The 79th Anniversary of D Day.
Yesterday was the 79th Anniversary of D DAY. I was born less than ten years after this crucial event. I went to school in Clydebank, a town that was flattened by the Luftwaffe in March 1941. I remember many years later going to school through the bombed out tenements that were still visible, along withContinue reading "The 79th Anniversary of D Day."
Yesterday was the 79th Anniversary of D DAY.
I was born less than ten years after this crucial event. I went to school in Clydebank, a town that was flattened by the Luftwaffe in March 1941. I remember many years later going to school through the bombed out tenements that were still visible, along with many areas of “spare ground” where some of the victims of the German bombing had lived and died.
The impacts of that catastrophe are felt to this day, families that were evacuated out never to return. The schoolmates who had lost family and friends. Yes people suffered loss but it created a tough determination and in Clydebank in those days you knew you were living in an environment where a strong community existed and despite a high level of poverty in some areas folk had a real pride in their town.
These days will never be forgotten and likewise those who stormed the beaches of Normandy are owed a debt of gratitude by all future generations because it could have been a very different world we had to grow up in if the Allies had not been successful and Europe had remained under the jackboot of Fascism and the Nazis.
Each year their sacrifice is remembered but each year fewer of those who actually took part are still alive, and I was struck by the appeals for those few that still are, to make contact so that they can be invited to visit Normandy and take part in the 80th year Remembrance event.
I am of the first generation of Scots for a very long time to reach my seventies without having to survive a major conflict along the way. I am very grateful for this good fortune. There have been plenty of conflicts of course Suez, Aden, Falklands, Afghanistan to mention just a few but none in my adult lifetime that resulted in the need for conscription or involved our civilian populations being under attack. How lucky are we?
Contrast the above with the ongoing war in Ukraine following Putin’s illegal invasion of their country. Just as my home town of Clydebank was flattened by Nazi Germany many cities, towns and villages in Ukraine face the same prospects with attacks coming from missiles, aircraft and long range artillery. Little of these towns and cities are left for either side after the battle is “won”.
It makes you think why do these battles need to take place? I suppose it’s because people have a right to freedom in their own land. To enjoy that freedom long term, people need to fight off potential aggressors who refuse to accept that right. Putin has made clear he does not believe Ukrainians have any right to their own country. He thinks they should be part of a Greater Russia. He has made clear his desire is to recreate a new, larger Russia along the lines of the old Soviet Empire that collapsed in 1991
In the late thirties Hitler got away by first taking over several neighbouring countries as the Allies hesitated in intervening, anxious to avoid serious conflict. Delaying confrontation did not work, Hitler having succeeded with taking over several of his neighbours eventually went too far by invading Poland and World War 2 was the result. Few have any doubt that if Putin was able to takeover Ukraine unchallenged then several other countries, including Poland, would be threatened. We would be looking at a potential World War 3.
Putin, like Hitler, requires to be stopped. Ukraine is a sovereign Independent nation. The Ukrainian people have shown their determination and courage to defend their right to freedom in their own land. I support their right to do so.
Above all though I wish Putin and Russia would realise the folly of war. As this war is proving there is no winners in war, only hundreds of thousands of dead and injured and for what? Destroyed territory, causing mass misery and hatred for the aggressor.
There is nothing good that will come for this for Russia or her people, just building up more suspicion and insecurity amongst neighbouring nations. Some try to excuse Russia by saying Putin had to act because Russia was being threatened by NATO.
There is no evidence of this, yes many countries in Europe had over the thirty plus years since the collapse of the Soviet Union applied and voluntarily joined NATO. WHY DID THAT HAPPEN? Surely one of the main reasons was Putin’s public pronouncements about his ambitions to expand the borders of Russia. Can you blame them for this? For almost a half century from the end of WW2 had seen them all either occupied by the Soviets or dominated by them during the Soviet years. None of these now independent countries had any desire to revisit that status and joining NATO to them seemed the best route to help secure their borders.
Even if you believed this was Putin’s motivation, it has been pretty disastrous. Previously unaligned countries like Finland have joined NATO and Sweden is in the process of doing likewise since the invasion of Ukraine. At the end of this conflict Russia will be even more encircled by NATO than before. New members directly created by Putin’s actions. He is a certainty to win the NATO recruitment award for 2022-23.
I wish the people of Russia success and prosperity living within the existing borders of Russia. I suggest they find a political leader who shares those ambitions as well.
From a very early age I saw the horrible consequences of war. Respect and goodwill for neighbouring nations seems a small price to pay to avoid it in the future.
I am, as always
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