Rumours of war

by BRIAN LOCKHART

“Napalm son – nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like... victory. Some day this war's going to end.”

If you're a movie buff, you probably recognize that quote spoken by Robert Duvall, aka, Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, in the 1979 war epic, Apocalypse Now.

Clearly, Lt. Col. Kilgor enjoys his job doing search and destroy missions in the jungles of Vietnam. Some people enjoy war.

The new head of the army in the U.K. has come out with a statement that the U.K. must prepared to fight a war in three years.

He is calling for the country to double its fighting power by 2027, and triple it by the end of the decade.

This man is just the latest in a list of European leaders who have warned the continent is on the road to yet another war.

Europe – the continent where apparently no one can get along with each other. 

You would think the Napoleonic Wars, would have been a lesson. Some historians actually refer to that era as the real First World War.

The ‘Great War' of 1914-18, was called ‘The War to end All Wars.'

But it didn't end all wars. In fact, the resentment from that was what spurned the Second World War – which of course left most of Europe in ruins.

You would think having your entire city reduced to a pile of rubble, would make you think about actually going to war again. You would think that having millions of your citizens killed, would make you think about going to war again.

One of the saddest photos I have ever seen was taken in a potato field in Poland in 1939.

A group of women were harvesting potatoes when a Luftwaffe aircraft approached and strafed the field.

The photograph, taken a minute later, shows a ten-year-old girl crying over the body of her older sister, who was killed in the attack. She was killed because they were starving and had to get food.

Another haunting photo from that era is the photograph of a 14-year-old Polish Jewish girl. She is in a concentration camp and wearing the assigned uniform to designate a prisoner.

Her head is crudely shaved. She is a slight girl, with fear in her eyes. Her lower lip is split because one of the female guards had punched her in the face – for no other reason than she wanted to.

Not long after the photo was taken, the young girl was murdered – at 14 years old.

This is the true face of war.

If we believe European leaders, the war in Europe is again inevitable in the next few years.

Has anyone asked the average guy on the street what he thinks about a new war in Europe?

I'll bet the typical person does not want their home destroyed by bombs, their family killed, and their children forced to join an army to die face down in the mud somewhere.

Another war in Europe means Canada will once again be involved in a foreign conflict due to NATO obligations.

Canada hasn't had to defend its own border since 1814, but we have had to defend someone else's border in at least three wars since then.

Forget the ‘King and Country' nonsense of the past. Canada has no real moral obligation to be involved in a foreign war.

A new war in Europe won't be a fight for ‘freedom.'

It is hard to believe that in this day and age, countries still have armed forces at all. This is the 21st century. We should have evolved past having armies whose only purpose is to kill people and destroy property.

The only people who will benefit from another war, are the arms dealers and the people whose companies supply the bombs, bullets, ships, and aircraft designed to destroy.

All the people predicting a war in Europe, are the ‘leaders.' They are political leaders and military leaders – all warning the continent is heading for war.

It's like they have to follow a self-fulling prophecy of making sure the continent is destroyed every few decades.

Maybe getting rid of the current leaders, all of them, and replacing them with people have have common sense, will resolve the situation.

As always, those who start the war will be safe and far away from any conflict.

One way to stop a new war would be to hand these leaders a rifle and deliver them to the front lines.

They won't think it's such a great idea when they are the target.