Veterans’ Day is November 11 because on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 11AM (Paris time, when this is being posted) on November 11, 1918, the Armistice between the Allies and the Central Powers took effect. World War I had been more peculiar, unnecessary and pointless than most wars, much like the wars the U.S. is mired in now and from which President Trump is trying to extricate us with so much determined opposition. Nevertheless, from it comes many lingering features of the American and international political landscape: Woodrow Wilson’s messianic idea of “making the world safe for democracy,” even for people who don’t value democracy or want it; the powder keg of a web of global alliances that can be touched off into a worldwide conflagration by a minor incident; the repeated recourse to failed analyses and refusal to reexamine them, no matter how often and spectacularly they fail; the stigmatizing of all opposition and even outright restrictions on the freedom of speech to crush dissent; and more.
Yet in other ways the military landscape of World War I was profoundly different from that of conflicts today. During the Christmas truce of 1914, the British, French and German soldiers came out of their trenches and exchanged Christmas greetings. In some places they even exchanged gifts and played games together. They respected each other as human beings. They recognized that they shared the same values. Yet this was infrequently repeated in subsequent Christmases; the bitterness of war overwhelmed any impulse to see the opponent as a person worthy of respect. Today, as victorious Democrats call for “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions” to reeducate Trump supporters, we see the same dehumanization.
Islamic jihadis likewise do not respect their non-Muslim foes. The Infidels are “the most vile of created beings” (Qur’an 98:6), while the Muslims are “the best of peoples” (Qur’an 3:110). There is no sense of shared values. Yet many of the leaders and opinion makers among the non-Muslims do not understand or accept this. They continue to believe that gestures of good will will be appreciated and reciprocated. They continue to think that their own careful displays of respect for the values and principles of the jihadis will be received with something other than amused contempt. They continue to send their young soldiers into the Afghanistan meat grinder, imagining that they’re winning hearts and minds by forcing our soldiers to train their “allies” who, in appallingly increasing numbers, turn on them and murder them as soon as they have the opportunity.
Meanwhile, the same leaders and opinion makers insist that groups holding the same goal held by those who have declared their hatred for, and indeed their state of war against, the United States, but who pursue this goal by non-military means, are not our enemies at all, but our friends and allies, who should be encouraged in every way and afforded access to the corridors of power. Some, but not all, of them may dimly realize that in doing so they’re endangering Americans and America itself, but by the time they see this clearly, it may well be too late. For those groups seeking the same goal as that of the jihadis — the submission of Infidel states to the rule of Islamic law — have, with willing help from the establishment media, stigmatized all resistance to this agenda as “racism,” “bigotry” and “Islamophobia.” Few are willing to brave the stigma, and those who do are widely derided and disregarded: while the jihadis and Islamic supremacists advance ever more aggressively and confidently, those who sound the alarm are increasingly unheeded.
As a result, numerous Constitutional and societal principles, including that of equality of rights for all, with no special privileges for individual groups, and the freedom of speech, are being assailed by forces that are increasingly assertive and confident. The establishment media, government, and law enforcement do not resist those forces, but aid and abet them.
The record of the resistance to jihad since 2001 is a record of failures caused by false analyses enacted as policy, and that is worse than ever. Still, the last chapter hasn’t yet been written. As long as free people still draw air, there is hope. But only if we don’t give up now, but work all the harder, and solidify our determination to resist tyranny.
Today, then, we should remember and be grateful to those who gave their lives to secure and protect these freedoms for us, and resolve not to throw away without a fight those freedoms for which they died. We should remember that if we are not willing to give our own lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to protect the unalienable rights enumerated at the founding of this Republic, we will most assuredly lose both them and the Republic itself — lose them for ourselves and for our children.
And we are far closer to that than most people realize, even after this year of unprecedented restrictions on our freedom and Leftist riots all over the United States..
Let us never shrink from the task before us: the great struggle to defend human rights, human dignity, and freedom from oppression and injustice — particularly the oppression and injustice and assaults to human dignity that are enshrined in Islamic law (Sharia) and are the increasingly open goal of newly emboldened and aggressive Leftists. Although these sinister forces are advancing step by step, steadily and apparently inexorably, in an ever more ignorant and indifferent West, it is never too late to stand for what is true and right.
Happy Veterans Day.
Frank Anderson says
With greatest honor and respect to all who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, others have given greatly in the same cause.
George C. Scott’s speech in the opening of the movie Patton needs to be remembered: Our job is to make our enemies sacrifice. We are no good dead or wounded. Make the bad guys pay and protect the good.
LB says
With Biden’s, or rather Kamila’s, presidency draws closer to reality with each passing day, the sacrifices American heroes made during WWI and WWII will not only be forgotten, but also probably spit upon and whitewashed from history all together.
If I were an American right now, I’d stockpile on weapons and ammo because there were already calls for “total annihilation of Trump supporters” by the leftists on mainstream media. This will be either a start of a long overdue civil war or complete submission to globalists’ machinations. There will be no going back if you guys let the leftists get away with this more-than-obvious steal because it will just keep repeating indefinitely.
mgoldberg says
What a fine article, and a wonderful way to start the day. To remember all those who stepped up and had to give their lives is well worth the time and effort to comprehend what it takes to defend a nation. I recall a quote from a show that captured some of the sentiment …. ‘War is waste and chaos…the most profound waste of time, life, and spirit, treasure, known to man.” ” War is an obscenity and we say it is preferable to subjugation, and it is.” “Time,place, and cause of war, however we may characterize it, most times is beyond our control.” “And it is most certainly beyond the control of a soldier. All soldiers suffer in war, and their families suffer equally.” So we should honor their sacrifice for us all.
Uma says
To all veterans of all branches: Thank you for your sacrifice, your bravery, and the example you set for us all. In short, thank you for your service! To all those who have served, and those who continue to serve… Happy Veterans Day!
GreekEmpress says
Ditto!
Walter Sieruk says
About Veterans day it’s now very appropriate to site the wisdom of the first Constitutional President of the United States of America, George Washington, who had, so well explained “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
Moreover President Washington stated that “However pacific the general policy of the nation may be ,it ought never be without an adequate stock of military knowledge for emergencies.”
Furthermore, with this post- 9/11 USA it should likewise be remembered that one very good way to defeat the jihadists who compose the many brutal and deadly Islamic terror entities ,such as al Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, is by the means of a very strong power of US military might. As Thomas Jefferson had declared “With every barbarous people …force is law.”
E T says
God bless all the Veterans, they are our heroes.
Fred van de Bunt says
Multiple people have been wounded in an explosion at a Remembrance Day service at a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi capital of Jeddah.
https://www.albawaba.com/news/grenade-hurled-multiple-injuries-blast-non-muslims-cemetery-saudi-arabia-1392200
Westman says
As a youngster I was unable to understand the sacrifices my uncles had made during WWII, not even understanding the depth of the language that described their experience. Every one of them had scars, physical and mental, as a result of combat and somehow returned to have successful and full lives.
They had one common trait, they never wanted to talk about the horrors they experienced. As an adult I learned more about their sacrifices and began to understand their frustration as they watched the nation move away from sound morals into an entitlement society. They are all gone now and when I visit their graves I call their names and say, thank you for the life you gave me. Forgive that it too so long to understand how precious and fragile is freedom.
I wish I could thank all those who died in the wars. My flag is flying today for all the veterans who sacrificed to save our free nation yet it’s barely a token to an immense debt.
God, bless all our veterans.
poppey says
Robert should know better than to state that the war of 1914-18 was in his own words ” peculiar, unnecessary and pointless”.
After establishing the state of Belgium {neutral} in the 1830’s, Britain and France were treaty bound to preserve its neutrality and freedom to say NO to any aggressor trying to cross its borders. We honoured that obligation to Belgium by joining France and going to war to defend Belgium’s neutrality.
In the first decade of the 20th century, we the British agreed to join in a conflict to help defend France against German aggression. We honoured that too.
France was treaty bound to go to war against Germany in order to support Russia if Germany declared war on them in order to defend the Habsburg empire against Russia who was bound to defend fellow orthodox Serbs in Serbia from an Austrian aggression.
From 1700 and the wars of the Duke of Marlborough against the French king Louie to 1945, Britain’s foreign policy in Europe was to maintain the “balance of power” on the continent of Europe by preventing any one nation, king or Emperor from dominating others to the disadvantage of all.
We and the nations of the British Commonwealth paid the price for that for over three years before America dropped our coat they were bravely holding for us and sent troops to help out.
This may not be taught in places today, but it’s remembered in so many others.
gravenimage says
On Veterans Day, let us remember and emulate those who sacrificed for the cause of freedom
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Hear, hear!
A Happy Veteran’s Day to all here who have served.