During the Great War, more popularly known as World War I, fighting between the Germans and the Triple Entente raised the soil in Ypres, Belgium and had an unintended effect of strewing poppy seeds around the lush fields of central Europe. As a result, poppies bloomed more intensely and with greater numbers than ever before. As human blood spilled into the soil, the soil, paradoxically, yielded unprecedented florid beauty..
At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War, which had claimed 19 million lives, finally came to an end. When it started in August 1914, politicians in Britain claimed victory would be achieved by Christmas of that year. Instead, millions of young men around Europe lost their lives, lost their limbs or lost their families. Ninety years later, war is no less a stranger to our world in 2008, and bloody conflicts currently rage in every corner of the earth including Iraq, Afghanistan, the Congo and Somalia.
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Several attempts have been made by noble statesmen to curtail the use of force. Traveling to Paris in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson entered negotiations to create a League of Nations to prevent another global conflagration. While the League was indeed created, it had little power to broker conflicts due to the decision US Senate to balk at becoming a member. On 27 August 1928, delegates from around the world eagerly signed the Pact of Paris or the 'Kellogg-Briand Pact' to abolish war altogether. Although hailed with considerable fanfare by politicians and people from New York to Stockholm, it was in fact a cynical public relations ploy. In less than five years, Japan would be consolidating its position in Manchuria and Germany would be planning to rearm and take revenge on the Allied powers for its humiliating loss a dozen years earlier.
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The death toll from war, including civil wars and wars of governments against their own people in the 20th century is an abysmal series of statistics:
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War..............Death Toll
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World War I - 19 million
Russian Civil War - 5 million
World War II - 40 million
Japanese War Atrocities - 3 million
Nazi War Atrocities - 11 million
Korean War - 2.5 million
Vietnam War - 2.5 million
Afghan Civil War - 1.5 million
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A famine instituted by Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union, designed to destroy his political 'enemies' from 1932-33, claimed 6 million lives.
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The 'Great Bengal Famine' in India, created when the British diverted essential crop yields to feed its troops in the field in 1942, left 4 million Indians dead. Unlike the following famines, the cause of the 'Great Bengal Famine' was not malicious in intent but due to administrative errors and poor weather conditions. Nevertheless, it occurred as a result of war.
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During the 'Great Leap Forward', a famine created by Chairman Mao of China to consolidate his political power from 1959-62, 20 million perished.
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Altogether, 114.5 million lives were needlessly lost in these catastrophic events. Unfortunately, that is a short list.
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At the dawn of the 21st century, the human race must again renew its efforts to achieve collective security for all peoples. War is barbaric, uncivilized and belongs only in a museum for future generations to discuss how the world could have devoured part of its own creation by such contemptible behavior. As Sigmund Freud rightly noted, 'Anything that encourages the growth of emotional ties between men must operate against war'. In short, we must all strive to plant poppies of peace in the hearts of men and women in every hour of every day.
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J Roquen