CREDIT: "LEST WE FORGET" BY SAMIPH222 ON THINKSTOCK
Remembrance Day is a time to pay tribute to those who gave their lives to give us the freedom we now have, but it should also be a time to ask questions about the war and the decisions made during that time.

For a number of years I helped lead Remembrance Day events at both Western and Fanshawe. But each time I felt my mind was divided and my conscience unclear. On the one hand, it is fitting to remember the war dead who do not come home to their families and towns and it is fitting to recall those who are more fortunate and do return from the theatre of war, but who nonetheless suffer.

On the other hand, does our way of remembering those who serve cover up truth? In the quasi-religious atmosphere of Remembrance Day, our eyes are filled with images of flags, war memorials, cenotaph ceremonies and veterans in uniform displaying their medals. Our ears are filled with the somber notes of the Last Post and the crack of guns firing their salutes. Our minds are filled with war stories told by aging veterans and other speakers at Remembrance events.

For a while we cease thinking. But we should not; we should not cease to think, to think and to ask questions.

We should ask questions about the bungling leadership of those who herded young Canadians and hundreds of thousands of others into the lethal trenches of World War I. We should consider critically those who demanded from the safety of their podiums that Canadian teenagers had a moral duty to show those beastly “Huns” how inferior they were. (Google “huns propaganda” to get a taste of how the Allied leadership manipulated their citizens in the 20th century, which raises other troubling questions.)

We don’t ask enough questions about the British Bomber Command’s decision to firebomb entire German cities in the later years of World War II. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of German civilians were burned alive or blown up during those nighttime missions.

We don’t ask enough questions about what happens when fire is countered with more fire; when all sides in a conflict that has gone hot believe they need to develop the next big weapon, the next military strategy, and get them operational. Hitler had his issues, but the military response to his aggression entailed the laying to waste of all of Europe and vast stretches of Russia and Africa. The “solution” to Germany, and then Japan, entailed the sacrifice of 100 million people.

We don’t ask enough questions about our own ability to sink into acts of extreme barbarity for our so-called just cause. The only use of atomic weapons on human beings was perpetrated by Canada’s closest ally, an action that completely sidelined the “just war” ethic that civilians not be targeted. We became as barbaric as the enemy, or to be more accurate, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Roughly up until the guns of World War I began to roar, Canadian churches along with churches all over the planet believed that the way to peace began by spreading the message of Jesus Christ to all nations. Thousands of missionaries were deployed to every country that allowed them and maybe some that didn’t.

This was not without its problems of course. The missionary links with colonialism are known and have been a discredit to the missionaries. But one must also remember that where missionaries succeeded hospitals and schools soon appeared alongside the churches. Many missionaries, if not most, were respected and loved. And not a few challenged colonial practices.

And, to put it a bit crassly, if you think that sending Christian missionaries to places where the story of Jesus has not been heard creates problems, try addressing the problems you create when you set up U.S. military bases in the Pacific and ring the Soviet Union with nuclear missiles as the U.S. and NATO did during the Cold War. Try using the CIA to prop up pro-U.S. governments in the Middle East. Try invading Iraq and bombing Libya.

Finally, by covering the memories of the war dead with a sacred flag and quietly leaving their graves, we don’t ask enough questions about the culpability of our own nation and its allies in creating the circumstances that lead to war. The truce of World War I meant the humiliation of Germany. Without that humiliation, there would have been no World War II.

The closing days of World War II, which were intended to isolate the Soviets, worked. But this set the stage for the Cold War which, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, brought us to the brink of an intercontinental nuclear war, and fueled the breakdown of the Middle East. We are paying for this today as terrorism rises, ISIS has become a major threat and refugees are stranded across the globe.

I don’t believe that problems are usually resolved to any meaningful degree by people with weapons. A Canadian (or as is often the case, an American) with a gun is not the solution to the violence of our world.

Rather it is prayer, patience, grace, co-operation and, though I hesitate to use this word because it is easily misunderstood, love. Ultimately it is the person who the missionaries presented in their aborted efforts to introduce him to people of all cultures; he is often called the Prince of Peace.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.