Posted on 11/11/2015 10:49:24 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.
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I think it was done to honor all military the exception being Memorial Day originated as Decoration Day which was for the Civil War veterans.
Part of me wishes we just stayed out, and that the Franco-British forces and German came to an agreement to end end the fighting and have another Congress of Vienna to sort out the borders around a table.
For Later
To my mind, in a war chock-a-block filled with horror; gas attacks, trench warfare and the like, one of the worst things was deciding a time and date IN THE FUTURE to stop, yet continue to fight until then!!!!
WTF were the leaders thinking? (if they were that is!) How many people died in that time period so that singular moment of 11 could be reached? Every single one of those deaths were preventable, achieved nothing and caused untold grief for no reward!
HORRIBLE!
Well, we had a leftist, former-academic president at the time who, heedless to Geo. Washington’s warning, wanted the US to muddle in European affairs, so....
I asked what he did. He said what do you think I did, dropped my rifle, went to the aid station, and went home early.
I asked him if he would do it again. He said he would have hid in the woods with the Frenchies, Canadian types.
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