Feature photo: Dodengang near Diksmuide in Flanders | © Shutterstock
Now that there seems to be no holding back and everyone is only debating arms deliveries — whether this makes sense or not, no one cares anymore — with the smartest of our fellow citizens quickly adjusting their own share packages accordingly or trying their luck as gun lobbyists , I have to think more and more often about the highly recommended film "Lord of War".
“There are over 550 million firearms in circulation worldwide. That means every twelfth person on this planet has a gun. That leads to one question: how do you arm the other eleven?”
Yuri Orlov, Lord of War - Merchant of Death (2005)
No question, of course Ukraine needs weapons, if possible the best possible ones, but in any case those weapons that their soldiers can use and then also with the necessary ammunition and both in sufficient quantities.
And even more obviously this will not be settled during a war, but before a war! But for this you need responsible and competent politicians - unfortunately we don't have them in Germany either in the government or in the opposition.
So I like to remind you again my contributions to armaments policy and end this post with a poem by John McCrae. McCrae was a writer and medical doctor who served as a Canadian medical officer during World War I and wrote this poem on May 3, 1915, in mourning for a fallen comrade. John McCrae fell ill because of his military service and died on January 28, 1918.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row upon row,
That marks 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:
John McCrae
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, even though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
"I don't know what was going through Vitaly's head that day. What I do know is that Vitaly broke the cardinal rule of gun-running: never pick up a gun and join the customers."
Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov in Lord of War (2005)
