.
One of the main advantages of memory is that it allows us to prevent ourselves from repeating our mistakes. Though that only works if we remember what actually happened and take the proper lessons from it. Hopefully through Remembrance Day we are reminded of the folly and tragedy of war.
We desperately need to learn from past mistakes instead of glorifying them. Not only do we owe that to the dead, but more importantly to ourselves and to future generations.
Brett Thoms
