Thanks to this November 11th holiday being renamed to Veteran's Day, the American people lose sight of the history of this day.
To all of you that look at Iraq and Afghanistan as the most horrific foreign policy debacle in our country's history, you'd probably be surprised to know that 2 million of your untrained great grandfathers were sent to Europe to fight in a war that was almost already over. In about a year, over 116,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in Europe primarily so Woodrow Wilson could have a seat at the bargaining table as the war was ending.
As the war ended the United States helped hold Germany responsible for the war. The treaty ended with Germany being responsible for paying large sums of money to other European countries. Germany was never able to pay back this money and ended up borrowing it from the United States. When they weren't able to borrow anymore they inflated their currency and caused a complete economic breakdown that ushered in the need for nationalistic leadership and eventually a second world war.
The War ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. All other participant countries in this war call today Remembrance Day or Armistice Day.
Remember a Vet today and thank them for their service but also remember the pain and suffering caused when our leaders needlessly seek adventure abroad with our uniformed sons and daughters.
5 comments:
Thanks for this reminder, Tracy.
so good to remember those men and women.
their generation did it and made no noise about it either. not to "down" this generation of troops, i support them, but there is a bellyaching unique to our age that those grandfathers and grandmothers never even considered.
A friend from high school lives in D.C. He found the long, lost "The World War" memorial.
http://www.notadinnerparty.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=the_other_forgotten_war&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Perhaps our generation is a bit more jaded and not as interested in blindly following a gov't that continually proves itself worthy of suspicion.
Good piece. My grandfather (not great grandfather, but I'm old) was one of the soldiers Wilson sent. Fortunately, he made it back.
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