Hey, Cypher here.
Today, we learn about Veterans Day.
Veterans day, in its current form, is a day to celebrate those who have answered the call
for to duty for the US, but it didn't used to be this way.
In fact it used to more meaningful, as well as something fairly tragic.
I do not intend that to sound antagonistic.
Since I am a veteran myself, I understand what veterans day means and how it is meant
honor all veterans, but it is banal and safe.
We used to celebrate it as Armistice Day.
In 1954, that changed to what we celebrate today.
When it was Armistice Day, we celebrated a greater cause.
Some have argued that Armistice Day was changed to celebrate all veterans rather than ones
of a particular war, but that was never the case.
In the words of congress, who passed it as national holiday in 1926, and further as a
bank holiday in 1938, they called it "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace
and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."
It was a day to celebrate world peace, the end of the bloodiest war the world had ever
seen, and in many ways, more bloody than any other since.
That war was WWI.
Did you ever wonder why the day is on the eleventh day of the eleventh month?
That is no coincidental number.
It portrays the decisions made nearly a century ago in 1918.
From 1914-1918, the world was at war with itself.
WWI involved more nations than did WWII, and if you exclude the holocaust as part of the
casualty count of WWII, WWI killed more people.
It was called the Great War, or mistakenly the War to End All Wars.
Of course we know that it was not the war to do so, nor do I think there ever can be,
but the scope and brutality of this war was drastic enough inspire such romantic notions.
By the end of the war, the world was wrent anew in apocalyptic proportions.
It was so huge that the worlds modern borders were defined by its conclusion.
It was so bloody and pointless that it inspired what is called the 'lost generation,' which
is a group of writers and artists who sort of lost there way because of the wars carnage
and tried to express that loss through their work.
All that in mind, no one really knew what they were fighting for anymore.
Waves and waves of men were mowed down in droves by the machine guns and artillery that
opposed them.
Two great parallel trenches across Europe bared witness to the atrocious fighting of
troops warring for pitifully small bits of land.
There was some vague notions of duty and honor for one's homeland mixed together with the
idea of stopping the evils of the villainous enemy, but that was mere smoke and mirrors.
In reality, the war was started by nationalistic alliances that pitted one half of the world
against the other for no greater reason than the alliance itself.
Suffice it to say, the war was not a good one, or more efficaciously the war showed
how meaningless war really can be.
So when peace was called for and obliged upon the Central powers, it was hailed as world
peace.
Under negotiations, an armistice was called and set for an extremely arbitrary date.
In the eleventh month, on the eleventh day, and at the eleventh hour of 1918, the war
came to an abrupt halt on the western front, and quickly everywhere else.
Just to show how pointless the war was, there was no reason for this date other than it
sounded good, and Kaiser Wilhelm (the leader of Germany on the 11th) was under tremendous
interior political pressure because of the progressing Weimar Revolution.
The allies had won and the Great War to End All Wars had ended.
People celebrated and many really though war was ending.
That is what inspired Armistice Day.
It is about furthering peace and trying end conflict.
I understand that veterans ought to be celebrated (though I admit it does seem conceited for
a veteran to say so).
But why did we have to forgo Armistice Day, the celebration of a world that came together
for peace?
Well, that peace day seems hollow now anyways doesn't it.
When we look back at Armistice day, it seems like celebrating the end of yet another war
in annals of history is pointless in and of itself.
You may think that such a notion is worth proclaiming, but may I point out one further
thing that happened on the 11th of November 1918...
On that very day a tremendous little-known battle raged that is sometimes called Peace
Day's Bloody Battle.
In a small northern town in Russia, Allied troops (which in this case were comprised
of mostly Americans and a few Canadians) fought off a huge communist attack led by Trotsky
himself.
What the hell were the Allies doing in Russia you might say!?
Well that story will have to wait for next week.
Suffice it to say the Allied intervention in Russia did not conclude for two more years,
as well as several other corollary wars of WWI.
The armistice didn't even stop the wars that were going on at the very same time as its
passage.
Where was the armistice then?
Well, it was just the end of another pointless war.
So the day we celebrate Veterans Day really commemorates the sad nature of their duty,
to fight for a cause that they themselves are only privy to through propaganda.
If you want to know more about that invasion of Russia, subscribe.
Trust me, its an awesome if not crazy story, and you will be surprised to find out.
I know some of you might not like what I had to say, but just remember, I too am a veteran
and do not intend this to be disrespectful.
Tell me what you think in the comments.
I'll see you next time with the story of the Russian intervention.