Here in America it's Veteran's Day. In the rest of the world, Armistice Day. It just doesn't seem to mean as much here as it does in the UK or north of the border. I'm not sure why but it's a pity.
This is the day (on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour) that WWI officially ended. For America, not a huge thing. For the European powers, and for the Commonwealth nations, it was the end of the biggest war man had ever seen.
A whole generation of young French, British, and German men was lost in the trenches. Nothing since has really come close to the scale and tragedy of the loss on those battlefields. We forget because, to a certain extent, the impact has been diluted by both time and the smaller impact on American society.
But the loss of so many young men, in what was really a pointless conflict with no real good or bad side, definitely set the stage for the second world war, as those who would have grown into roles of leadership in their societies were dead and tired old men allowed Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini to rise to positions of prominence and engaged in appeasement.
Posted by artandscience at November 11, 2008 12:34 PM