With each Nov. 11 there are fewer Second World War veterans to give our thanks -and, if needed - our help to.
Seven decades ago, there was a clear moral imperative that drove so many young men and women to enlist in the fight against fascism.
The moral lines of more recent conflicts seem blurry by comparison, as timelines are regularly extended and limited campaigns targeting specific militant groups become intractable conflicts.
War is different today. Technology has advanced. Borders have faded and civilian deaths often outnumber military deaths. While not exactly a dove, former U.S. president Richard Nixon once wrote that the only way to achieve livable peace is to take the profit out of war.
But no matter how strong our distaste for war or how deep our mistrust of the leaders who seek it, we must never stop caring for the men and women who enlist in the Canadian armed forces.
War may have changed over the last century. The sacrifice made by our soldiers has not.
The number of Canadian soldiers who have committed suicide since our foray into Afghanistan shows our abiding need to better help our returning troops. It also underlines that war should never be entered into lightly, and only as a last option.
Author Kurt Vonnegut, himself a Second World War veteran, once wrote about the moment on Nov. 11, 1918, when human beings stopped butchering one another - if only temporarily.
The men who were on the battlefields during that minute later described the sudden silence as "the Voice of God."
We hope to hear that silence again.
