Remembrance
The President is on his way to Paris, France to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on November 11th. That war ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Ironically, the Great War was partially a consequence of Nationalism, which is a philosophy President Trump has sought to restore. Nationalism is defined as devotion to the culture or interests of ones nation. This weekend's ceremonies will take place at Champs-Elysees at the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.
U.S. Gen. John J. Pershing said it was his "desire that every man in the American Expeditionary Forces should be given the opportunity to visit Paris before returning to the United States."
Thus the importance of Paris for Americans on a day remembering the epic tragedy of World War I. Nearly 10 million soldiers died in that war. It was a different era and a much different generation. Young men didn't ask "Why" they served without question. America's involvement in that war was no less perplexing than it was in Vietnam. The difference was that America's belated involvement in the First World War was decisive. Russia had abandoned the war due to the Communist revolution. The French army was on the verge of mutiny, while other armies, with the exception of the German Army were close to exhausted. The fresh American forces were able to force an Armistice. The infamous "Treaty of Versailles" followed, which was a major factor in instigating the world war that followed.
The two great world wars will most likely be the last fought between the first world industrialized nations. We can only hope.
French leader Emmanuel Macron will be hosting the event. President Trump will also visit two burial sites. On Saturday the President has a meeting scheduled with French President Emmanuel Macron, and will attend a dinner for visiting heads of state later that evening. There is no set agenda for which European leaders will meet with Trump or what they might discuss. Much of the trip will be informal and open to the casual, spontaneous type of meetings that Trump likes.
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Thousands of Church bells will be wrung across Europe Sunday morning
100th anniversary of the end of World War I
To all of them, and those that came before and after.
I'm really looking forward to watching Peter Jackson's documentary about World War I, "They Shall Not Grow Old" , once it's available for home viewing.
Hope the movie gets the kind of national viewing audience the subject deserves.
Thanks for the info
Thank you for that post.
This description in your post brings back memories of documentaries my father would watch. A local UHF education channel would periodically show the old black and white films, which were in pretty bad condition, even then.
As more film was discovered, the documentaries were expanded to include them.
Of course there was no sound other than the commentator.
It was hellacious, as all wars are in their own way.
Here are sobering statistics:
Second column is WWI and third column is WWII
WWI credited at 4 yrs duration and WWII credited at 6 yrs duration.
Overall WWII was the bloodiest of all in recorded history. By far.
Focusing on the combatants, some not so obvious numbers surface, especially considering WWI was predominantly focused in Europe, Asia Minor and parts of Africa.
Whereas WWII was truly more of a World War.
WWI; 10 million combatants dead at an average rate of 2.5 million per year.
WWII combatant deaths requires a little calculation. Some of us learned "over 60 million people died". Then we have the range of 50 to 80 million. How about we take the average of the 2 at 65 million?
We are given a range of civilian calualties of 38 - 55 million. Again, let's take the average of 46.5 million.
If my numbers are right here, 65 - 46.5 = 18.5 million dead combatants at a rate of ~3.08 million per year.
None of those statistics are good. They do however, how brutally lethal the first modern in what was a relatively limited geographic region.
Not all things modern are good.
I will look forward to it, thank you
We used to call it Armistice Day (and it's called Remembrance Day in Europe which suffered vastly greater casualties than the U.S. and where it is a day of solemnity) but the official name in the U.S. was changed to Veterans Day to honor veterans, particular those who served in wars.
Also, he claimed it was one of the bloodiest of all time. As far as U.S. history goes, the Civil War is still the bloodiest by far. There more U.S. deaths from that war than WWi and WWII combined.
By the way, true to type, Scumbag lied* about what Macron said. The Elyisee Palace said the "president" (i.e., Scumbag) confused two different statements.
Although it could be just more mental deterioration. He's really been staggering, especially since the big Dem wins in Congress, governorships and state legs this week.
And the scumbag couldn't even be bothered going to the cemetery because it was raining...he is a disgrace!
An American soldier in Paris, my Grandfather celebrated The Armistice 11-11-1919.
In 1919?