The True Heroes of a War
Are we all ready for a war? Are we all heroes waiting to prove ourselves?
In 2015, we had a meeting in Vienna. A bunch of activists from the region met with an equal number of politicians from the region in a ‘round table’ debate/discussion. I was the activist representing Bosnia. The politician from Bosnia present at this event was Igor Crnadak.
Before the event began, we had a meeting with the moderator. I didn’t like the guy one bit, especially when he insisted we focus our replies on the politician from our country. After the event, I despised the idiot. Oh my goodness, he practically stepped in to defend our poor politicians. But he’s irrelevant to my story.
The politician from Serbia who came to the debate/discussion was no other than the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic. Just to ‘set the scene’, during the war in Bosnia this man said that they (Serbs) will kill 100 Muslims for every Serb that the international community kills in bombardments. In short, I think I had every reason to be upset, mention this, but I did NOT. I felt I should get recognition for keeping this silent. But, I did NOT.
Here’s what happened…
All the politicians present spoke very highly about the economies and state of our countries, except the guy from Bosnia. He said something along the lines of how he doesn’t know why we’re talking about our economies as if they are a Ferrari when they are more like a bus from a well-known movie in the region called ‘Ko to tamo peva’ — the bus in this film is more like a large bucket on four wheels than a vehicle.
Eventually, I got the mic. The first thing I said was that I agree with Igor Crnadak and thanked him for the honesty, and then I turned to Vucic. I swear I used a calm tone. I remember how hard it was to stay calm and keep my voice civil. I did not use any swear words. I believe this is a monumental accomplishment. However, I did tell him a few hard truths about what was (and still is) going on in the region.
At the end of the event, I just felt proud of myself for keeping it civil. I mean, it took a lot to control myself the way I did.
A few months later we had another gathering of activists of the region, but this time in Sarajevo, and no politicians were present. I was stopped by a number of people who asked me if I’m the one who spoke to Vucic, thanking me, saying how great it is to meet me, how they admire my courage… My courage? I still haven’t figured out what was so courageous about the debate/discussion. Sure, I was the one who spoke the most compared to the other activists, and I have to admit that they did disappoint me. I thought they would step up at least a little. But that still didn’t make me feel courageous. I did not feel like I did something brave.
I will then hear that the politicians complained. Apparently, that was not what they signed up for. What the heck do they think they signed up for? And while I thought ‘Well they complained, they complained, everybody is complaining, all the organizers took these complaints very seriously. To make matters worse, many people in this region have the right to complain a lot more than they do. Unlike these politicians who had a hissy fit because they’re spoiled not because they faced some great hardship.
However, the organizers buckled down and catered to the will of the politicians. The following year, in 2016, the identical gathering was organized in Paris, except that they kept the politicians safe from the words of those who’d tell them the truth.
Year after that we had a meeting in Trieste. I was too busy to attend but one of our team members did go. Again, the gathering was more like a field trip than an activist event.
The last of these gatherings took place in London (where I live) in 2018. I couldn’t get a pass just to attend as a member of the public. In fact, I couldn’t get a response to my emails.
I spoke to the guy responsible for organizing the Vienna meeting. At the end of the event, he was furious with the moderator who really tried to stop me, and I did let him a few times, to some degree — I still said quite a lot, but I would have said more if it wasn’t for that idiot. Anyway, some years later I met with the main organizer of the Vienna event because I wanted to tell him that that was the only decent meeting we had. He didn’t say much. By then, he left the whole thing, got a job with a German organization in Sarajevo; i.e. relocated from Austria to Bosnia. It became obvious that there were pressures to make the meetings a complete waste of time and he didn’t want to be a part of it. Then again, I might be wrong. Maybe he was fired.
The point is, we have a group of politicians teaming together to make it all about them. They get huge support. Activists are forced to choose whether to stick to their way of thinking or change and become ‘nice’ and ‘obliging’ to the politicians. It is my firm belief that if all the activists stuck to their ‘fight for the truth’, I would not have been excluded. However, they feared for what that might cost them.
It would have cost them a lot. I should know, I’m still paying the bill. But it wouldn’t have cost any of us anything we if just had enough conviction, not even courage, just a conviction to keep going the way we believe is right. As I said, I was calm, patient, polite, but I did tell them the truth that they did not want to hear. But that’s why I came. I came to the event to tell the truth. I wasn’t present at that meeting to make friends with the politicians. To be perfectly honest, there’s only a handful of politicians I admire, the rest I’d love to just send home. Especially in this region. All other activists claimed that they also came to tell the truth, so what happened? Why were they so afraid?
This type of fear is not limited to this region. I’ve seen it all over. People will hide away from ‘a fight’. They will claim they’re ready, yet when the moment comes, threaten their job and they run. Maybe this is normal, rational. However, this article is not about how rational or irrational that might be. This is about how those same individuals will claim that they are ready for a real war; bullets, bombs, death, the real deal.
Sometimes I blame the movies. The movies tend to make it look like wars are the factories for heroes like if we only had a war, we would all be heroes. War does NOT make heroes. You either are a hero or you’re not. If you can’t show courage in peace, why would you think that you’d show it in a war?
Here’s a brutal truth about wars — most war victims are a wreck. The trauma of war leaves people torn. The horrors of war cannot be shown on a screen. Trust me, just because you’ve watched ‘Saving Private Ryan’, it does not mean you know what war is like. I will write more about this later. So stay tuned.
For now, please find the courage to fight for peace while we have it. I have said it many times, I will say it here again: Peace is like health — keep it while you have it! Once it is gone, it is impossible to get back. No peace will ever be the kind of peace you knew before a war. Get over the idea that you’d be a hero in a war if you’re not a hero in peace.
Besides, we are already in ‘a war’. I will be writing more about this too; in fact, I already have a whole set of articles prepared, articles I’ve called ‘The Art of War in 21st Century. Take this war as the worst war you’ll ever have to face because ‘battle of the wits’ is still a battle, and it needs heroes. So prove yourself in this battle, and if you (we) do it right, we won’t ever have to face the traumas of a real war, yet you’ll still prove yourself ‘a a hero’.
