Stronger and More Perfectly United

One hundred years ago today on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month; the guns fell silent, finally.  Originally named the “Great War,” the First World War claimed the lives of more than 10 million people.  While it was mainly fought on battlefields in Europe, it was also fought in colonies on the continents of Asia and Africa, too.  It also included soldiers who traveled from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many others.  It was said that it would be the war to end all wars.  Instead the Paris Peace Conference called to conclude the war’s finality through talks and diplomacy, it proved only to sow the seeds of future wars in places like Germany, Italy, Japan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia).  It has been said many times and in many ways that those who fail to learn the lessons of history are destined to repeat them.

Today, the words of patriotism and nationalism have been used together as if they mean the same thing.  They do not.  If not in a dictionary or glossary than at least to those of us who have studied the history of both the Great War and its sequel (World War II) that followed and was caused by its ‘armistice’.  The cause of the first was due to simply territorial disputes as well as nationalism.  Countries such as Germany and Italy wanted all members of their ‘ethnic nationality’ to be united under the same flags and within the same borders.  Are those reasons really worth sending more than 10 million men, women, and children to their premature deaths?

World War One started in 1914 under the belief and prediction that they all would be home before Christmas.  Instead, the war waged on until well after the involvement of American and Canadian troops in 1917.  After the American Revolution, the United States finally repaid their French allies with American blood on their soil.  By war’s end, President Wilson tried to warn all powers to use its end to prevent future wars.  Sadly, his pleas and warnings fell on emotional and deaf ears.

Speaking of nationalism, Italy was so upset the Triple Entente did not honor their side-switching deal to award them lands north towards the Alps, Benito Mussolini rose to power in 1922 by promising to acquire those lands and members of their ethnic nationality.  They would soon be joined by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and also the Empire of Japan.  What does it say about the true America, in both those wars and the many since, when its military ranks were and are continued to be filled with countless citizens and non-citizens of differing colors, creeds, languages, and heritage?

When shall we learn our greatest lessons from all those who have voluntarily served and sacrificed in our armed forces?  We are far stronger and more perfectly united despite our different races, religions, languages, creeds, cultures, and political leanings?  May we never forget the sacrifices of lives and blood of soldiers who voluntarily served; their physically, mentally, emotionally, and permanently scarred comrades who returned; as well as the painstakingly and basic human lessons we have learned from those infinite casualties of wars gone by.