Ieper, 11 June 1998

The summer and spring time in Ieper (Ypres) is the period of the annual militarist parades. This annual glorification of war goes against the grain with me. Ten years ago i've already written my opinion about this subject in the article "Menenpoort bullshit" ("Menin Gate bullshit") in my zine "De Rattebeet" ("The Ratbite") of that time. Although I look at some matters a bit more nuanced now, I 'm still agree with the general idea I've formulated at that time. It seems that I'm not the only person with a contempt for this glorification of war. Read the interview in the April number of "Ticket" with Raoul d'Udekem d'Acoz, brother of the mayor of Poperinge. Also the British soldier Siegfried Sassoon who survived the battlefield of Ieper (Ypres) had his own opinion about this triumfalism and wrote his opinion about it.

To be clear: I'm not a pacifist. I acknowledge the right to selfdefence against violent agressors, and if necessary with counter-violence if not possible in another way. But it's really not necessary to glorify this violence too, and like being an anti-militarist (which is not the same like being an anti-soldier) I hate glorification of war. And exactly this is tolerated by the municipality of Ieper to attract Angelsaksian tourists with war tourism and to get their money for the local traders. The English don't tolerate criticism of their militarist monuments. And a graffitti of local teenagers at their militarist monuments is for them such a sacrelege that it cause always a diplomatic incident between Belgium and the United Kingdom, and makes local police and national guard do an nearly superhuman effort to find and to punish the perpetrators. It seems that a graffitti on their militarist monuments is worser than a bankrob. I won't make a plea for vandalism, but I dispute the "holy" character of militarist monuments.

My late father experienced the First World War when he was a child. It made him an anti-militarist. He ever said me: "All these generals who got medals were cowards. They let the ordinary soldiers do the dirty work and let them die for their medals while they were at a save distance of the battlefield. The real heroes were the mothers who feed their children and brought them up in wartime. They deserve much more medals and respect than those generals."

The worship of the generals who decided here in First World War at a save distance of the frontline about life and death of thousands of people is out of place. This was especially the case with the British general Haig who is even in his own country known as "The Butcher". They must remove all the monuments for these generals from the town streets, and change the name of all the streets who have their names (Haiglaan, Plumerlaan,...). They must call this streets for example to unknown child-soldiers from all the fighting sides who died here a senseless death far away from home.

This First World War was nothing more than an ordinary family quarrel between European royals with the use of their respectively populations. The German Kaiser and the British King were family of each other. We were so-called "liberated" by the English. Liberated of what? You can doubt if there would be much difference for the inhabitants of Ieper if the Germans had won the First World War because the political culture of the German Empire of that time wasn't fundamentally different of that one in the British Empire of that time. The German and British Empire were both colonial powers without respect for the local population in the occupied places. There arose only after the First World War a fundamental difference of political culture between Germany and Great-Britain, and this led finally to the Second World War. Then the nazi-occupation made a real difference.

This so-called "defence of the country" was pure humbug because in reality only the economic interests of the economic and political elite of that time were defended. After the war the ordinary people get medals, monuments, celebrations and military parades as reward and as a candy for their suffering that couldn't be compensated anymore. They made the family of the dead belief that their beloved died "For God and for the Country". And most of them believed this because they couldn't stand the idea that their beloved died a senseless death.

The only thing of this war tourism that makes sense are the museums where they show the cruelty and senselessnes of war without camouflaging reality to warn at least the coming generations that war is no video game but a serious matter. They may not forget war misery and they must learn to search more peaceful solutions for conflicts. But please leave out all this triumfalist and militarist shows at remembrance ceremonies because they are out of place. War and violence aren't matters to be proud about.

Jan Claus