MILLIONS of people of all ages from all walks of life all across the country observed Armistice Day's two minutes' silence, marking the moment the guns fell silent 80 years ago. But it was not just a symbolic and solemn tribute to the glorious dead of two world wards.

For this rightful recognition of their sacrifice will have given the overwhelming numbers from generations too young to remember either conflict an understanding of its importance -- in short, a personal history lesson for each individual on the dreadfulness of war.

For the veterans who stood in silence yesterday in remembrance of their fallen comrades there is, of course, no need for instruction.

They have seen at first hand the horror of war. But if the sacrifices of the dead and the respect for them are to serve a higher purpose than grief and sorrow, it must surely be in that learning process that is entailed in the tributes shown by those of the generations that have followed -- one that demands that the lessons of history be learnt and wars be averted in every possible way.

For war is essentially an evil; its very aim being killing and destruction.

And though the employment of it can, in some circumstances, be unavoidable it still remains an instrument that nations must strive to avoid -- above all when, as history can awfully remind us on an Armistice Day even 80 years on, what the scale of the consequences may be.

It is a precept that needs to guide world politics still and particularly those leaders whose roles cast them as international policemen and guardians of global justice when, as now, the fuse for world war may be lit in powder kegs like the Middle East.

It is right then to remember wars, not just in worthy tribute to their victims, but also so that one day the world may learn to forget war itself.

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