[redforever]

Here are some thoughts from my father in law (now deceased) regarding hot situations that exist around the world, like the topic at hand.

My FIL, MIL and husband immigrated to Canada a few years after the Second World War ended. My FIL had 2 brothers who had come to Canada 15 years prior. Those 2 brothers sponsored my FIL to come over.

My FIL came from Hungary but where he lived was actually on the map of Czechoslovakia, it was a portion of land that had gone back and forth as concessions to various events over the years.

Hitler marched through Czechoslovakia as well as Poland and other countries and my FIL was forced to fight for the Axis.

I guess my FIL had never really talked about the war with his family. One day I asked him about it and he talked about his war experiences in great depth with me..

His unit marched to and from Russia in the dead of winter and many times, the bread that the peasants gave them was the only nourishment they had. 90% of his unit was lost.

Every village feared the time the Germans would come and occupy their town. Household furniture was used for firewood, food supplies were taken for the German soldiers leaving the women, children and elderly left in the villages with little to eat. My MIL and her sister were hid in the root cellar by their father for the entire time the Germans occupied their village, almost 6 months. My MIL was around 18 at the time and if she or other girls and women of that age were not hidden, they were raped.

My FIL never owned a weapon once he came to Canada, outside of a small 22 that he used for perhaps gopher control.

Speaking with him, he told me this.

Until it is your land that has been pillaged, until you have been forced to fight someone else's war, until it is your women who have been raped, until it has been your home that has been bombed to smithereens, until it is your innocent family and friends who have been the victims of yet another bombing, you can have no real understanding of people who do indeed experience those things.

I think sometimes it is very easy for most of us in Canada to point fingers and say, what ruthless people they are. We have been so very very lucky in Canada, not to have a recent war fought at home on our land. Yes, we have sent men and women overseas, but we have not had to fight battles here where other factors come into play. It is very easy for us to say to others, those events are long gone, let them be. But we have not been participants in those events and we have not been the ones who have been hurt so badly and who have lost so much.