Re: “White poppy or red poppy?” poll, November 5.
Poppies remind us of peace as we remember the soldiers who died in
the First World War. White poppies also remind us of the millions of
innocent civilians who die in wars. War is less and less about soldiers
going into battle. Today, soldiers can sit in bunkers in Nevada
directing drones to drop bombs in Afghanistan. War is more and more
about killing or maiming civilians and destroying their livelihoods,
sometimes damaging their countries for generations yet to come. It
takes a long time to recover from a war—for both civilians and
soldiers.
Politicians take their countries into war. Neither soldiers nor
civilians have much to say about it. We learned that even Canadian
generals originally advised a Liberal government against going into war
in Afghanistan. They said this was a war we were not equipped to fight,
amongst a people and on a terrain we could not hope to understand. They
were right. When there is no conscription, soldiers have a choice about
whether to fight. But should they, once in the military, realize the
consequences of their choice, it is difficult to leave.
It undermines the spirit of the white poppy to ask us to choose
between the white and the red. We should wear a red poppy to remember
the soldiers who have died. We should wear a white poppy to remember
civilians. We should wear them both together to remember the terrible
costs of going to war—for both civilians and soldiers.
—Joy Woolfrey, Halifax
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.