A rchive Date
[ 30-05-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mass Media ]
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[No pause from war's horrors
April 4
This is our traditional time to reflect on spring's messages of renewal.
Today is Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate the resurrection, and the rebirth that forgiveness brings. At the same time, Jews are in the midst of Passover, marking their freedom from bondage and historic struggle for a homeland.
Just over a week ago, Muslims celebrated Eid al-Adha, which recalls Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son to God. This year, these three holy events, with their intertwining themes, take on a special resonance as Canada, with its NATO allies, finds itself at war.
All of us, however we choose to worship, should hold two prayers in our hearts this season - for all the innocent victims in Yugoslavia, and for all the troops, including ours, at risk there. What we should not do - as our few remaining veterans of war could tell us, if only we listened to them more - is celebrate any aspect of this ugly conflict.
This was no holiday for the thousands of Muslim Kosovars fleeing the horror of Yugoslavian dictator Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing. Nor was it for the innocents killed and wounded by NATO bombs. Nor was there any talk of reconciliation as Americans found out three of their soldiers had been captured by Milosevic's Serbian troops.
These, and all the terrible stories of war, only remind us of the awful sacrifices that war demands. But as the rhetoric escalates along with the fighting, we need to remember that truth is always the first casualty. That atrocities are never confined to only one side in a civil war.
Indeed, we have already learned as much from the propaganda on both sides. We have also learned there is nothing satisfying about war, no matter how sophisticated and bloodless our technology may seem.
From the start, we have found the purpose of NATO's air strikes questionable, its military objectives murky and its lack of an endgame strategy troubling. All the more so as the refugee exodus grows and Milosevic's reprehensible goal of a Muslim-free Kosovo approaches reality. Is a ground war inevitable?
But even as we debate these issues, safe in our homes, surrounded by the love of our families, we recognize what a luxury it is to have such a debate at all. And what a grand country this is, where people from every religious and cultural background are free to air their views on this conflict - peacefully.
So, Happy Easter, and Good Pesach.
Let us all hope - and pray - for peace.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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