The Columbian, WA
March 7 2008
In Our View: War to End All Wars
Friday, March 07, 2008
A memorial in Vancouver’s old Army barracks, two blocks south of the
traffic circle at Fort Vancouver Way and East Evergreen Boulevard,
lists 83 Clark County men who died in World War I, starting with
Webster S. Albertson and ending with Gustave Young.
On a national basis, however, WW I is `The war we forgot.’
That’s how Newsweek magazine recently described it in reporting on
the death last month in Tampa, Fla., of Harry Landis, age 108. His
death left only one American veteran of World War I still alive. On
Thursday, that veteran, Frank Woodruff Buckles, 107, of Charles Town,
W. Va., paid a visit to President Bush in the White House. (Story,
Page A2.)
Newsweek told the story of how little this country has done to
memorialize the 112,000 Americans who died in the `War to End All
Wars,’ which the U.S. entered in April 1917, the war’s third year.
The war ended at 11 a.m. Nov. 11, 1918.
Of course it wasn’t the war to end all wars. Complicated in its
alliances and grievances – and unnecessary relative to other wars, at
least – World War I ignited geopolitical fires throughout Eastern
Europe and beyond for decades. It led to a redrawn map of Europe,
gave rise to Nazi Germany, created the still-raging controversy over
Armenian genocide, set up the British occupation and renaming of
today’s Iraq, and more.
World War I is the forgotten war because it was fought overseas
before movie newsreels and radio were part of the American fabric. At
this point, says Newsweek, a privately funded museum in Kansas City
`is the only national institution with plans to commemorate the end
of the `Doughboy’ generation’ after Buckles dies.
Bush on Thursday told Buckles, `One way for me to honor the service
of those who wear the uniform in the past and those who wear it today
is to herald you, sir, and to thank you very much for your
patriotism.’
As combat veterans like Buckles know, and as stated on the title card
of the 1930 movie `All Quiet on the Western Front,’ based on the
World War I book of the same name, `This story is neither an
accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death
is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it.’
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