We know war is hell. We’ve known it since the ‘Great War Poets’ wrote so vividly of the reality of life in the trenches of the Western Front.
That knowledge hasn’t stopped the ‘murderous game’ being inflicted again and again, day after day, year after year on somebody who would far prefer to live out a life of peace and possibility. That knowledge hasn’t stopped the stockpiling of missiles, unscrupulous arms deals, governments allocating billions in their budgets for advances in military machinery and technology just in case someone, somewhere might want to invade… or in order to ‘keep up’ with the rest of the world ‘powers’ and stabilise their position as a country of importance in world politics.
Is there any way back? Probably not. Too many lies have been told, too many false promises and excuses made, too many have died or have been condemned to a life of misery and resentment. There are too many places with damaged, screwed-up people with damaged, screwed-up philosophies.
And yet it’s a part of a writer’s job to look at the world and try to reflect it, change it, do what he or she can to relieve at least a little of the misery. But will nationalists, jingoists, ever listen? Probably not, but it’s still worth a try.
A few years back, I enjoyed a poem called warships by my old friend, Andy Fletcher, who has been writing brilliant stuff in Hull for decades. In it he imagined a world where warships are made of rubber and while the politicians threaten, manoevre and posture – out in the atlantic/ the warships ram each other/ bounce off/ ram each other again// the captains and crews/ are having the time of their lives.
Which brings me to Liechtenstein. Of course it does.
While most of the rest of the world tries to find the best way to ‘defend’ itself, Liechtenstein hasn’t bothered. It used to have an army but gave up on it in 1868. That was after, during the Austro-Prussian War, it sent 80 men to guard the Brenner Pass, an old Roman road across the Alps between Austria and Italy. Quite why is probably lost in time, but maybe one side or the other simply asked and Liechtenstein felt obliged. And so the 80 men manned the pass. No army arrived from either direction. The men gradually relaxed and spent their time drinking beer and wine and smoking their pipes. And then, presumably when they decided it was pointless, they went home… 81 of them. Legend has it a stray from one side or the other got chatting, shared a beer or three, decided Liechtenstein sounded like a fine place to live and joined the returning heroes.
In the last fifty years Liechtenstein has been invaded five times. Always by Switzerland. Mostly by mistake. There was one serious issue when the Swiss set fire to a forest and had to pay compensation but mostly the arrival of the Swiss military might hasn’t had much of an impact. On one, it was said the surprised locals offered the invaders mugs of coffee. The most recent invasion was in 2007 when 171 Swiss troops on a night exercise took a wrong turning in bad weather and strayed a mile or so over the border. They hastily retreated and the Swiss government sent a grovelling apology.
Liechtenstein hadn’t noticed them come or go and it’s said a message was sent back to the Swiss that read: “No problem, these things happen.” Somewhere else I read that a part of the apology involved several cases of wine.
If only, if only, if only… can you imagine if the Mexican Army wandered into the USA by mistake on a foul, rainy night, what diplomatic madness and recriminations that might cause? Or if Ukrainians crossed a mile or two into Russia, or the Egyptians drove a few tanks on the wrong side of the Israeli border? And so on, and so on.
I understand we all have a habit of believing we own even tiny chunks of this planet and feeling greatly aggrieved if someone else strays off the public footpath for 50 yards or so and somehow finds themselves in our garden, should we be lucky enough to have one – but what about, if they did, we just said, ok, don’t worry about it, these things happen, had a chat and they went on their way.
Unlikely, I know. We feel protective, which leads us to support our government when they say we are threatened in some way. And it’s true that not everybody who wanders over the wrong side of a border is relatively pleasant and respectful, but still, what if there was some way of changing our way of thinking, to believe that borders should join people together not separate them? What, then?
I think when all this Covid stuff is either over or manageable, a trip to Liechtenstein might be in order. They don’t have an airport there, though. If you want to fly you have to go to Zurich – and cross over from Switzerland…
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