The Editor,
Re. “Remembering Canada and its contributions in the Great War” (TC Community, The Tri-City News, Nov. 11)
The article by John Goheen on Canada’s place in the First World War of the 20th century was well-written but seems incomplete.
In that war, no one declared war on Canada, no one attacked Canada first, the war was not fought for the defence of Canada, not fought for the rights and freedoms of Canadians. It was another power struggle war between major European nations and the continent of Europe is soaked in blood. They have slaughtered one another in hundreds of wars, including six world wars.
It was a war that solved nothing, meant nothing, proved nothing, although the British Empire did gain about a million square miles of new territory, in particular the oil fields of Iraq and Persia (Iran), and we are still paying for that act of imperialism.
All of that trench warfare was a futile meat grinder and the pact that ended the war was so harsh and vengeful that field marshal Foch declared it a “20-year peace treaty,” which proved to dead on as it contributed to the outbreak of a more horrible and destructive war in 1939.
So much for “never again” and “the war to end wars.”
Both of my grandfathers served in the Canadian army during the First World War but I would never think the war was fought for their sake. Making war all about soldiers is emotional button-pushing propaganda, and there is not a war without propaganda.
Wars are fought for the 4 P’s: power, profit, property and politics. We, in our remembrance of the war, have not discussed much real history, which is a shame because history is our shared heritage and should not be used as propaganda to promote our present land war in Asia.
Vern Huffman,
Port Coquitlam
