Silent Respect

In 1994 I visited Dieppe in Seine-Maritime to visit the Canadian cemetery for military soldiers who died and helped liberate not just France but Europe.

It was a solemn, eye-opening event for me to say the least. Canadian flags, plaques and statues commemorating Canadians with notes of "our brothers from Canada," draped the little port. The people knew I was Canadian and you can sense the eternal gratitude from them. Dieppe is a town that will remember Canada forever - and ever.

While we beat ourselves up about whether we should have participated in the Great Wars, European towns under the evil grip of the Nazi's don't waste any time with such things. Their reality won't permit them to engage in sophistry. Action was all that was needed and North America along with Australia were nations of action.

It's understood that European nationalism and imperialism was a precursor to the blowing up of the 'Risk' gameboard in 1914 and with one final blow in 1939. No one was truly innocent. But it only needed one aggressor; one nation perceiving it deserved its 'place in the sun' and then later humiliated with crushing repatriations before an unsympathetic neighbours, to light the match to spark the most devastating wars in world history.

Here in North America, in our splendid isolationism, it was asserted it was "none of our business" and that we should stay out of the war. In Canada, this position was held by Quebec. Indeed, Prime Minister Mackenzie King - the indecisive one - laboured about whether to participate.

In the end, history, tradition and reality committed Canada to the war. Though indepdendent, we essentially, like Australia, remained within the bosom of the British Empire, or if you prefer the more docile Commonwealth. Interestingly, the Great Wars gave Canada the confidence to become truly sovereign - though we could only repatriate our constitution from Britain in 1982.

It was a foregone conclusion that Canada and Australia were going to send their sons and daughters to fight for the nations that once ruled over them. How could they stand by, watch and do nothing while Nazi Germany over ran Europe? Was their not some responsibility on our part to help out?

The United States was obviously a different case. It was reaching the apex of its greatness and power. It was the single one entity that held the survival of Western civilization (defined imperfectly as Western Europe) in its hands. If Europe fell to Germany what would that have meant to North America?

Perhaps a strong case can be made, even with that scenario, it was best to let the Europeans fight it out. However, the United States, with its own interests and no doubt soft spot for its European heritage, decided to offer its military might. It changed everything.

There's also been a rebirth in examining Adolf Hitler's motives. None have swayed me into changing the original profile of the man. He was who he was and did what he said he was going to do. He clearly expressed it, he toyed with the media, galvanized his people like a demagogue and tested the will of his neighbours. Terrorists use the exact same ploy. It works.

For its part, Imperial Japan was a militaristic aggressor commiting atrocities in Asia.

Italy offers a twist to this. Mussolini's fascism was indeed unbecoming of a people not exactly known to be militaristic despite its under valued military history. Also feeling disrespected after the Treaty of Versailles (and let's face it, Britain and France were out for blood), he managed to reach power and convince romantic Italians that a return to the "Grandeur of Rome" was possible, when push came to shove, Italians had no stomach for Hitler's barbarianism. Where Hitler managed to turn a society to his designs, Italians rejected Mussolini at the ground level thus putting Italy - already with limited resources - in a disorganized state of affairs.

That in a nutshell, superficially provides some of the general positions I have come across when it comes to the Great Wars.

There was a scene in the Lord of the Rings where one of the Hobbits (I see the face but I forget the name) is begging the Trees to help Rohan defend its land in a battle between good and evil. The Trees refused seeing no point for them to help. The hobbit angrily told him, "are you not part of this world?" Or something like that. While it gave pause, the Trees marched on. It wasn't until they saw the destruction of other trees at the hands of Orcs (force of Sauron) did they realize they were indeed a part of something bigger than them. They decided to fight with the good guys.

That's how I see the Great Wars. Call it propaganda, call it simplistic. But it's mine to keep.

For me, for once, we should just let sleeping dogs lie. We were on the right side of history on this one.

That's why I wear a poppie. I go beyond personal opinion and face what went on before me and accept it. Men and women went, fought, died and survived. Those who made it back, inevitably came home different human beings. The least I can do is not question their sacrifice and bloody damn well remember their sacrifice for one lousy day or pehaps a full week.