Veterans Day Lesson

I felt compelled today to simply post a paragraph from the introduction to a book I am currently reading. Ironically enough, it's entitled Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour, by Joseph E. Persico.

"One hopes that so cruel and pointless a conflict as World War I would, at the very least, have suggested lessons for avoiding a repetition. I thought, as a long-ago college student, that if every world leader was compelled to read Erich Maria Remarque's World War I masterpiece, All Quiet on the Western Front, there could be no more wars. We ultimately recognize, however, that those who instigate wars are not blind to their horrors but undeterred by them. The lives lost are only the purchase price that a leader is willing to pay for objectives, noble or ignoble, especially since that leader will likely still be standing at the end. We conclude, finally, that while situations shift, human nature does not. The same impulses - gain, glory, fear, pride, honor, envy, retribution - coupled with short collective memories will continue to propel mankind into a never-ending cycle of conflict occasionally interrupted by peace."