Editor,
When pinning blood-red poppies in our lapels to signify Remembrance Day, we honour all those who died in foreign wars; maybe more of us should take time to really ponder why so many died in The Great War of 1914-1918. The war to end all wars was fought between forces supporting English King George V against those supporting his German cousin Kaiser Wilhem II, both grandsons of Queen Victoria. Triggered by the assassination in Sarajevo, Bosnia of Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Ferdinand by a Yugoslav Nationalist, the four long years of conflict saw armed forces from many other parts of the world involved in bloody slaughter that engulfed Europe.
The Ottoman Empire chose to side with Germany, so its troops were killing fellow Muslims from places like Egypt, India, Tunisia, Morocco, and elsewhere who were conscripted to fight for their colonial masters in London and Paris. Then armies from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and throughout the British Empire were forced to fight and kill fellow Christians from Germany and its Central Powers allies, despite their religious icon being the Prince Of Peace. The carnage was huge, in total more than nine million soldiers were killed, their religious and humanitarian beliefs well and truly lost in the horrible mud-filled and gas-laden trenches of historical warfare.
Spoils of war always go to the victors, and vast parts of the Ottoman Empire were carved up by English and French cartographers, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Their lines scrawled on a map of the Middle East 100 years ago have proven to be the basis of constant strife that has ensued there ever since, and still makes that part of the world a most troubled and volatile hotbed of political and religious violence.
Political mistakes, and their terrible historical consequences, really are some things to ponder when pinning that blood-red poppy in your lapel again this year.
Bernie Smith
Parksville, B.C.
