Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in Canada.
Ninety-five years since the guns along the Western Front fell silent at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month. The ‘Great War’ (really!), also known as ‘The War to end ALL wars’ was over. For most, anyway. The Russian Revolution, which started in 1917, was still in full swing. The allies still had large contingents of soldiers in Russia in a vain attempt to quell the ‘Reds’. Canadians were stationed in Vladivostok to assist in the Allied effort. Less than two months after the end of hostilities in Western Europe, Canadians, at least two companies of whom were conscripts who were whipped and forced onto a ship and gun and bayonet point, were still involved in the conflict that most people thought was over.
They served less than a year before returning home. Fourteen Canadians are buried there.
Since 1914 over 160 million people have died in armed conflict throughout the world.
War doesn’t seem to end….it subsides, it ebbs and flows, large conflicts are replaced with insurgencies and terrorism.
We don’t seem to have learned very much in the past one hundred years, and we do seemed to repeat history all too often.
So tomorrow, we may remember those who have given their live in the name of our country, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, but seemingly as a people, the human race has learned not one thing from all of this death and destruction visited upon mankind.
Except maybe how to do it with maximum ‘efficiency.’
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