Posted on 11/11/2017 5:15:53 AM PST by harpygoddess
Today is the anniversary of Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, when at the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, the First World War came to an end after more than four years of carnage. (Armistice Day became Veterans' Day in 1954.) Described by British historian Corelli Barnett as a war that had "causes but no objectives, "the "Great War" left a legacy of disillusionment in its wake and made a shambles of the rest of the 20th century. All told, there were ten million military dead and seven million civilians killed.
The resulting economic collapse, the draconian terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and the conviction of many Germans that they had been "stabbed in the back" led to an even more destructive rematch only two decades later. One could argue - and I do - that World War I was the greatest misfortune that ever befell Western civilization.
It destroyed the West's belief in inevitable human progress. It brought down the Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian, and Ottoman empires, bankrupted France and England, and put the British Empire on the skids. It was the proximate cause of the triumph of Communism in Russia and the formation of the Soviet Union, drove the United States into two decades of international isolation, and instilled in Germany a thirst for revenge that led directly to the rise of the Nazis and World War II.
Moreover, in the Middle East, Britain's and France's cack-handed and self-serving division of the remains of the Ottoman Empire was largely responsible for all the turmoil we suffer there today.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
~ Lawrence Binyon, For The Fallen
We will remember them ...
The Great War — when Europe committed suicide
Always remember my history professor in university referring to the Battle of the Somme as “The Great F$ck Up” during a lecture on World War 1.
Bookmark
All honorably discharged vets can now shop at the exchanges, via the internet.
Go on line and scan your copy of your discharge paper into the system. Gmail worked the best for me versus Comcast.
https://www.shopmyexchange.com
Help me with this. I’ve been shopping at the exchanges and commissaries, soon to be the same command, since my retirement in the mid 90’s. What’s different?
rwood
Many still calls it armistice day in my early youth
Which is a major reason it’s where it is today
We have had several major wars including our own here where the cream of white Christian western civilization killed itself
And now we are overrun by the third world let in by kapos and cowards
There are far wrung consequences
The exchange program that I posted about, is new as of today.
It is for Vets like me, who honorably served their time with one of our Military branches and didn’t retire like you.
Today, is the official kickoff. There have been beta tests before today. I was a beta tester.
A retired army friend will use this program so he will not have to drive to the nearest exchange, with a lot of heavy traffic and about and hour + away. He said that this program with the free delivery after a minimum $ purchase was not available. I don’t know if that is correct.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McRae
That is what my mother always called it. Also it was her birthday. Happy Birthday mom sure wish you were here.
My family called it Armistice Day- both of my grandfathers were WWI generation.
My dad’s father was in basic training in the States when the 1918 flu hit. It nearly killed him, and of course it did kill more American soldiers than bullets did. Ended his Army career.
I’m not sure about my mom’s father, but her uncle was in the war. He was hit with mustard gas and had breathing issues the rest of his life. In that era people suffering from lung disease headed for drier climates and he ended up in El Paso. One very early Monday morning some twenty-odd years later he saw the western sky light up like the sun had decided to rise from that direction. He didn’t know at the time but it was the test of the atomic bomb over in White Sands.
One could argue - and I do - that World War I was the greatest misfortune that ever befell Western civilization.
I sent in a scan of my DD-214 two months ago. They acknowledged receipt and have done nothing beyond that.
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