Posted by freeluncher @ Talking Liberties
Remembrance Sunday is once again fast approaching, and the British Legion are encouraging us all to support the Poppy Appeal by buying a Red Poppy and wearing it ‘with pride’. Now, I know I have written about this before, but I feel the need to do so again, if only to put some flesh on the bones of my misgivings over the UK’s annual Remembrance ceremonies, and my reasons for wearing a White Poppy.
This year Remembrance Sunday falls on the 11th of November, which happens to be the date on which the First World War ended, and which Armistice Day was originally meant to commemorate. But for one reason or another, Armistice Day’s solemn recollection of a horrific, senseless and futile war which took the lives of near a million British sons and daughters, has now evolved into a Remembrance Sunday ceremony in which the nation pays ‘homage devoted’ to the memory of ‘all those who have given their lives for the peace and freedom we enjoy today’. This, for me, raises some problems.
The first problem is the attempt, deliberate or otherwise, to represent all of Britain’s military adventures as being nobly motivated to secure ‘peace and freedom’. This, if I may be so bold, is pure poppy-cock. Britain has waged many wars throughout its long history, many of dubious intent, while very few have been motivated by the wish to secure peace and freedom, unless we count the peace and freedom of wealthy capitalists! It is factually dishonest to ascribe similar motives to diverse wars such as the First World War, the Second World War, or the Gulf Wars. In effect, the British Legion’s Remembrance Day call is tantamount to a whitewash of Britain’s bloody imperialist history.
A further problem is the supposed ‘peace and freedom we enjoy today’. Now, I for one cannot credit the Armed Forces with delivering the ‘freedoms’ I enjoy. The military did not win for me the right to vote, the right to habeas corpus, the right to paid leave from work, the right to be treated equally before the Law, the right to free medical treatment, or the right to join a trade union. They were won for me by civil rights activists and campaigners, often in the teeth of governmental and military repression. And as we speak these ‘freedoms’ are under attack by our so-called democratic government. Also, I am sure the British Legion is well aware that we do not live in a time of ‘peace’, but in a time of war. And while we civilians live with the ever-present fear of a terrorist attack in retaliation for our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, UK soldiers are coming home traumatized, injured or worse, to find the government and Ministry of Defence cares little for them, and they may have to rely on charity to meet their basic needs.
Yes, charity. Let’s remember this November that the British Legion is a charity, which is only in existence because those who send our men and women to war do not make adequate provision for them on their return. And that isn’t anything to be proud of.
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I rather think that you would be speaking German or not have been born at all were it not for the sacrifice of our Armed Forces. If you believe that a Nazi government of occupation would not have suspended your ‘freedoms’ then I suggest you visit Belsen or Dachau.
annoyed, I rather suspect you misunderstand me.
World War Two, as you mention, may have had honourable intent, but other wars the UK has been involved with have not. Iraq, or the First World War springs to mind. What I am deploring is the lumping of all wars in together, the good, the bad and the ugly, as being essentially about the same thing – “peace and freedom”.
This is patently untrue. How was it WIlfred Owen put it?
“..If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori
Freeluncher has added a ps:
You can get a white poppy from the ppu website (http://www.ppu.org.uk/), from Plymouth CND, or from me. (And if ye ask nicely I’ll send ye wan fur free!)