Sunday, 10 March 2013

Cost of War


December 16, 1918

Diary Entry #1


                I feel that I must write in order to release my frustrations and tension without troubling my own family. I simply cannot fathom the fact that we’ve lost more than 60 000 Canadians in this war. What comes to my mind when I think about 60 000 is twice the enormous amount of people that came with me to Valcartier in the very beginning. I imagine each and every one of them disappearing from the face of the earth and how there must be plenty others mourning for them right now. It’s incomprehensible how so many courageous people probably spent their last seconds in agony, thinking about their loved ones. This number even includes many good people that I’ve met in the span of the 4 years of war. In just four years, the war cost our country 3 million dollars. Sometimes I just wonder about the countless ways this large sum of money could have been used to improve our nation and contribute to very important causes. Instead we had to use it to support the killing of other people while sacrificing our own because we had no choice in joining the war for Britain’s sake. I cringe knowing that I ignorantly used to think this war would be some great big adventure when all it turned out to be was unnecessary bloodshed leaving me with painful memories.

 
Rest In Peace



                                                                                                         —James Carter 

(Sources:
  • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWcosts.htm
  • http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/guerre/cost-war-e.aspx
  • http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/guerre/war-impact-e.aspx)

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