108 years ago today, on Nov. 11, 1918, hostilities in what was then known as “The Great War” — World War I — officially ceased with the effect of an armistice signed between Germany and the Allied Powers (the United Kingdom, France, Russia, the United States, Italy, and Japan). The armistice was supposed to begin “at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,” but in reality, because chaos is an inescapable effect of wartime, some fighting went on in a few places for two more weeks.
The war would not officially end until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles the following year, but for all intents and purposes, Nov. 11 has been widely accepted, since the fighting on the main fronts — in the West in France and Belgium, in northern Italy, and in Mesopotamia — ceased. Thus, it has become a cherished day of remembrance in many countries. In France, the UK and Serbia, for example, the date still holds its original significance, while in the US it has been celebrated since 1954 as Veterans’ Day, honoring those who fought in all of America’s wars.
In our Monday (Nov. 9) editorial, we examined the recent comments of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will soon be stepping down from his post, lamenting the “normalization” of armed conflict in the world today. The occasion of Armistice Day, even though it no longer has the same meaning it once did in many places, is yet another reminder that the outgoing secretary-general’s words should be taken to heart. The underlying message of commemorations of the date, no matter how it is styled in different countries, has always been “never again.” World War I was, up to that time, the most horrible self-inflicted catastrophe in human history, causing between 15 and 22 million military and civilian deaths, leaving 21 million soldiers with life-changing injuries, and at least 6 million people, both military and civilian, who simply disappeared.
Of course, these numbers were grossly surpassed by the period encompassing World War II just 20 years later, during which an estimated 70 to 85 million people died, and in the years since the end of World War II, an estimated 20 to 25 million people — and counting — have died in further conflicts. Guterres decried the “normalization” of the use of force around the world and referred to such as examples as the decadeslong conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, and the brutal civil war in Sudan. The problem, however, is even more pernicious than Guterres suggested.
Consider our own region and country, for example. Across Southeast Asia, there is an ongoing civil war in Myanmar; an unresolved and occasionally violent border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia; a low-intensity but stubbornly persistent communist rebellion in Thailand; and near-constant civil unrest in Indonesia, particularly among indigenous and local communities feeling pressured by development of the country’s vast natural resources.
The violence associated with organized crime involved in drug and human trafficking, in many instances, facilitated by corrupt government officials, plagues almost every country in the region, with the problem being particularly troubling in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos... and the Philippines. We likewise remain afflicted by ongoing rebellions; while the communist New People’s Army and various separatist groups in Mindanao have been greatly diminished, that is cold comfort to those who are still victims of their occasional depredations. And of course, there is the seemingly insoluble dispute over control of the South China Sea, in which the conflict between the Philippines and China is the most noticeable to the rest of the world, but also involves Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei.
Next week, a Who’s Who among national leaders will gather in Manila for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, and while such meetings are naturally marked by the efforts of all involved to present a harmonious appearance, the persistent tendency toward unrest and conflict in the region and throughout the world should be high on the list of discussion topics. The acceptance of violence and conflict, whether among nations or within them, undermines every otherwise well-meaning effort toward cooperation on trade, technology, the environment, and human development and exchange.
That was the message of Secretary-General Guterres; it is a message that our leaders should not have to be told, and it is one that they should definitely accept as a call to action.
