The lost generation

Tomorrow may be Remembrance Day, but today is worth remembering too. On this day in 1918 the guns were still firing, the aircraft still dueled in the air and the soldiers continued to die in the trenches. A Lieutenant Colonel Patton was destined for the heights of glory and a certain Italian socialist named Benito dreamed of a new Roman Empire. Phillipe Petain, the savior of Verdun, would ultimately be reviled as a traitor and collaborator and, in a small hospital behind the German lines recovering from a gas attack, lay a young, brave and proud soldier. Young Adolph, who had received the Iron Cross for bravery under fire, was willing to lay his life down for his adopted homeland (he was Austrian) and would take his country to the edge of hell. The legacy of the First World War and the disastrous Treaty that ended the fighting had a ripple effect that changed our world profoundly. The 'what if's' that surround the end of the war can make for sobering thought. What if President Wilson's 14 points were accepted? What if the US had been part of the League of Nations? What if the allies insisted that Germany surrender? Because they never signed a surrender, the Nazi party could contend that the German army never lost but was 'stabbed in the back'. Maybe someone could have given Adolf an overdose of something. Tomorrow, when we sit quietly and remember all of those fallen in war since the end of that butchery called the First World War, please remember the lost opportunities to improve our world. There was, in the UK, a phrase that represented the thanks of a nation - 'homes fit for heroes'. I've heard it differently - 'heroes fit for homes'. Remember them!