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Remembrance Day Thoughts – 2026

Inverness Oran: 10 November 2026

Behind the poppies and public recognition of past valor lurks a tendency to minimize the horror and futility of armed conflict. This is understandable among people who have never directly experienced the terror of foreign invasion or occupation. Unfortunately, our safe distance from others’ suffering encourages military solutions to international strife.

Over 3000 Canadian soldiers are currently serving in Latvia, part of NATO’s plan to discourage the Russians from invading Europe, an unlikely event. NATO’s revived Cold War stance is the inevitable consequence of political machinations during the early 1990s.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin remembers well Bill Clinton’s betrayal of George H.W. Bush’s 1991 assurances to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe. While Putin is a brutal autocrat, his violence in Ukraine has been no worse than U.S. conduct during the invasion and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

NATO membership for Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland on Russia's borders was a major provocation that predictably resulted in the invasion of Ukraine whose people are now suffering for U.S. geopolitical ambitions.

As casualties mount in any given conflict, it becomes “unpatriotic” to question the wisdom of continuing the fight. This heated atmosphere leads to scapegoating and the concealment of political mistakes and military excesses.

Soldiers must obey cynical leaders beholden to those who view war as a business activity. Therefore, informed citizens must press politicians on soldiers’ behalf to justify their deployment to war zones.