11th Hour, 11th Day, 11th Month
On the 11th hour of the 11th Day of the 11th month, the guns of World War I fell silent. And a war that should never have been fought - arguably by anyone, certainly by Americans - was done.
Americans who know their history celebrate Veterans Day not to honor war, but to recognize the soldiers who died and the soldiers who survived the wars of the past - and, hopefully, to ponder the futility of abandoning George Washington’s advice to avoid the entangling alliances of distant continents and the mortal combats of the kings and conquerers who intrigues Americans rejected when the United States revolted against monarchy, colonialism and the madness of empire.
It is in that latter pondering that Americans would do well to recognize the courage of those who opposed the madness that was World War I, a courage born of a concern for America’s troops that was not evidenced by their commander-in-chief.
Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, the great midwestern progressive leader of the first quarter of the American century, risked his political career to oppose World War I and to defend the free-speech rights of those who joined him in opposition.
La Follette rejected the arguments of President Woodrow Wilson as empty excuses for plunging the sons of Wisconsin farmers and factory worker in a European war where they had no place and no cause.
Wilson, a petty Anglophile of the worst sort, told the American people that entering the Europe’s war on the side of the British king was some kind of fight for democracy. But La Follette challenged that fantasy by noting that there was scant democracy in the British colonies of Ireland, Egypt and India. Detailing the cruelties and bigotries of British colonialism, he condemned Wilson for seeking to “inflame the mind of our people into the frenzy of war.”
Unfortunately, the frenzy of war won out. La Follette was one of just six senators to oppose the declaration of war that would send 166,516 Americans to their deaths and leave 204002 severely wounded. In the House, 50 members who opposed the declaration, including its sole woman member, Montana Republican Jeannette Rankin, who famously declared, “I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war. I vote no.”
For their opposition, La Follette, Rankin and their allies were branded traitors.
But La Follette knew the people were with him. He often recalled that, of all the letters he received during 19 years as a senator, more than a third came during the relatively short course of the war and they ran 60-1 in his favor. Four years after the war was done, Wisconsinites reelected La Follette to the Senate by a record margin.
Six years after the war’s finish, 4.8 million Americans cast ballots for the ticket of La Follette and his fellow critic of the World War I war profiteers, Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler, in the 1924 presidential race.
Along with the votes of his fellow Americans - which meant the most to the great democrat - La Follette would receive vindication from history.
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who celebrated La Follette’s opposition to World War I as a profile in courage, would tell historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. that Wilson’s scheming to pull the United States into World War I merited placing Wilson low on any list of American president.
Surely, George W. Bush will rank lower.
A president has no greater responsibility than that of assuring that the men and women of the U.s. military are called to duty only when absolutely necessary. Wilson failed in that duty 90 years ago, just as Bush fails today. That is the painful truth of this Veteran’s Day. But it is a truth that must never obscure our regard for the soldiers who serve and suffer in this country’s name.
So, on this anniversary of that distant 11th day of that distant 11th month, let us honor all the dead of all America’s wars. Let us honor the living by bringing the soldiers who are mired in the quagmire that is Iraq home from a Middle Eastern civil war in which they have no place and no cause. And let us honor those anti-war Americans who today display the courage, the wisdom and the sincere concern for the troops and the country they serve that was so well evidenced Robert M. La Follette nine decades ago.
John Nichols is a co-founder of Free Press and the co-author with Robert W. McChesney of TRAGEDY & FARCE: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy — The New Press.
© 2007 The Nation
Suffice it to say that this view of WWI will probably never be taught in American schools.
Mr.Nichols,
The tenor and tone of this editorial is more befitting intellectual comment.
We can continue to say that there is nothing more to do, or what can we do, that is, beside recycle and chalk it up to; I have done my bit! But I believe that concerted action from all of the families that you know and their children, all your friends, and the people they know, and to become very pissed off with your own complacency and all the other folks that nod their heads and refuse to look at the truth, however painful. . . .its called denial!!!
Kucinich is the rare breath of truth in this political liars game. Against the war and the Bush regime that put America there.
It seems to me that supporting him is the only bet America has. But we here speaking to the wind, are not powerful. We are not powerful enough to have him taken seriously particularly when the Russerts of the airwaves marginalize him.
Kucinich is not able to back out of their game to elect Clinton. America is being destroyed by Capital Hill in collusion with the media putting out their message. In the latest of the disasters Michael Copps former FCC chairman put up a final last ditch holding action in the final FCC hearing on media conglomeration in Washington State.
You don’t think that your living in FREE STATE DO YOU? Yor living in what could become a failed State? Surely there are a very few voices shouting against the corporate takeover and the corporate prisons, corporate control of our health and everything else that can be done to suck dry the life of a society. Keep them searching and scratching to survive and they can’t look too closely at what they do.
Welcome to my world! I’m fighting with my last breath trying to overcome general personal inertia in the face of the most terrifying abuse of power in human history and for WHAT? You answer the question!!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR EDITORIAL. DEFEAT OF THESE PRIVILEGED EMPERIOUS POLITICIANS IS THE ONLY WAY TO BRING BACK HOPE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. HOMAGE ONLY TO MONEY HAS BECOME THE AMERICAN WAY AND POWER RATHER THAN BASIC HUMAN VALUES IS THE CHANGE WE ARE SEEING BUT I AM AFRAID GLOBAL WARMING WILL CUT SHORT ANY HOPE TO CHANGE THIS CONDITION BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
THE ONLY WAY DEMOCRACY WILL BE RESTORED TO THIS UNPRINCILED SHATTERED LAND; SUPPORTED BY THOSE POOR SHATTERED LIMBS OF AMERICAN CHILDREN, CYNACLY OFFERED HONOR FOR THEIR SACRIFICE BY THEIR LEADERS WHILE FIGHTING FOR THIS DISTORTED CULTURE WITH DISTORTED VALUES.
BUT. . .THE VOTING MACHINES WITHOUT A PAPER TRAIL IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM. . .TWO PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS WERE STOLEN AND THE RESULTS OF THE NEXT IS IN QUESTION. WE HAVE SEEN WHAT ENTRENCHED POWER DOES BY THE FEINSTEINS, SCHUMERS AND PELOSI’S OF THIS DISTORTED MIX OF FAILED THINKERS IF THAT IS THE WORD!
IKE
Nichols forgot to mention Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party who ran for President in 1920 and received 3.5% of the vote in spite of being in prison for opposing the war.
Maybe mentioning him would be too far to the left for The Nation these days.
Veterans should hold a special place in society. Not on a shelf or pedestal, although at times that may be appropriate. Veterans are sources of wisdom and knowledge. Veterans should be consulted and listened to. A Department of Peace would be an appropriate place. This department could help America avoid future wars. Veterans see first-hand the consequences of political decisions made in D.C. This knowledge is essential to preventing the next war. The Department of Peace would guarantee that chickenhawks don’t go around starting political wars.
Hoa binh
Nichols might have also mentioned the court case, which made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, Schenk v. United States. Schenck was charged with, and convicted of, violating the Espionage Act, which Wilson had pushed through Congress.
Schenck, the general secretary of the Socialist Party in the U.S., had sent fliers to young men about to be conscripted in the U.S. armed forces informing them that the military draft was of dubious constitutionality and that they should stand up for their rights. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction, and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, generally recognized as one of the better U.S. Supreme Court Justices, delivered his most quoted opinion. He claimed that Schenck’s actions created a clear and present danger for which he could be punished in spite of the protections of the First Amendment, just as the state should have the right to punish someone for “falsely shouting fire in a crowded theatre and causing panic.”
Schenck was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
The question remains over how a line from such a flawed analogy in a flawed opinion about a flawed policy could become so frequently quoted, in light of the fact that one could reasonably argue that for the conscripts the theater really was on fire. And attempting to inform people of their constitutional rights should never be equated with causing a panic, at least not in a reputedly “free” society, and must have been within the founders’ concept of free speech if that concept were intended to have any significant meaning.
What is left of a society that casually sacrifices its young, puts its elderly in the street, and its veterans in jail?
Resort to warfare is the last resort of failed leadership. A “war president” is virtually always a failed president.
“President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who celebrated La Follette’s opposition to World War I as a profile in courage, would tell historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. that Wilson’s scheming to pull the United States into World War I merited placing Wilson low on any list of American president.”
I agree with JFK about this one. Bush is following in Wilson’s footsteps with the Iraq War and his assault on civil liberties.
The Nation magazine ought to be renamed Wilson’s Bloody Splendid Hierarchy. Nichols never brings the people into the discussion - except as spectators, or clients. Nichols only writes about how well the bloody splendid hierarchy is ruling us. This isn’t a very progressive approach. Real progressive discussion is framed with the ideas of self-rule, self-determination, self-sufficiency.
Dear Mr Nichols,
You are an intelligent journalist and a courageous one too, but are also part of an Establishment that you have to side with. So, you tell us half truths or veiled and shrouded truths accesssible only to the intelect of those who know the truth already and do not need to read betweed the lines.
Anyways, Wilson was brought into high office by bankers of the newly created Federal Reserve (1913) on the condition that he help launch a world war regardless of public opinion. The Federal Reserve was created specifically to wage wars and to finance them. Same thing about FDR and WWII and other presidents of other wars of agresion that followed. When JFK decided to oppose Vietnam war he was assassinated. When Clinton opposed invading Iraq he was impeached. When Nixon ended Vientnam war he was kicked out. This is the truth. Of course you can blame the MSM for complacency and sycophancy and cover-up. But that is only half the truth. The truth is that warmongering is the main US foreign policy that future presidents have the obligation to carry out and enact. Otherwise there is absolutely no chance for them to get into the Oval Office even with 99% of people’s votes. People’s votes and voices have never counted a thing and never will as long as the nation is being governed behind the scenes and secretly by a powerful War Machine.Isn’t 2000 presidential election a good reminder, almost a textbook example for dummies?
a very interesting site concerning supression of dissent in world war 1 under the espionage act
is the Montana Sedition Project. (seditionproject.net)
pictures and short biographies of Montana people locked up for opposing the entry into world war 1.
LaFollette had a very selective memory, he seems to forget the bravado of the populace for evicting the Spanish from the Carribean and the Philipines on trumped up charges. The country was well on its imperialistic ways before Wilson came along. By the time of WW1 the ex spanish colonies had become american colonies with no democracy and some horrific massacres. I suppose LaFollette was not in favour of the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny either? Am reminded of the good Samaritin, the Senator would have crossed to the other side of the road.
Not too late to get out of Iraq but to pull your head into your shell is not helping resolve the mess this nation has had a hand in making for purely business reasons.
The folly of World War I was not lost on JFK.
In 1962 he read the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Barbara Tuchman; “The Guns of August” and the next day he ordered his secretary of the army to make sure every high ranking officer got a copy of the book.
Tuchman showed in her scholarly book how the generals convinced the heads of state that the war would be over in just weeks.
She also wrote, how simple avoidable mistakes were allowed to get out of hand and quickly resulted in the death of over 40 million military and civilian causalities.
Kennedy used this gruesome example of blatant stupidity and was able to avert an even larger catastrophe during the Cuban missile crisis.
He was greatly influenced by the Guns of August and did not allow his generals to have their way, and bomb Cuba.
He used a very rare tool in Washington these days, diplomacy, and thus avoided a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.
If only Bush read books that showed the folly and stupidity of waging war we might not have these worldwide problems.
But then again Bush would have to be receptive to the lessons of World War I or Vietnam, in his case he was not looking for literature that would help him avert war but rather he was looking for reasons that would help him wage war.
So ultimately tutoring Bush about the history and mistakes of going to war would not have changed anything, this was a man hell bent on dragging this country into a war in the Middle East, he was not interested in avoiding the mistakes of the past, he was only interested in justifying the invasion of Iraq.
but W can’t read!
SEQUOIABISON,
Re: He used a very rare tool in Washington these days, diplomacy, and thus avoided a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.
… and paid for that transgression with his life.
Some have tried to compare today’s WoT (specifically Iraq) to Vietnam, perhaps because a lot of people are alive today who remember the Vietnam era and experience vividly. Maybe comparing to WW I would be more illuminating.
I’m a veteran - a Vietnam era draftee. I only wish I’d have had the strength of my convictions and fled to Canada instead of participating in THAT illegal and immoral “war.”
If President Shit-for-Brains had been in charge during the Cuba crisis.(or likely anytime during the power of USSR) we would all probably be toast by now. I remember being a student during that time as well as the confusion of the Bay of Pigs. A mess, true…..and at least the man had a brain and used it. His killing was the 9-11 of my youth….and it was as obvious then the official story was a lie as the official story of the Twin Towers is a lie. When our government holds secrets, you can bet what we hear is lies. I am old enough now to hope to enjoy what it is going to take to be free of the monsters amoung us.
Veteran ‘66-68
I am fascinated by the numerology of it all 11-11-11. 9-11, 7-7, These people are very obsessed with numbers. The monument built in england commerating the dead on armitice day has light shine through it to the center on 11-11@ 11 british time. What does this all mean????
I have just read an amazing book and recommend it to you. Blessed Unrest, by Paul Hawken.
( Not related to the following comments…)
separate post:
(From the 11th grad class of my H.S.,
the 11th grad class of my college,
the digits of my birth year = 11,
the digits of my discharge year = 11)
My guess: The Corporation is the anti-christ of the nightmare of st. john, the cultural anthropologist. What was dreamt was the resolution of the dilemna of his time, the world-dominating Roman Empire, perpetual war, miles of crucifictions, the terror of the anti-human we have now in the form of the artificial person, legal entity, unaccountable, the mating of war and profit. Merchant of Death. Merchant of Disease. Merchant of Pestilence and Famine.
…and the “religious” right, all republicans , and most democrats vote for it with both dollars and ballots.
Perhaps we will prevail—like in the movies.
Perhaps Great Nature will click on “Refresh”.
Bottom line: Love Conquers All.
The subtitle of Hawkens’ book—How the largest movement in the world came into being and Why no one saw it coming. Balm for the dissenters’ soul.
Happy reading.
buminfl,
Thanks for your opinion. I often feel the same, being a VVet from 1968. When I hear tributes to my service, I am ashamed and feel that these people do not understand how I could feel shame for my country, and where it has come since I was released from active duty in 1968. A tribute to my participation in the killing and maiming of who-knows-how-many for the benefit of those who gave little to the real cause of freedom and justice is disingenuous. To disparage those who served and now stand for peace is the height of hypocrisy. Vets for War are honored and vets for peace are chastised as traitors. It it just the other way around.
Peace,
st john
its almost over….
I suppose that it is possible to honor the warrior without honoring the war, but why should I? As Albert Einstein once said: “Killing under the cloak of war is nothing short of murder.” I’m a veteran of the late Vietnam era and I recall a certain unspoken promise that if you do not hesitate to do inhumane things to others you will be amply rewarded by the system. Well that certainly isn’t Jesus the Peacemaker’s system.
When you elevate the soldier to the status of guaranteed virtue simply because he is willing to die in exchange for some job security, you are simultaneously elevating the act and process of warfare to a level of reason that it never deserves. Don’t play head games with me, John Nichols. I live in an area of the U.S. where everyone seems to love both cops and soldiers and affords both every possible benefit of doubt. We need only review the released photos of Abu Grahib to dispel any notion that honor and war go hand-in-hand.
Real war isn’t a Hollywood movie and soldiers aren’t just acting. These can often be very violent and brutal people and one cannot blame it all on military indoctrination. To constantly uphold the canard that soldiers, because of their (potential or real) sacrifices deserve honor is like saying that under it all, whatever the United States does in the world is ultimately more just and righteous then what other countries do. And that just ain’t true either.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Uh, Mr. Nichols, George Washington, arguably the most incompetent commander-in-chief until Dubya, was being a bit disingenuous. He could not possibly have won the battle of Yorktown without the French blockade.
Give all the children of privilege that so love war a GameBoy with blades that cut their hands each time they “kill” somebody.
Ike Kay wrote: “Kucinich is the rare breath of truth in this political liars game. Against the war and the Bush regime that put America there.
“It seems to me that supporting him is the only bet America has. But we here speaking to the wind, are not powerful. We are not powerful enough to have him taken seriously particularly when the Russerts of the airwaves marginalize him.”
While Kucinich may never be president, his ideas may be picked up by the next president, as FDR adopted and put into law many of the policies of Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas and Bob LaFollette.
Ike, I appreciate your passion, and I don’t want to spread false optimism, but think of how far we’ve come: In the Gilded Age, the robber barons had a stranglehold on American commerce, the newspapers, and politicians that any expert of the time would tell you could not be broken. But it was.
In the early 1940s, the poorly-equipped and undermanned US military of mostly conscripts and the decimated forces of Great Britain and Russia had no chance of defeating the technologically-advanced, highly disciplined and battle-tested forces of Germany and Japan, or so most military experts of that era would have confidently informed you. Yet we did.
In the 1950s, no sane politician, especially a Democrat, would risk his or her career to desegregate the South and bring fair voting practices and civil rights to black folks in the old Confederacy. Yet they did.
In the 1960s, groups of hippies, peaceniks and antiwar college kids would never bring an end to the draft and the war in Vietnam claimed the conventional wisdom. But they did.
In the early 1970s, Nixon won reelection by a landslide and the Beltway insiders said he would never be touched by a ‘third-rate burglary’ like Watergate. Yet he was.
In the 1980s, most politically savvy ‘experts’ predicted that the GOP would hold the White House for generations as the country had become more conservative and Republican under Reagan, and George Bush the Elder had 70 percent approval ratings following the 1991 Gulf War — and then Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996.
In 2002, the majority of Americans backed Bush’s policies wholeheartedly and today it’s just the reverse, and that wasn’t due to the Tim Russert’s and the MSM suddenly having a change of heart — it was because, in our own small ways, by means of articles and threads like this and hundreds of thousands of others on the Internet, and living in the reality of Bush’s America, the majority was appalled by GOP corruption, Bush’s wars, and convinced that the Republicans were incapable of governing, and voted for Democrats in 2006; now all the polls say they want even more changes in 2008. Also recall that since 2004, Bush has sustained the lowest approval ratings of any president in history, including Nixon.
So I believe We the People do have the power to cause change, although it is the power of the constant slow drops of water wearing down a rock rather than a raging tsunami. Of course, it is the accumulation of millions of drops of water that creates the raging tsunami in the first place; our articles and comments comprise some of those drops of water.
I only point all of this out to say that, while it’s healthy to maintain our skepticism, things have and do change for the better, often contrary the opinions of the experts and beyond of the control of the wealthy and powerful. It’s been the same throughout history and, viewed through a long lens, we can see that life has improved for the average person, although the path has never been smooth and is perpetually riddled with brief setbacks.
I think Bush is one of those brief setbacks that has served to teach us a lesson, and he will be the death knell of regressive neoconservatism, aggressive American empire, and the end of the overwhelming power of corporate money in our political system. Look at history; much stranger things have happened.
Speaking of history, Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August” is great, but her book “The March of Folly” is downright prophetic. Read it if you have the chance.
Re: Speaking of history, Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August” is great, but her book “The March of Folly” is downright prophetic. Read it if you have the chance.
This is an excellent recommendation for a great book. It is too bad that Barbara Tuchman did not live longer. She could have added Iraq and Bush/Cheney as another giant folly, but alas it would have required too many pages to include.
tbonez:
You write: ‘I am fascinated by the numerology of it all 11-11-11. 9-11, 7-7, These people are very obsessed with numbers. The monument built in england commerating the dead on armitice day has light shine through it to the center on 11-11@ 11 british time. What does this all mean????’
Currently, perhaps, that there should be a lot of 666’s shining through the centre of offices in Washington and Whitehall?
Best, j.
To me I can see why Wilson went to war. The Germans were sinking all ships, even U.S. merchant ships on occasion that did not carry weapons, then there was the Zimmerman telegram, etc… I can see both sides, really. Wilson was no war monger, he saw what war did as a young child during the Civil War, but in his mind he had no choice.
Maybe he made a mistake, a case can be made certainly, but I certainly would never lump him with “Dubya.”
The true folly of WW I was the failed peace at Versailles. We still feel the ramifactions of that mistake to this day.
Thomas J. Comer