Thoughts for Veterans Day

Today is the 91st anniversary of the end of the First World War. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the tragedy that was World War I ended. Many brave Americans fought, were injured and died in that war; a war that we had no reason to be in; a war that Woodrow Wilson promised he would keep us out of. But even while campaigning with that promise in 1915-1916, America's first Fascist dictator was taking steps to embroil us in that war.

Like other Progressives, Wilson believed that he could and should force societal change and in the war in Europe he saw an opportunity to create that change. Decades later the radical Saul Alinsky would put that idea into his book Rules for Radicals that the radical should let no crisis go to waste. In another perverse tragedy of our age, that has been quoted by several Obama Administration officials including Chicago thug and close adviser to the president; Rahm Emanuel.

But back to Wilson. He got the war he wanted and off American boys went to die in the fields of Flanders ostensibly to "make the world safe for democracy". You know the history of WWI. We arrived in force just in time to tip the scales for the allied cause and by late 1918, the Germans were facing invasion and sued for peace. While the French and (to a lesser extent) the British played sore winners by coming up with ludicrous reparations demands, Wilson rushed to create the League of Nations a naked attempt to impose Progressivism on the entire western world.

What they don't tell us about World War I is the fact that Wilson created a proto-SS that went around intimidating newspapers that printed opinion pieces against war entry. After we went to war, his jackboots intimidated and closed down papers that made even the mildest of dissenting remarks about America being in the war or its prosecution. People went to jail without due process for negative remarks about the war.

You also won't find many history teachers or professors that discuss the ultimate negative impact of America's involvement in the Great War. At the time of entry, the French military and government was exhausted and on the verge of suing for peace with tacit British approval (they were also verging on war exhaustion. So in all likelihood the victorious Germans would have made demands typical of European history after Napoleon (the Alsace-Lorraine was always the main contention between the two nations) and the war that none of the large powers wanted would have ended in the spring or summer of 1917. Victorious Germany would not have lost her Central European lands and empire. Victorious Germany would not have suffered the depredations of the Weimar Republic and a decorated corporal Adolph Hitler would likely have wiled away his life as a mediocre artist or architect floating between Austria and Germany.

In addition, a victorious Germany would never have taken the desperate action of allowing the exiled Vladmir Lenin to travel from Switzerland back to St. Petersburg in their futile attempt to sow enough dissent in the great Eastern power to get it to leave the war; thus the Soviet Union would never have formed.

Yes, that's right. Thanks to Woodrow Wilson not only did brave Americans die in the tragic mistake of World War I, but his actions led directly to the conditions in which Adolph Hitler and (eventually) Josef Stalin rose to power and all of the consequences following those events. Some of the blood of the 6,000,000 Jews that died in the Holocaust must necessarily appear on his hands. The 20,000,000 Slavic peasants that died thanks to Stalin and most of whom probably never heard of Woodrow Wilson should haunt his eternal soul.

Perhaps this is the wrong day to point these things out but while we thank those who served and continue to serve we must make sure that their precious lives aren't needlessly wasted. Wilson's dreams of grandeur and social Utopianism killed millions who needn't have died. Because of his ego we mourn for the heroic and selfless Americans who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and here at home sweating over the day they might have to turn a key and end the world. We mourn for the millions who died because of Nazi cruelty and Communist sadism.

Eggheads the world over spend hours contemplating whether it is more tragic to be the first casualty of a war or the last. Mr. Wilson's war has raged on for the better part of a century. It is fitting that we celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall this week as well because it goes hand in hand with the solemn commemorations we should have today. The last Wilsonian casualty was finally counted when the last man to die in the Cold War passed away. It is hard to digest, hard to comprehend and perhaps we defend our psyche's by not thinking about it too hard.

We can't change the past but we can impact the future. Painful as it is we must constantly remember and remind others of Wilson's war and its ultimate costs. We have one of Mr. Wilson's political descendants in office now. He will likely use an instrument other than war to force socialist Utopianism on us. His lackeys in the House and Senate are already working on it. Let us learn our lesson from Wilson and do whatever we can to stop these people now lest someone three generations from now is putting together the list of casualties from Mr. Obama's nationalized health care system, his Depression, and his dithering in Afghanistan.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the sacrifices that every American veteran from the Revolution to Iraq and Afghanistan has made for me. Today's point was to lament the fact that one made made the sacrifices of so many necessary. We can't ever fully repay our veterans for the things you have suffered but we will try not to fail you if those who would waste your service attempt to do so again. Thank you to my grandpas one who served in the Pacific and stayed on in occupied Japan, the other who served in Italy and Germany (both came home safe); thank you to my great uncles all of whom miraculously returned home: a Marine who was first ashore in Okinawa; one on a submarine in the Atlantic; and one a bomber pilot in Europe. All are gone now but their stories and legacies live on in two and three generations of my extended family.