Tuesday Open Thread: WWI Edition
by PubliusToday, in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, sparking World War I. Also today, in 1919, the parties involved in World War I signed the final formal peace treaty, ending hostilities. Bookends.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
40 Comments
US should have stayed out of this one.
A few quotes from the battle of Verdun (France, 1916) :
"There is only that sinister brown belt,a strip of murdered nature.It seems to belong to another world. Every sign of humanity has been swept away. The woods and roads have vanished like chalk wiped from a blackboard; of the villages nothing remains but grey smears"
"You found the dead embedded in the walls of the trenches, heads, legs and half-bodies"
"Humanity is mad ! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre ! What scenes of horror and carnage ! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad !"
"To my son, since your eyes were closed mine have never ceased to cry"
"This is not heroism. It is ignomy. What kind of a nation will they make of us tomorrow, these exhausted creatures, emptied of blood, emptied of thought, crushed by superhuman fatigue ?……they will have to resort to those that have not lived out these days…."
"They must have been mad, ces gens-la"
Read it and weep…
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm
'Nuff said
Report: Obama Films Campaign Ad In White House, Possibly Violating FEC Laws?
In the video, President Obama promotes a "Dinner With Barack" raffle. To participate in the contest you need to donate at least $5 to the president's re-election campaign and your name will be raffled off to enjoy a dinner with the President, airfare and accommodations included. In a new web video, Obama announced Vice President Joe Biden will also be attending the dinner.
There is one problem, however. This campaign ad was most likely recorded in the White House, which may have violated FEC campaign finance laws. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/06/27...
I saw this a bit earlier today. Sadly, I doubt anything much will get done. At most the FEC may give him a token fine along with a "don't do that again" letter but that's about all that will happen. I really think even less than that will be done.
But that wasn't the progressives plan. Wilson campaigned on keeping us out and almost immediately got us into that war.
So began the era of intervention in foreign entanglements that Washington warned us about and which continues to this day.
Gavrilo Princip has got a lot to answer for…
Bookends perhaps. But lets not forget that the conduct of certain nations on the winning side had much to do with the creation and elevation of one of the greatest monsters the world has seen.
So it's not a day to celebrate the end of WW1, but to curse the French for starting WW 2.
JMO, of course. And I apologize to any Frenchies offended by my po…nah, I really don't. Let them be offended. What are they going to do? Flap their smelly arm pits in my general direction?
I watched the footages of WWI on the Military Channel. WOW, people still had horses pulling machine guns, still riding horses, hardly any cars then. It was just fascinating to watch.
I have a question (bear with me): if the White House is the residence provided to the POTUS by the Country, what's a POTUS supposed to do? If he wants to film a 5 minute campaign ad, does he need to nick out of the WH, assemble a motorcade or whistle up Marine One, travel across down town to an undisclosed location to film it?
I understand that a POTUS etc shouldn't use the trappings of office for political gain, but honestly, sitting in a rather plain living room isn't really it.
Now, if he filmed it behind the desk in the Oval Office or the East Room or the Blue Room, or was renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to the highest bidder (oh, wait…apparently that bit was perfectly okay, right?) I could see it.
I don't know. Barry is an abomination and can't go away fast enough, but I've never understood why the POTUS can't use a generic room in his own house (yeah I know, the WH is 'our' house), and I haven't understood with R's and D's.
Another war the US should have stayed out of.
"and I haven't understood with R's and D's."
Because it's a law.
Shall we only obey the rule of law where is is found convenient?
Then the next time it becomes easier to ignore another law. And then another.
And then no one in the society knows which laws they need to obey and which they can break.
Well–the way things are, that's pretty much where we're at now isn't it?
I understand it's the law. I get that. I get that you enforce the law (or should, at any rate). I'm not trying to argue that.
I just don't understand why it's the law. Like I said, from the Oval Office or someplace like that, sure. But from a generic living room someplace in the WH, when the WH is supposed to be his home for 4 years (sigh) and it's such a major, expensive hassle to move him anywhere, I guess I'm just wondering if the law should be changed slightly. Of course, one could then make the give an inch argument, but hell, they pretty much don't follow any of the laws we have on the books now, what would really change?
I'm not excusing his actions (or trying to), I'm questioning the letter of the law itself. I don't know if I've said it right though.
The horrors of war are beyond the comprehension of those who haven't experienced it….
…and those that have experienced it aren't sure they "comprehend" it either…
… they merely witnessed and experienced inconcievable horror….
There were still a huge number of horses being used in the Second World War, especially on the Eastern Front. Only the U.S. and British armies were fully motorized. The Russians (until we gave them lots and lots of trucks), and especially the Germans, relied heavily on horse-drawn transport (only about 10% of the German army was motorized).
Not exactly – virtually as soon as the United States became a country the United States has gone to war to protect and/or advance OUR interests.
From Tripoli {as in Libya} in the Barbary Wars to Mexico screwing with us – then Southern slave owners parlaying their own immoral and indefensible economic reasons into a Civil War – Spain in the late 1890's etc.
The fact of the matter is that the U.S. has been at war since our founding and that Mankind has been at war literally sinse the first gathering of huts near the Euphrates started fighting the OTHER group of huts near the Euphrates – nearly always over land/resources.
WWI was a series of events that slowly gathered momentum through arrogance and ignorance and Monarchs {cousins} and Parliments not backing down until it SPUN out of control.
Thus the greatest ever human caused tragedy to ever beset man happened. It basically wiped out a generation of young men in France, England, Germany – and led to the rise of the communists in Russia and the Treaty of Versailles bore the seeds of WWII – all the fault of progressives and socialists who crafted the Treaty.
____"Because it's a law. "_______
And we all know that the "Law" does not apply to Imam Obama.
Look at the Tax payer funded dinner raffle to raise money for "His" campaign .
$5 Raffle Ticket Buys Dinner With Obama http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-campaig...
Democrats are raffling off the opportunity to dinner privately with President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Pelosi announced the opportunity in a fundraising letter for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/...
“Holding (a) raffle is illegal in much of the United States, although many jurisdictions make an exception for raffles in which proceeds go to charity.” http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/is-raffle-to-win...
His campaign should bear the expense for security to move him someplace else and shoot the commercial.
I weep for the millions on all sides who died in WWI…the "War to End All Wars." They were so patriotic, so brave and so eager to serve. The cream of Western Civilization was wasted on Flanders Fields, Verdun, the Alps separating Austria and Italy, the Russian front, Gallipoli, Palestine and many oceans and seas around the world.
I grew up hearing stories by my grandparents about rationing, how military bases sprang up everywhere, one great uncle who spent 1918 and part of 1919 in Russia guarding supplies provided by the US to the Czar and keeping the Reds from getting them (he lived life well with cheap vodka and beautiful women)…..and another great uncle who was gassed in France with his lungs fried from the gas and slowly wasted away for 10 yrs before dying in 1928. And stories about a priest they knew with a perfect memory for names…..a trait he developed in France as a chaplain when, under fire, he went from fallen soldier to fallen soldier giving them the last rites and praying for their redemption as he crawled to the next man.
I have told those stories to my children and to them the words of my grandparents mean nothing. American schools barely mention WW I. It is so sad to think of such sacrifice being forgotten. Those brave men died for nothing.
At the end of the war Britain, France and Germany were spent. Germany was defeated and Britain and France were so weakened that the days of their influence as bulwarks of Western Civilization were numbered. Communism had taken control in Russia and millions of politically incorrect people where destined to die in that country, China, Eastern Europe, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Rhodesia, South Africa, South America….and the list continues to grow.
The foundations of Western Civilization were weakened. A culture that valued freedom, the individual and looked to the future with hope and great expectations was critically impaired. The men who where born to be the lights to carry that culture and beliefs on to new heights were dead. The survivors were disillusioned and many questioned their beliefs. And the ones who stayed at home, the privileged class who could buy their way out of the draft, the criminals, the mentally challenged and the cowards filled the voids created by the loss of the valiant.
The specter of WW I and its consequences is a evil spirit that haunts us to this day.
May the fallen rest in peace. Some of us still remember you. Your lives and what you could have accomplished are greatly missed.
President, GOP hopefuls descend on Iowa as pivotal straw poll draws near
By Jordan Fabian – 06/28/11 05:45 AM ET
Four announced or potential Republican candidates, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), are visiting the Hawkeye State this week — as is the man they are looking to defeat in 2012: President Obama. http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/168695-presi...
/ Imam Hussein Obama ain't gonna be the smartest person in the room.
And today millions of our future "light-bearers" are slaughtered in abortion every year….
That is a fact that isn't well known, I didn't know it for ages and in one of the last episodes of Band Of Brothers they mention it in passing when Webster berates the Germans for attacking when they are still using horses. I think it isn't well known as most people concentrate on the Blitzkrieg attacks of Panzer's and don't think of anything else.
The trouble is, Obama routinely skirts all kinds of laws, both minor and consequential. For Obama, the oath of office was just some words he had to perfunctorily speak to assume power. He has no respect for the law or the constitution.
Only the Socialists, Commies, and Money-Changers won that war. Germany got phvcked even though they didn't spark or even start the war. Woodrow Wilson and the French and German politicians planted the seeds for World War II. And Japan quietly doubled and trebled its own strength since the early 1900's on through the 1930's.
many countries (The US included) were using horses and mules to pull guns during WWII also.
Fine. But who bears the expense for the disruption in the lives of everyone who's just trying to go about their day in DC? A POTUS motorcade shuts down huge chunks of the city.
I don't know. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that it seems a little picky and non-commonsensical to me, and always has. That's a personal opinion though, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the law!
http://www.a-w-a.be/
Web site of the Association of World War Archaeology.
They've finally been able to do some large scale excavations.
If I have a car capable of 140 mph. on the Interstate, I should be allowed to go that fast…
There's my personal nonsensical and overly picky law…
What were America's interests in Europe during WWI?
Trade.
WW I interfered with trade, so the sooner the war was ended the better.
Our interests were thin and frankly a bit contrived – As England's ally – it eventually was going to "suck us in."
However – It was possible that the Allies could have lost WWI.
When the Communist Russians overthrew the Czar and quit the War the Germans almost immediately began to transfer troops back West and begin one more massive offensive push in the West – which they did – the "Kaiserschlacht."
The entree` of U.S. troops into the equation finally persuaded Germany to quit fighting, although German soldiers in the field did not feel beaten. One of those soldiers was a private named Adolph Hitler – who blamed the Jews for "stabbing Germany in the back" for the loss.
Secondly – Wilson was really, really, really hot on being a "world leader" and wanted a main seat at the table when the war ended. If we weren't in it – he couldn't be there come negotiation time.
He was THE big proponent of the League of Nations – it was his baby – although ultimately – as we know – he couldn't sell it to the Senate – it wasn't ratified.
It was unrestricted submarine warfare and the memo sent to Mexico offering them help recovering lost territory if Mexico helped Germany that were the "official" provocations.
Interesting fact related to that. The draft was not actually binding for WWI (because it wouldn't have passed Congress as such). They drafted people into the army, but technically each person volunteered to go. Many people did believe in what they were doing.
That cursed war was the beginning of the end for the West.
Are you suggesting that trade would have ceased if we had remained neutral?
Are you suggesting trade was not affected in a negative manner by the war?
Trade is not a binary function with only two settings of "on" and "off".
Millions and millions of innocents are slaughtered. They are slaughtered by parents and a system that lacks morality, ignors the worth of each individual human life and a system that is just plain broken.
Would they have been light bearers…..only God will know. I pray that the children from homes that teach them right from wrong, personal responsibility, the history of their family and their nation and the beauty of God will be the light bearers….the people to lead the nation back onto its track and to be inspirations to others.
Sounds more like a slave auction.
What part about "had much to do with the creation and elevation of one of the greatest monsters the world has ever seen" didn't you understand?
I wasn't blaming them totally. I said they contributed mightily. If you're going to correct me, please correct me for something I actually wrote rather than something you think I wrote.
And why is it hard to blame the French?
And tit for tat in Palestine? Yeah. The next time you read about Israeli teens strapping bombs to their chests and walking into Palestinian nightclubs and shops, be sure and let us all know.
Tit for tat indeed.
Wasn't correcting you. Simply offering the perspective that the conflict was almost inevitable, and it's a bit unfair to single out the French as having created Hitler and WWII by extension. I am sort of splitting hairs, I admit, because you implicitly recognize other factors. I just spoke up because I personally assign very little "blame" to the French.
It's hard to blame the French if you put yourself in their shoes. Substitute "United States" for "France" and "Mexico" for "Germany" and tell me you wouldn't want the US to act the same way the French did after the conflict. How many societies out there could just "let it go?" And how can we really expect that of them?
And tit for tat doesn't mean both sides are wrong. It simply means that violence often produces more violence. Very few people can simply let themselves be attacked, or not take some sort of revenge after being attacked. The Israelis aren't going to sit on their hands and take abuse. They're going to strike back as heavy-handed as they need to be to get the job done. Regardless of who is right, when you examine the conflict from each protagonist's perspective, they both feel that every time they take action it is justified or revenge-taking. I'm not saying the Israelis are wrong or that Palestinians are right, I'm just reiterating that violence tends to be cyclical.
But lets not forget that the conduct of certain nations on the winning side had much to do with the creation and elevation of one of the greatest monsters the world has seen. http://www.watchesn.com/products/big_Chanel_1.htm...
You must be logged in to post a comment.