Honour fallen and avoid errors of past

ARMISTICE Day has a special significance this year, of course: it is exactly 100 years since hostilities ceased and the First World War came to an end.

The last veteran of that terrible war died in 2012 at the age of 110, so it is now beyond living memory.

Surviving veterans of the Second World War are becoming increasingly rare, and there are those who argue that Remembrance Day services and parades should end as a result.

We disagree with such sentiments for several reasons. While most of the two world war veterans are no longer with us, their families are, and many want passionately to honour the memory of relatives who made the ultimate sacrifice.

As a nation too, it is important to preserve our collective memory of what has made us. Hundreds of thousands of Welsh people fought and died for what they believed in. In the First World War they were combating Prussian militarism, and in the Second World War, fascism.

Our approach to remembering is important. Warfare in itself does not deserve to be glorified. Instead we should recognise the suffering and the sacrifice that took place. The appalling slaughter in the trenches that took place from 1914 onwards should convince anyone of the need to avoid war if that is humanly possible.

We also need to be aware of the threats to peace that exist today: the rise of strident and racist populism, and the failure to deliver social justice in so many parts of the world.

Thinking about the cause of peace should also lead us to value international diplomacy and cooperation as an insurance policy against war.

Honouring those who have died involves avoiding, if we can, the mistakes of the past. The seeds of the Second World War were sown in the Versailles Agreement that imposed punitive sanctions on Germany, thus facilitating the rise of Hitler.

It’s right that this weekend’s commemorative events should be treated with the solemnity they deserve.

We are remembering the sacrifice of men’s and women’s lives who died while trying to make the world a better place for successive generations.

Let’s view their sacrifice in that light, and do all we can to honour them and all we can to foster international collaboration, and by doing so make the prospect of deadly conflict less likely.