When silence sweeps across Weyburn, and across Canada, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the thoughts of each one of us should turn towards those who sacrificed their lives in wartime in order that we might have the freedom we enjoy today.

For those born in the 1950s or later, which would comprise most of the population, living in wartime is a foreign concept to us, other than those conflicts we hear about in remote locations.

The horrors of the First and Second World Wars, followed by the wars in Korea and Vietnam, were beyond the comprehension of most of us, other than what we've seen in Hollywood movies. Some more recent productions, such as Saving Private Ryan, have tried to be closer to reality, but we cannot truly know what it was like to be pinned down on Juno Beach, or part of a brigade doing house-to-house battles with the Germans, or watching the bombing of Pearl Harbour on a December morning, unless we were actually there.

Many hundreds of thousands of our young men and women went to war in the belief our country, and indeed the free world, needed their assistance in order to win freedom for everyone. Hundreds in and around the Weyburn region signed up to serve with the South Saskatchewan Regiment and other related squadrons, and went off to fight valiantly in various fields across Europe and, later, the Pacific Rim area.

The age of TV began bringing some of those images home, first from Vietnam and more recently the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq, with many other bloody conflicts in between, ranging from the Six-Day War in the Middle East to the civil war in Yugoslavia and Bosnia, to name but a few.

War is a terrible thing, and no one wants to send our best and brightest young people off to what may very well be their deaths on foreign soil, but there were times when such sacrifices were needed, and were made. The freedom and security we enjoy today in Canada is a direct benefit of that sacrifice, although it is encroached upon occasionally, such as when terrorists attacked New York City and Washington over two years ago.

With advances in technology come changes in the way our society is structured and how countries relate to each other; with that change is the nature of conflict when it arises, and as a result, war is a much different thing today than in the 1940s.

Canada has taken a role as peacekeeper in many localized conflicts around the world, ranging from Cypress to the Middle East, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq. We can be justifiably proud of the work our men and women have done in helping keep the peace in what is very often dangerous territory.

For those of us who enjoy being able to live, work and raise families in relative peace and freedom, the very least we can do is offer our heart-felt thanks for the sacrifices made on our behalf, both in the past and the present.