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Posts Tagged ‘war’

Ecclesiastes 3:8: “A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.”

Solomon here makes an observation, not a prescription. Of all the times in Israel’s history, his reign was the most peaceful.

My first memory of war was when I was three or four years old. My dad came home from town with a newspaper in his overcoat pocket. He showed it to us, and it had headlines and photos of the war in Europe. Dad also listened to a battery-operated radio to get news about the war, the bombings in Britain, the losses and advances in Europe.

Outside, we played war. We repeated, “Hitler can’t take Canada, Hitler can’t take France, If Hitler comes to Canada, We’ll kick him in the pants!”

In our rare trips to Winnipeg, we sometimes ate at the New Moon Café. A man came around the tables selling cards, much like baseball cards, with ghastly pictures of soldiers killing soldiers with bayonets, depicting the Germans as being without mercy.

Robert E. Lee in 1862, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, said: “It is well that war is so terrible—otherwise we would grow too fond of it.” Often, during this Memorial Day weekend, those removed from war by a generation of two, celebrate the holiday with fondness and forget the purpose. Shopping and eating replace stopping and thanking.

During this weekend, we need to remember the fallen from all nations, the people who died and those wounded because of wars. We need to remember so that we will seek peace above all else.

The two world wars were appalling in just the deaths alone. WORLD WAR I – over 16,500,000 killed. United States lost 113,465 people in battle; Canada lost 66,944.

WORLD WAR II – over 73,700,000 killed, 3.71% of the population of the countries involved. Of that, the Third Reich countries of Austria, Germany and ethnic Germans in other countries lost 7,338,500 people – 8.7% of their population. Japan lost 2,700,000 or 3.78% of their population.

United States lost 418,500 people—0.32% of its population—and Canada lost 45,300—0.40% of its population. A very small percentage when compared with some other nations. Yet, a dear loss to families and friends. I remember the tears shed by families when news of their loss came to them.

So we remember. We thank. We sing our national anthems. But let’s sing in a way that does not make us feel superior to other nations, but one with them in the sorrow of our common losses.

“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory; but, boys, it is all hell.” — General William Tecumseh Sherman to the graduating class of Michigan Military Academy, April 11, 1880.