11.11.03

Armistice Day

The War to End All Wars ended eighty five years ago today. One and a third million dead in France, a million and two thirds in Germany. Seven hundred thousand lost in Great Britain, in Russia nearly two million, in Romania two hundred thousand. Seventy thousand Canadians, one hundred thousand Americans, a quarter million Grecians Greeks, a third of a million Turks (who themselves exterminated a million and a half Armenians).

In a century full of evil, the Great War still manages to stagger by the magnitude of its futilty. Its bitter fruit defined the rest of the century - the Russian Revolution, the Second World War, modern industrialized genocide (pioneered in Turkey, perfected in Germany and the Soviet Union), total war.

Even the holiday itself is sullied. The decision to end the war on a nice string of numbers (11:11 11/11) meant more soldiers had to die. The armies kept fighting until the end.

Laurent at navire.net writes a very moving post about visiting an American cemetery near Paris. Even if you don't speak French, go visit his site to see the pictures - they say it all.

Aaron Straup Cope posts a reading list. One of the mysteries of time is that as great wrongs recede into it, they lose their power to shock and to teach. World War One has already slid safely into history, and soon into oblivion.

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