Today, November 11th, is Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom. Over the weekend people throughout the country – including Ireland – have already gathered at heart rending events to remember those who died.
This year there was a detectable and growing number of people asking, in the light of current global events, “what did they die for?”
My own emotions, I find shared by everyone I know, centre on a sense that the so-called victory in the “war to end all wars” was – given current events – nothing more than a delayed defeat.
Global and domestic politics are today almost impossible for the average citizen to fully comprehend.
Today we remember some 383,600 British military personnel who died in World War II.
This represented 6% of the adult male population and 12.5% of those who served.
The total number of deaths for the United Kingdom, including military and civilian, was 450,700.
Including the First World War more than one million British military personnel were lost in the 20th century alone. The figures rise exponentially if the heroic Commonwealth and allied forces are also included.
Most people I know in the UK have made one decision in common. They have stopped trying to follow the news and current events. Everyone I have asked is convinced that the ‘news’ is as most put it “angled or ill-informed”.
That America has “lost the plot” is a generally accepted viewpoint. That the European Union is “a divided collection of increasingly extremist countries” is another common point of view in the UK.
In practical terms the UK is a country with a continuing support approaching about half the population for getting back into the EU. Lately it is noticeable that even the most ardent pro EU are beginning to question the sense of that.
Increasing shifts towards the hard-right in a considerable number of EU states and an increasingly obvious lack of effective central democratic governance is raising serious questions.
“News has become a ‘what if’ debate about issues that are so complex it is almost impossible to comprehend”, is an assessment I put to a group of people and the response was one hundred percent agreement.
That western democracy is in the final stages of collapse is emphasised by the election victory of Donald Trump. As I write reports suggest that President Trump’s administration are proposing a Ukraine peace deal that would allow Russia to keep the territory it has gained in Ukraine.
This potentially dramatic proposal has highlighted an already confused debate in Europe about EU support for Ukraine. My thoughts on the UK’s Remembrance Day are, in particular, for the huge number of people who have died fighting for Ukraine. Also for those I got to know and befriend on my trip last year who are still fighting or civilians suffering missile and drone attacks.
Should America stop supporting Ukraine the EU will face its most significant political and financial crisis. How will this affect the situation in Europe? Unlike the general media I argue that ill-informed speculation is not helpful or even relevant.
However, it could be that Europe will not be able to agree on the way forward and a forced peace deal could be another example of an end to a war which, like WW2, would arguably be another peace that would be a delayed defeat for the whole of Europe.
One speculative issue that the media have started waxing on about is that President elect Trump ‘will force the UK back into the EU’. The trouble with that proposition at this time is that the UK is still a democracy. A return to membership without an election or a proper referendum could, or should not, happen. A second point is that every EU member state would have to agree and that is a question that right now is hard to predict.
Featured on memorials around Britain is the verse “When you get home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today”. Attributed to John Maxwell Edmond’s it is said to be inspired by the epitaph written in 480BC to honour the Greeks who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Unfortunately in terms of ending all wars, as the Greeks well know and we should all recognise in light of what is happening today “Tomorrow never comes”.
Note: Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states, and beyond, since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in the line of duty not only in that war, but in previous and subsequent conflicts.
The day is also marked by war remembrances in many other non-Commonwealth countries, including EU member states.
