This Veterans Day is especially poignant to millions of American families who have a loved one in harms way somewhere on this troubled globe.

To those who have a loved one peering anxiously over the sights of his rifle in Fallujah, we remember.

To those who have a loved one cautiously patrolling the streets of Baghdad, we remember.

To those who have a loved one helping to build a school in Najaf, we remember.

To those who stand by anxiously in the Balkans, we remember.

To those who sit quietly, vigilantly in front of radar screens and sonar sets around the world protecting us from those who would do us harm, we remember.

To those who have a loved one honored to stand vigil over me, my family, and my friends and neighbors, we are grateful.

And we will never forget.

And it is fitting, I think, to also remember how this day came about. To understand Veterans Day, it is necessary to understand World War I and how that war destroyed all previous concepts of war, of patriotism, of defeat, and of victory itself.

It was a war to end all wars that instead, ended the idea of unfettered nationalism. It made a mockery of the phrase “giving one’s life for one’s country.” And for one country, it meant the end of everything.

November 11, 1918 was the day France died.

In Barbara Tuchman’s book The Guns of August , the author shows how all of the “Great Powers” blundered, stumbled, and through a willful disregard of logic and reason, rushed into a war that needn’t have been. Through a combination of national pride, misunderstanding, and a false sense of inevitability, the war became a gigantic destructive machine, devouring men and material at a pace never before seen in the history of human civilization.

This insanity touched France more than any other country. And it’s impossible to understand the France of today without looking at the France of nearly 100 years ago and understanding how the very idea of the French nation was destroyed in the trenches that, to this day, cut across the French countryside like some gigantic, unhealed scar; a constant reminder of innocence lost and lives destroyed.

The great poet and essayist Robert Graves recognized and put into words better than anyone before or since, the true cost of the madness that was WWI. His autobiographical account of the war, “Goodbye to all That,” a scathing, unblinking critique of a society that would allow such madness, shows in agonizingly spare and lucid prose how “The Lost Generation” (a term Graves coined) was not only sacrificed on the field of battle, but also lost faith in the very concept of western industrialized civilization.

I mention Graves because he gave voice to an entire generation of western Europeans who fought in, what he termed, the war’s “love battles;” battles so horrific that only a sublime love could explain how human beings could participate in such extraordinary bloodletting and barbarity.

One such battle was Verdun. Mention Verdun to a Frenchman today and he will relate with pride the manner in which the French army stood its ground against relentless German attacks. “They shall not pass” is as famous a phrase in France as “Remember the Alamo” is in America. Verdun was by far and away the largest battle in human history. In “A Short History of World War One” James Stokesbury points out that, at one time or another during the nearly year long battle, more than three quarters of the French Army fought at Verdun.

And therein lies the story of the death of France. The Chief of the German General Staff, General Von Falkenhayn, swore that “he would bleed France white” at Verdun. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. France suffered nearly 2 million casualties in defense of…what? Ten square miles of absolutely useless real estate, battered, bombed, cratered like the surface of the moon with the bodies of over 700,000 French and German soldiers pulverized by repeated and futile bombardments.

Towards the end of this carnage, the attitude of French soldiers changed dramatically. It was not uncommon for troops being relieved to “baa” like sheep as they passed replacement soldiers on their way to the slaughter. And the architect of the defense of Verdun, Marshall Petain, was eventually ground down himself and relieved. Understanding what that battle did to Petain and the entire French army is the key to understanding what happened to France in World War II. The fact is, the French army and, by extension, the French people lost faith not only in France, but in the superiority of Western Civilization itself.

The shameful performance of the French army in World War II is a direct result of the horrors of Verdun. France surrendered to Germany in World War II while 2/3 of its army had never fired a shot in anger. The rise of the collaborationist government headed up by Marshall Petain was (despite French protestations today to the contrary) a popular move amongst a large segment of the French population. Fascism was an attractive alternative to the kind of carnage the French people expected to occur during World War II. It wasn’t until more than 3 years after the French signed a shameful armistice (terms of which required nearly 5 million French soldiers to languish in captivity until the war was over) that any real opposition to the Petain government emerged.

What did the French lose on November 11, 1918? In short, they lost the notion of French “exceptionalism.” The “victory” and subsequent Treaty of Versailles showed the French that nothing they could have possibly gained; not the reacquisition of territory lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian war, nor a share in German colonies in Africa, nor even the humiliation of of the Kaiser was worth the death of 5 million Frenchmen.

Ever since that day, the French have been searching for a national identity to replace the proud, confident nation that so blithely and so willingly went to the slaughter at Verdun and other places. This is not an excuse for France’s current obstructionism and anti-americanism. But, by way of an explanation, it may give us pause this Veterans Day to remember that France, more than any other nation, has suffered the horrors of war and felt it to the marrow of its bones.


FALLUJAH UPDATE:

Once again, great post over at Belmont Club about the battle in Fallujah. Wretchard gives us an overview of our grand strategy both there and for the rest of the insurgency as he dissects a press release from a former Republican Guard commander who’s acting as a spokesman for the resistance:

“By plotting the enemy strongholds on the map it is at once evident that they are coextensive with two pathways. The first goes northward along the Euphrates from western Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Hadithah, Anah and Qusabayah—along the river and road from Baghdad to the Syrian border. The omission of Qusabayah from mention is very peculiar, since it has been the scene of battalion sized battles between infiltrators and Marines guarding the Syrian frontier since the earliest post-OIF days, but I include it here on that account. The second set of towns goes northeast along the Tigris towards Tikrit and parts of Kurdistan: Hawijah, Balad and Samarra. A spur runs off toward the Iranian border: Baqubah and Baladruz, on the road to the Iran. It is hard not to think that we are looking at their lines of communication.”

The plan appears to be to interdict men and material from Syria and Iran by isolating and reducing several towns that are acting as “waystations” for the resistance…something like an underground railroad of death. Wretchard speculates about the overall political strategy:

“Every campaign has a political dimension. The campaign in the Sunni Triangle is probably aimed at convincing the enemy that resistance is now futile and their best hope lies in participating in the new Iraqi government through elections. Personally (speculation alert!) I doubt it can achieve as much. The campaign will absolutely gut the enemy as a guerilla force, but it will not be enough to prevent them from terrorizing Sunni politicians who may wish to participate in the coming elections. But this will only postpone unconditional Sunni defeat for another year because a terrorist enforced boycott will mean that Kurds and Shi’ites will dominate the new administration and most importantly, its Army.”

I can understand the Sunni’s reluctance to participate in the elections. They’ve dominated Iraqi politics for generations and are loathe to share power of any kind. Are there any Sunni politicans who have the courage and foresight to participate in these upcoming elections? None have stepped forward to date.


NEW SPACE PRIZE ANNOUNCED

On the heels of the “X-Prize” awarded to the first commercial vehicle that made it into space (see my post here) comes “America’s Space Prize,” a $50 million bonanza to the first commercial firm that can build a spacecraft to achieve some very lofty goals, including reaching orbit, carrying at least 3 passengers, and docking with another privately built space module. There are some other, very interesting requirements to win this prize:

7. The contestant must be domiciled in the United States of
America.

8. The contestant must have its principal place of business in the
United States of America.

Where the X-Prize was open to international compettition, this prize seeks to limit itself to American firms.

Frankly, I think that’s an excellent idea. While the $50 million won’t go very far in recovering development costs for such a project, the technology used to win the prize will be priceless. And given that the launch vehicle will for all intents and purposes be capable of carrying weapons as well as people, it makes sense to keep the contest in the U.S.

The prize is being offered by Bigelow Aerospace Corp. of North Las Vegas.

The winning team must launch before 2010 and must make two flights of the spacecraft within 60 days.

Read the link via Spaceship Summer for all the details.


THE NEW WORLD ORDER

In keeping with party directive RE1657823950012, we have once again updated the world map to reflect approved changes made at this years “Are You Ready For Some Football?” Party Congress. These changes supercede any and all changes made in the past and maps shall be altered immediately or the usual penalties apply (see Party Handbook entitled “Dealing with Criminals, Gangs, Counter-revolutionaries, and other Lickspittles).