Today Is November 11 —– Veterans Day
November 11 is designated a federal holiday to remember and appreciate those Americans who have honorably served in the US Armed Forces. This holiday was originally named Armistice Day. It falls on November 11 because that was the day in 1918 that all the participants in World War I ceased fighting. The primary treaty that officially ended the war, The Treaty of Versailles, was signed on June 28, 1919. Originally, World War I was simply called “The World War” and was nicknamed “The War To End All Wars”. Oh how very wrong they were about that!
One can easily make a case that World War I did not end until the conclusion of World War II in 1945. World War I resulted in twenty-four million deaths and twenty-one million wounded. This includes eleven million deaths of military personnel and a civilian death toll of thirteen million. Wounded on both sides was estimated at twenty-one million. Forty-five million human lives ended prematurely or negatively affected as a result of a very preventable and needless world war. This number does not even include the lives of the family members of those killed or wounded who were likewise negatively impacted.
Eleven Straight Times And He Still Didn’t Learn
There were no shortage of incompetent generals in World War I. The British had Douglas Haig, the French Joseph Joffe, the Russians had Aleksei Evert, the Austrians had Conrad von Hotzendorf and the Turks/Ottoman Empire had Enver Pasha, who lost half of an army of 120,000 in the one battle where he commanded the Ottoman army. The prize for the very worst general of World War I however goes to the commander of the Italian forces, Luigi Cadorna, seen in the image above.
General Luigi Cadorna was a bitter, arrogant and callous man with a cruel authoritarian streak and a profound conviction that all his mistakes were always somebody else’s fault. Cadorna was a firm believer that the morale of an army was of utmost importance. His method of fostering high morale among his troops was to impose draconian discipline for the slightest infraction. Between 1915 and 1917 he sacked 217 generals under his command and the 750 soldiers that he had executed was by far the highest of any of the armies that were participants in the war. It was not surprising that Cadorna’s philosophy of “the beatings will continue until morale improves” lowered morale drastically.
Cadorna was a general who launched the same doomed battle, in the same way, in the same place (along the Isonzo River), against the same opponent, achieving nothing every single time except more dead and wounded soldiers and yet he continued to do it over and over and over again, eleven times in a row. He learned nothing from his repeated failures. The twelfth time he tried it at the Battle of Caporetto in late 1917, it resulted in a complete rout of the Italian forces by the Austrians and the Germans. Out of a force of 1,800,000 troops that Cadorna was in charge of, there were approximately 800,000 in dead, wounded, captured (many voluntarily surrendered), and missing soldiers. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The British and French sent reinforcements to prevent the Austrians and Germans from bursting through to Venice but they insisted that Cadorna had to go and he was finally relieved of his command. After he was sacked, the Italian defense line held at the Battle of the Piave River and eventually achieved victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto.
A True Military Hero — General Smedley Butler
General Smedley Butler served for thirty-one years in the United States Marine Corps. He was wounded in combat and was the recipient of two Congressional Medals Of Honor. His courage in action is well documented. After he retired in 1931, he spoke out against the various behind the scenes interests that pulled the strings leading to wars. He gave speeches to veterans groups. He even wrote a book titled, “War Is A Racket”. An amazing statement for one of the most decorated veterans in American history. Something to ponder.
I can picture in my imagination an image of two aliens going over their reconnaisance mission concerning their plans to conquer the planet Earth. One says to the other, “Zog, these humans are not very intelligent but boy do they ever know how to kill each other. They’re bloody experts at it.” The other alien answers, “Yes, Dax, we won’t even have to waste our resources to conquer them. We can just sit back and watch them kill each other through their endless wars. I can’t even keep up with all of them. Every time I get ready to submit my report to fearless leader, another war on Earth pops up.” The first then says, “Ah don’t worry about it, in no time at all they’ll wipe each other out and then we can just swoop in and take over. Come on, it’s still happy hour at the Milky Way Lounge. Let’s go get a brew.”