I was thinking about the way in which we remember the wars of the twentieth century and wondered why we have given so much credence to them as worthy of memory over any other wars? They say they were the first in which the general population became a target but anyone who reads history will know the results of most of the besieged cities when they fell. The poor treatment meted out to non-combatants was one of the inspirations that fueled thoughts about the ‘Just War’ in which theft and rape were looked down upon.
They say millions died, and they did but a full 50% of the men in the UK died in the Napoleonic wars – a greater loss than both the first and second world wars combined for the UK. And this remembrance is about warriors, not about genocide. One of the few counties to have succeeded in genocide in Australia who wiped out the entire Tasmanian Aboriginal population. And if we try to remember the Turkish violence against the Armenians we are politely told to go to hell. And how many American Indians died in the theft of North America?
If we had remembered past wars, if the Germans had been made to remember past wars and not just their past defeats, we might not have a cenotaph. But because we have not remembered the violence of the British to millions around the world we may be forgiven for missing the fact that most of the wars we are engaged in are in countries left politically corrupt by the British Empire.
Something we certainly don’t want to remember.