Merepeka Raukawa-Tait: Bloodshed has taught us nothing

The continuing conflicts after World War I proves it was never the war to end all wars. Photo / File

I don't feel inclined to remember World War I. Every year in April, I remember New Zealander soldiers who served and died overseas. In all wars. I think about those who came home, returned to try and pick up their lives where they had left off.

They went to war as young men, returning still young in years but considerably aged because of their war time experiences.

My father was one of the lucky ones. He came home from World War II but his brother and two of my mother's brothers didn't.

WWI was touted as the "war to end all wars". It wasn't. It was just another war in a long line of wars that continue to this day.

This week remembering the start of WWI 100 years ago, you have to wonder what those young New Zealanders, who sacrificed their youth and the 18,000 who never came home, would make of the world today.

Did they believe, even hope, they might be fighting the final war. If they looked at a world map, there would be different names for some familiar land areas; they would see a map dotted with hot spots and war zones on most continents. Countries still involved in fighting and killing their neighbours, taking the lives of many innocent children, too.

Our soldiers from WWI would be appalled. They went to war with the enthusiasm of youth mixed with a good dollop of patriotism.

Off to see the world, expecting a bloody skirmish or two along the way. Instead they met their Waterloo on sodden, stinking battlefields in far-away countries. Overnight they grew up. They left a peaceful New Zealand to go and fight overseas. But the war they encountered far from home made their stomachs turn. We now know that our part in WWI was an ill-conceived, bungled affair from the start. There was poor, incompetent leadership on the battlefields and our cringing, colonial government continued to offer our young men as cannon fodder for British command.

I hope we won't spend the next four years remembering every battle fought, every gallant act and stories of "life in the trenches". Brave soldiers should be laid to rest. We don't forget them but we should question why we haven't learned from their sacrifice?

Why can't we give peace a chance? Greed, religious hatred, loathing of ethnic difference, centuries of boarder conflict, it just goes on and on. A war to end all wars. I bet every soldier taking his position on the battlefield hoped that battle would end the war. Soldiers must want an end to fighting.

No matter how right they believe their cause. Don't they want to go home? To find and have some peace in their lives. What about those who sit, far away from the battle zones, in safe places? Who watch the screens, press buttons and fire off rockets. Maybe swapping places with the infantry might bring a speedier end to wars.

A war to end all wars! When will that be? We continue to see young soldiers; men and women, killed fighting in wars. Many far from their own homelands.

We hear of innocent people, mostly women and children, killed and dismissed as an unfortunate byproduct of modern-day warfare. WWI had its place in history. We should leave it there.

One thing we can be certain of is that sadly history repeats itself. Without courageous leadership that reflects on the past and how things can be done differently to achieve world peace in our time, I can only presume World War III is just around the corner.