Memorial Day Should Include Ethical Contemplation About War

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army


IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.


When we look back at those who have died in war and those who are carrying on, we must still wonder about the merit of the war that was being fought and the true moral responsibilities of those who continued the fight. We must also remember that there are not only Flanders fields for the soldiers but also burial grounds of the non-combatant civilians who also died because of the war. The moral and ethical issues of war have had added complexity particularly in the recent century by the wars which include issues of preemptions and also lack of signs of identification between combatants and the innocent civilians. Yes, Memorial Day is a day to think about those servicemen and women who have fallen in our battles but it is a day also to contemplate the ethics of war: what ethical principles will support the resultant loss of all the lives that lie in their own Flanders fields throughout the world. ..Maurice.