THE SCARS OF WAR ARE EVERYWHERE, REMINDING US OF PEACE!

The introduction in the United Nation Charter, signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco states the following: 

“We, the people of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”…

That indeed is a statement that creates food for thought.

The entire global military spending in 2008 was $1.464 billion.  And the U.S. alone spent more money than the rest of the world combined.

Having lived in Belgium for five years, I often visited the fields of Flanders, located in north-western Belgium, where the deadlock and the trench war continued endlessly and ruthlessly over years. 

Belgium suffered greatly from the scourge of the First World War.  Certainly, many families were affected by the destruction.  And today, scars from war can still be found in its landscape.  Last year only, the bomb squad came out over 3,000 times to remove bombs that never exploded during the war in the fields of Flanders.  In 2009, more than 200 tonnes of WWI bombs were collected from this area. Amazing! 

The scars of war, however, could be found everywhere in Europe!

I have visited the D-day beaches at Normandy, France several times. These beaches hold the legacy of men and women prepared to make the supreme sacrifice for the future of others.  I surely was able to imagine the pain and agony and the historical atmosphere as I walked along the Omaha, Sword and Juno landing beaches and paying my respects to the fallen soldiers at the British, German and the American cemeteries.

My journey has also taken me to the centre of the Holocaust in Oswiecim in Poland, at that time known as Auschwitz.  I spent a day at the death camp where I saw the bloody sites, the gas chamber and the areas where the death squads killed prisoners.  I saw human hair, clothes, suitcases, toys, and eyeglasses from the many people who were devastated in this industrial killing machine.  I recall that it was a sunny spring day and birds were chirping.  I was indeed affected, but the real impact came three days later like a shock!  It was almost paralyzing!

I have also travelled to the Arnhem bridge in the Netherlands, the site where the 101 airborne troops fought the famous “A bridge too far battle”, followed by a visit to the site of the Christmas battle of 1944 in Belgium named the “Battle of the Bulge”, to Hitler’s eagle’s nest in Austria, to his bunker in Bruly-de Pesche, Belgium, to the Ukrainian fields of Poltava where the Swedish King, Charles XII and Tsar Peter executed a historical battle in the early 1700's, to the American civil war battle field of Gettysburg, to the 38th parallel at the Korean border where there still is a war going on, to the Napoleonic battlefield of Waterloo, to the Flanders fields of Ypres, and the French fields of Verdun,  to mention a few of them.

Why, you may ask?  Am I a warmonger?  No, totally the opposite!  I am a fortunate guy who is born in a country that has enjoyed peace for 300 years.  These killing fields that I visited remind me of why the European Union exists and why it is so important.  It is important to be reminded about the horrors of war, to read and learn about what drives mankind to war.  It convinces me that the best way to avoid war is to learn from history and, as a consequence, build democratic nations, of the people and for the people that establishes a mutual political and economic partnership. As a result the heads of state will no longer resort to war and use it as a political tool since the mutual dependability also results in that the aggressors own economy and people will be destroyed.

This mutual dependability in a world of democratic nations, where democratic nations support and help each other financially and politically, is a realistic approach to maintaining peace, IF we all agree that peace is more appreciated than war!  It is up you to decide!