Disgrace

It seems to have become a new Canadian tradition.

Every year, just before November 11th, some bright light urinates on or topples a war monument.

This time it is Fredericton, where vandals have crashed part of a monument with names of those Canadian soldiers killed in wars.

Some of these acts of sheer stupidity or outright hatred can be assigned to drunks who care about nothing, for whom nothing ever was or ever will be honorable, let alone sacred.

But some are committed by misbegotten fools who believe that they are making a plea for peace.

Yes, we get it.

We all know war is hell and war is dreadful and we'd all like to sit in our gardens and sip tea.

We also know that wars are often fought for all of the wrong reasons and that millions have died needlessly.

None of those home truths however change the fact that those who have fought and died did their best to serve.

Honoring the dead is not approving of war.

Like any Canadian, I mourn the loss of any soldier's life in Afghanistan, even while decrying our very presence there.

The desecration of monuments to dead soldiers is about as detestable an act as can be imagined.