On Nov. 11 this year, the need to relate Remembrance Day to the present has never been more important. After Sept. 11, Canada’s orientation to the murderous terrorists and their supporters is one of military hostility — a state of war.

We find an unsettling symmetry between today and say, Nov. 11, 1939, when this day was still Armistice Day and the Second World War was still in its phony war stage.

Today, as in 1939, the enemy has been challenged but not yet truly engaged. In 1939, the enemy, Hitler’s Nazi Germany, trumpeted Aryan supremacy and the extermination of Jews. Today, the Islamists bugle the destruction of Jews in general, the country of Israel in particular. In 62 years, nothing has really changed.

As in 1939, in 2001 there is Canadian circumspection, a damning silence about the anti-Semitic origins of the Islamic terrorist onslaught. Shameful Canadian government policies of 1939 barred European Jews fleeing Hitler. The official attitude was summed up by the odious phrase “none is too many.”

In a similar vein is today’s gross political correctness of refusing to openly acknowledge that the Islamists’ terrorist goal is the destruction of Israel and the death of as many Jews as possible. Today, we are at war with groups, and de facto with countries that war with us because we support Jewish and Israeli security. Admitting this openly is critical to our effort to protect our country and our allies.

Standing up for Israel

It is unforgivable to forego the mention of Israel in an effort to avoid giving offence to Arab trading partners. Israel is a product of the Allied victory in the Second World War and its continued existence is the real reason why the terrorist war is upon us. Israel is a country for which Canadians are prepared to go to war against those who preach and attempt its destruction. That is the war which started on Sept. 11.

In 1939, there were many who followed the path of timid appeasement of Hitler, exemplified by Neville Chamberlain’s infamous phrase, “Peace in our time.”

In 2001, there are those who call for American moderation if not outright contrition in response to the terrorist murders. Their rationale is something called “root causes,” as if the Americans brought the murders upon their people by evil policies.

Peace is touted as a moral imperative with it being incumbent upon the Americans to defer to root causes instead of military action. Perhaps keeping shipments of Saudi oil makes the sacrifice of Israel and some collateral American damage worthwhile to our peace advocates.

Ultimately, honour and obligation triumphed over comfort in the Second World War. A massive Allied war effort destroyed the genocidal mania of the Nazis. Osama Bin Laden exhibits the same traits today. Just as “Peace in our time” was code for abandoning Europe to Hitler in 1939, “root causes” must not become today’s euphemism for letting the Arab states of the Middle East drive Israel into oblivion.

Like 1939, the present war was forced upon Canadians by aggressor enemies. Our war veterans deserve our clear insight into the present with such clarity serving to illuminate the past from which we must perennially continue to learn.