Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Experience of Costly Freedom

The Experience of Costly Freedom
By: Dr. Athiqul H. Laskar


Freedom is costly. Most of the countries that can claim it achieved their independence for a price. Great country like America or India is no exception. It had to fight Wars of Independence and freedom movements against the British Raj. For America, to expand the boundaries of freedom there was a costly Civil War. Once gained, freedom must be defended, and there were more wars -- in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
During my army service as an American Army Officer, I had undergone hard-core field training exercises with NATO forces in Europe. I had to get up very early in the morning, do a lot of pushups, and spend a lot of time running around and jumping into deep holes while other fellow officers, men and women pretend to shoot at me. At one time my army unit in Europe returned from the tank training area somewhere in deep terrain of Europe. It is called Hohenfeld, and Adolph Hitler built it during Second World War to train his soldiers to drive tanks. I and my group dug into mud trenches, attempting to hide both ourselves and our heavy-duty metal tanks (A1 Abraham) as we conducted mock war games. It's just make-believe, but like in a real combat situation, we had no time for proper rest and not a lot to eat. (What I did would cause any one of us in India to wrinkle his or her nose and say "Oh Yuck!") Day in, and day out, we train and train hard. It's no picnic, that's for sure. Such NATO military exercises are carried out off and on so that when some country needs us to help to protect their freedom, we will be ready. .
Sometimes I got so tired that I just conk out. The Army is lots of hard work with little time for play. Some would probably say that it "sucks," but, I actually liked being in the US Army although being very much an Indian with my heart and soul, and take my responsibility very seriously in defending freedom the country that I served. When I joined the US Army, I made a commitment to the United States Government, and I had to fulfill it – as true to my culture where I come from, and I had to live up to my responsibility . I was not in a great war during my time, except a minor invasion to Grenada Island in South Caribbean Island during November of 1983, and 1991 Iraq war. Not long ago, over 60 thousand Americans (as well as millions of others) lost their lives in World War II. This was all because of one mad man -- Adolph Hitler. Today all are enjoying precious freedom - American or India, tomorrow it may crumble; so its citizens of India or America must protect it by keeping its armies strong and ready. In another word, India and America both have enemies. That is why we must be alert at all times, no matter what it takes to do so. Perhaps, because we must realize what an important thing our freedom is.
Apart from America - Indian, a country of non-aligned is one of the leaders of democracy and world peace and by non-interfering with others countries to stay free. India does not approve of tyranny, nor do we tolerate it. Sometimes some stronger countries try to bully weaker countries. India does not!
If we turn the pages of history, the Second World War where all the European countries and several Asian nations were involved including America and British rule India too. Many Indian lives were lost all around the world like Corsica Island in Italy and other places only to achieve freedom as promised by British rule, and so are all Indians free today. Why do people fight wars? The answer is simple. They fight to achieve and protect freedom. Everyone wants to be free, but sometimes people come along who want to control others because they are greedy or afraid of losing their power. Such countries do awful things. Now we can understand why freedom is costly. One could not imagine the suffering and misery the people of Europe and Asia had to undergo during the Second World War. Millions of people died in concentration camps just because they were Jewish or were Gypsies. Hitler wanted to rule the whole world, and, for a while, he did take over many countries, like Poland, Austria, and France. The American Army was called in to their rescue their friend Great Britain. Finally war was won and India got its freedom from Great Britain and we are enjoying our freedom today. Whether India or America, we are so lucky to live in a society where free to learn about anything we want; to earn money -- to start your own business even; to say what is on your mind, even if other people don't agree with it; and to practice any religion you want. Did we forget that there have been societies where people couldn't own anything? Where people have no say at all in what goes on?
The name for our form of government, India and America is democracy. Democracy means of the people, for the people, and by the people. And lots of people -- brave men and women -- gave their lives for their freedom. We must think about them always and especially on our Independence Day. They deserve to be remembered.
America achieved its independence from Great Britain. From 1775 to 1783, which at the time was 13 English colonies, fought for the right to be an independent nation. England was ruled by a king, but America created a republican form of government where the power remained with American people. Like any other war, the Revolution cost many lives, and a lot of people had to make a lot of sacrifices. Do we keep an account of this loss? I'm afraid, that sometime we do not even remember we sacrificed many lives to protect our freedom in wars from 1948 to Kargil - across our borders. India achieved its independence from Great Britain too in the midnight hours of 15th august 1947 which is today.
While training at NATO camps in Europe, I was in midst of NATO's mock war zone during my active army duty, all I could think of was how any day this "pretend war" could turn into a real one where people pay the real price of freedom. We take freedom for granted, because most of us have never seen anything else, but someone had to pay for it. So many brave war veterans like Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhase Bose, and many others sacrificed for India’s freedom, and the likewise in America too, so the citizen of both countries could be free. So many soldiers and freedom fighters had laid down their lives. Some of them just disappeared. They were probably killed, but their bodies were never found. We refer to them as Missing in Action (MIA) in America and in India sometime it is unaccounted for. Some of these American heroes are buried in war memorial graveyards in different countries around the world. There are such graveyards in England, Holland, India (Nagaland), and many other countries. India’s fallen heroes are in the hearts of every Indian. On the other hand, some of the remains of American brave veterans’ heroes are turning into fossils in the remote terrain of Vietnam. Do we realize this? Who keeps an account of them? They sacrificed their lives to put down the madness of dictators and treacherous, racist leaders. So even though being an army officer is hard work, after considering all these facts of history, I don't feel at all sad to have been in the army to defend a country that I served. Rather, I feel proud to be a retired American army officer today enjoying freedom. We should be willing to give our last drop of blood for freedom at all time safe guarding from enemies. That's how much our freedom should mean to all of us. (Writer is a retired US Army Officer and Ex-NATO commander of NATO forces (Holland Sector)

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