How can people say -- and seem to really believe -- that war is not romanticized, sentimentalized, glorified? Remembrance Day has now become Remembrance Week. Some people start wearing poppies before the end of October. The airwaves are choked with story after story about the wars. I have no objection -- of course -- to stories and memories but the stories are told, so often, with such affectionate nostalgia.
Those of us who speak against wars are shushed, especially on November 11, or we're told that it is these wars (even the one in Afghanistan!) that have guaranteed our freedom to speak openly.
As many others are, I am moved by the faces of the elderly veterans on November 11 and that's a little sentimental. I really dislike the false equivalency that tosses all the wars in the same basket and I am not at all impressed by antics such as the recent one at an Ontario Legion, which puts a bit of tarnish on the veterans' organization.
Let's just say that, to me, the observance of Remembrance Day has been appropriated and turned into a tool of propaganda and I have come to resent its tone and what it has come to represent.
What follows is a column I wrote in November, 20 years ago. The war-in-preparation that I refer to in this column was the First Gulf War.
The love of war, the glory of war
November 9, 1990
We were talking last week about Remembrance Days of our pasts; my outstanding memories - with years all melded together -- involve standing in Elm Park in Chatham, N.B. (when the elms were still there), freezing half to death. It always seemed to be an overcast day with a little snow on the ground, about an inch, the frozen November grass showing through just to add to the general bleakness.
There were veterans and the ladies' auxiliary from the legion, high school cadets, the town's band -- it was pretty good too -- and the usual dignitaries. We sang Abide With Me and the bugler played the Last Post and they solemnly read the names of all the people who hadn't come back from the wars and laid the wreaths. The whole town seemed to turn out.
Pretty typical, I guess, just like any other small town in Canada on November 11.
Years later, my friend Margaret wrote a prize-winning newspaper column which was headlined "Time to stop glorifying war." She felt that the further off the big wars were, the more people seem inclined to use words like "glorious victory" and "brave fighting men." Her intention was not to dishonour the memory of anyone who had fought in the wars but no matter -- she was censured from pulpits, strongly reproached by the local legion, and many people cancelled their subscriptions to the paper.
Margaret lives in Germany now so she isn't following the current call to war as closely as we're able to -- particularly thanks to all the Canadian journalists (including local ones from our two television news shows) who are sending back reports from their vantage points aboard the Canadian navy ships.
One of the favourite slogans of the women's peace movement is "Take the toys from the boys." Never has it seemed more appropriate as we learn in such enthusiastic terms how well the guns are working during the daily tests, as we read the poetic language the journalists are using to describe the "aloof, sleek" CF-18 jet fighters and the pure affection with which they write about the aging Sea King helicopters -- "a noisy, vibrating bird," one wrote.
Well, propaganda is not a new device, for sure, and it's certainly effective. Even now, little boys are running about making helicopter noises or dropping imaginary bombs on the head of the latest Evil Incarnate, Saddam Hussein, not unlike many earlier generations of boys who hoped against hope that the war of the moment would last long enough for them to get a crack at it.
The love of war -- the romance of war -- the glory of war have all been expounded for a long time.
Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than of war. (Homer: Iliad XIII).
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! (Shakespeare: Othello I.i.).
War, that mad game the world so loves to play. (Jonathan Swift: Ode to Sir William Temple).
But this year, 1990, as we accept the possibility of war in the Middle East, also marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the pacifist organization, Voice of Women for Peace. It might be a good time to remember some of the words from its constitution, adopted in 1961.
-- To unite women in concern for the future of the world;
-- To help promote the mutual respect and co-operation among nations necessary for peaceful negotiations between world powers;
-- To protest against war or the threat of war as the decisive method of exercising power;
-- To appeal to all national leaders to co-operate in developing methods of negotiations;
-- To appeal to all national leaders to co-operate in the alleviation of the causes of war by common action for the economic and social betterment of all people;
-- To provide a means for women to exercise responsibility for the family of humankind.
May their voices be heard loudly and strongly this Remembrance Day. Peace, dear sisters.
The image above is a poppy watercolour painting project that Calgary artist Gail Bartel did with a grade 1 and 2 class.
Thanks, Alan, for your open mindedness.
I agree the Nazis had to be stopped. The primary responsibility for doing that was with the German people - just as the primary responsibility for getting rid of Saddam Hussein was with the Iraqi people; ditto Ahmadinejad and Iran; Stephen Harper and Canada; Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe, etc.
Also, I think if the Germans had won the War, Nazism would not have lasted long. There was widespread radicalism among the working classes of Europe before the war, and I expect there would have been revolts against Nazi rule throughout the occupied territories, as well as in Germany itself.
Thanks for providing the source.
The bottom line has always been the chief motivation of our Capitalist neighbours and their friends in Canada.
That quote by Truman is pretty disgusting...
Motivated by the fear and contempt of communism and capitalist interests obviously were the prime objectives in the 2 World Wars..I won't deny it and your source backs it up.
Most people remember the McCarthy movement.
Clearly the Capitalists sympathized with Hitler to a point or possibly all the way.
It's funny that some people equate socialism with communism (2 VERY different animals) and,especially since the election of Obama as President of the Excited States,alot of people confuse Hitler as a socialist.
Hitler used nationalism and socialism to seduce the German people and the Nazis perfected propaganda (something modern Conservative governments greatly envied the Nazis for and have been emulating the state and media propagandist supremacy the Nazis mastered)
When you read alot of Hitler's rants,they were NOT a ringing endorsement of socialism.
Hitler was a raging right winger who despised communists as much as Jews,gypsies and homosexuals.
So it's not a stretch to believe that the U.S. and Canada with their allies in Britain wanted Hitler to succeed as he did in France,Poland and the Netherlands in the Soviet Union.
That didn't happen and as you pointed out,the Nazis were not playing ball as the West wanted them to...Which is probably why ,in the end ,the coalition of England,the U.S. and Canada united with the Soviets.
Now having said all that,and after reading your source,I'm still reluctant of patting Hitler on the back or sympathizing with the Nazis.
I still believe that they needed to be fought and stopped.
Unfortunately,they weren't fought out of stemming the tide of fascism but out of being punished for not playing the game as the West wanted them to.
I stand corrected.
I don't think there's nearly as much of a distinction between World War 2 and the Afghanistan war as you do.
Conscription did not happen in WW2 until very late in 1944. The vast majority of Canadian troops were volunteers.
As I said above, World War 2 was no more about fighting to protect our freedoms than the Afghanistan war is about protecting women. Both are myths invented to justify the carnage and to silence any questioning about what was really going on.
WW2 was basically a continuation of WW1. It was a fight between the major world capitalist powers for markets and colonies, spurred on by the economic crisis of the 1930's. As the following account shows, it was all based on the cynical calculations of self-interest among the great powers - including a very real component of anti-communism.
– Source
I'm just making the distinction between World War 2 and Afghanistan because they are incomparable.
There was also a conscription during the world war.
Whether its Korea,Vietnam,peace keeping missions in Yugoslavia and Somalia or Afghanistan,comparing World War 2 with any of those wars is like comparing apples and oranges.
Did World War 2 protect our freedoms?...Probably not but imagine what Europe would look like now if Hitler had his way.
You have also pointed out that Canada actually WAS involved in the the war from the get go when you pointed out Canada was involved in the war a full year BEFORE the blitzkriegs on London which happened in September 1940.
Was there territorial gains to be made during the second world war?...Of course...Was there financial gains to be had?....Take a look at the post war industrial boom.
So for anyone to make a blanket statement that the second world war was exclusively about fighting the Nazis and/or fascism would be wrong.
That includes myself,I was wrong to elude to that.
BUT...There was still a valid reason,a justified reason for that war.
Unlike the current wars Canada has been involved with--PARTICULARLY in Afghanistan--Canadian soldiers WERE fighting against a regime who was waging ILLEGAL WARS,INVASIONS and OCCUPATIONS.
We are now engaged in an illegal war born from an illegal invasion and committed to an illegal occupation...Instead of fighting the Nazis,we are becoming the Nazis.
If the world were to still wage a world war out of the same events,the U.S. would be getting bombed and George Bush,Stephen Harper and Tony Blair would have been publicly hanged a la Mussolini.
Canada was involved in both major wars in Europe because we were still part of the British Empire. Once England declared war, Canada's declaration was a mere formality.
The blitzkrieg on London didn't start until September 1940 – a year after Canada had entered the war.
The war officially got underway when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. I don't think Canadians were motivated by an overwhelming desire to support Poland.
In any event, it took almost four years after the declaration of war before Canadian troops saw any significant battle action in Europe - the invasion of Sicily in 1943; it was another year after that before the Normandy landings in France. None of that action was about the defence of Canada, or the defence of our "freedoms" (which were not under threat from any external enemy).
I hear what you say,M.Spector and I can't argue with the facts you presented.
BUT,Canada went off to Europe because of the illegal wars and invasions the Nazis were waging..in particular the Nazis blitzkriegs on London.
The irony between World War 2 and modern wars involving the West is that Canada was fighting against a regime which was waging illegal wars,invasions and occupations in the early 1940's but today Canada is PART of the regime waging illegal wars,invasions and occupations.
The (quite limited) freedoms we have in Canada today have absolutely nothing to do with World Wars 1 or 2 or any other imperialist adventures of the last century. We won those through many decades of struggle against our own capitalist rulers - not by killing foreigners in far-off lands.
Another myth is that Canadian soldiers in World War 2 were "fighting against fascism". This implies a level of political consciousness among the troops and a motivation that simply wasn't there. It's also as absurd a concept as the "war on terror" - a war against an ideology or a tactic in both cases. It's also exactly the same as making war for "regime change", à la Iraq - i.e., we declare war on you because we don't like your government. Besides, we "won" World War 2, but fascism is still a threat. And that threat comes from right here at home.
The Canadians who were really fighting against fascism in the late 1930s were organizing rallies and marches in Canada and sometimes fighting pitched street battles against fascist gangs. They were mostly Communist party members and supporters. The Canadian government rewarded their efforts by throwing them into internment camps.
World War 2 was no more a war against fascism than the war in Afghanistan is a war against misogyny.
I like what one of the local community/university/democratic radio stations did (either CHLY in Nanaimo or CFUV in Victoria or CFRO in Vancouver - I forget which) ... by honouring THE VICTIMS of war today. This is in marked contrast from what the warmongers and their useful idiots do.
Let this day remind us of how brutal and ugly war is. Let this day remind us of the men and women who gave their lives in WWI and WWII so that we can have the freedoms we all share today. Let us remember the lives that have been lost in all of the wars since WWII. Let this day remind us to bring our soldiers home and end this ugly, and wrong, war...
All of the wars since WWII had nothing to do with the freedom of speech, plain and simple. The war should be stopped as there is no progress that will happen when the soldiers of the world are in that place.
I have 2 nephews and a brother in law in Afghanistan...My grand father's brother (my great uncle) was killed in WWII.
In the case of WWII,I appreciate the fact that the war was in retaliation of a country waging illegal wars and invasions in Europe..
I understand that Canada's links with Britain had Canadian soldiers fighting in that war long before the Americans to defend England....These soldiers were also fighting against fascism.
I respect soldiers that fought in the World War...
Because I have family in Afghanistan,I wish NOTHING horrible happens to them...I support the troops by supporting an immediate withdrawl from Afghanistan.
But the fact is,war present,past and future has been politicized by the right...It's the reason I do not where a poppy or a ribbon.
I do not hate our soldiers but I detest the cretins who have them out there fighting an unwinable and illegal war.
With this being Rememberance Day,we should all remember wars from the past...Remember why they were fought and remember why those who fought died.
We should be remembering that those who died in the World Wars died in vain....Because our soldiers in Afghanistan are NOT fighting fascism....They are enforcing a fascist agenda.
This gave me a chuckle:
In other words: "It's because of wars that you have freedom of speech, so shut the fuck up!" This is the very essence of the hypocrisy of the Canadian Legion.