The Great War

November and Armistice Day. At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, the War to End All Wars ground to an end.

War scrapes a bloody path through history. Everybody suffers. Many die. Nobody wins.

World War I is the best and worst example of this in modern times. Old-fart egomaniacs stupidly sent young men into a hurricane of artillery. "King of Battle," the U.S. Army calls the cannon still today. When that strategy failed (hard to keep up spirits on the homefront when all that's left of a loved one is viscous and bone splinters), they dug holes and hunkered down. And then it rained. And rained. The trenches melted into mud pits where men awoke to rats nibbling their cheeks, waded through shit and blood, and ate their meals amid bloated corpses. All while shells whistled over their heads and mustard gas choked their lungs. That's if they were lucky and lived.

The glory of war.

I come from the Mountain South county that gave us Alvin C. York, America's greatest World War I hero. I appreciate what enlisting in the armed forces can do for men and women with no other financial options. I hope that all our lads and lasses come home breathing.

But war itself. It is evil. It is nasty. Nothing good comes of it. Remember that on Nov. 11.

"The war has ruined us for everything." 
- Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet On The Western Front, Ch. 5