The White Poppy and the Red

The white poppy was introduced in 1933 by the Co-op Women's Guild to remember those affected by war on all sides, all casualties and the refugees.  It also works for conflict resolution, diplomacy, and positive, practical peacemaking to be used so that war might become the last resort when all else has failed.  The white poppy works for talking with the adversary well before any killing starts.

The red poppy, introduced in 1921, remembers UK armed forces casualties and, through the British Legion, helps their families in many practical ways.  The red poppy does NOT indicate bloodshed.  It does not want, 'Lest we forget', to mean 'Lest we ever forget to wage war'.

2,000 years ago Jesus Christ rejected empire building when he was tempted by the devil to bow down to him and he would be given all the kingdoms of this world.  800 years ago our own country started empire building and collected its nearest country, Ireland first.  It then continued off and on until the First World War that saw the collapse of the German empire, the Austria-Hungary empire, the Russian empire and the beginnings of the end for the British and French empires.

Empire building is called colonialism or imperialism.  It was one reason for the start of the 1914 World War, together with militarism and nationalism according to Professor Niall Ferguson.

Nationalism was seen because it was a Serbian nationalist who assassinated the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne.  That led, four weeks later, to the 1914 World War.  Militarism was seen with the naval arms race between Britain and Germany up to 1914.

Britain was fighting the wronged party, Austria-Hungary, that had their heir to the throne killed.  In other words, we were on the wrong side and Germany was on the side of the victim, Austria-Hungary.  Hindsight now shows us that all out, total war between the European empires as punishment over two royal assassinations was way over the top.  It led to many millions killed and injured and, unfinished business that ended with the second half of the World War that caused more horrors and killings for nearly six years to 1945.

The first war had western European world empires fighting each other.  No empires, no imperialism, no colonialism would have meant a shorter, quicker war.  It would never have led to the second world war in 1939.

The stupidity of Britain so quickly and eagerly entering the war on the 4 August 1914, seems to have led to us waging war in many different countries in every single year up to the present day.  Astonishing but true!  It seems we have a penchant for killing foreigners in their own countries for over 100 years.

The only upside was that finally, after many centuries, the European nations were brought to their senses and ended warfare between themselves by working for a federal Europe with the Treaty of Rome and, eventually, the EU.