A War To End All Wars???

11
 A new and different war is underway. But first let me take you back. I want you to take some time this day, at 11 AM, to reflect. 93 years ago today the horrible cacophony of the Great War, the "War to End All Wars," came to a conclusion. There were to be no winners for the next century.

Europe today is still struggling for the answer to the troubling question of a united and powerful Europe and a better life for all. Germany is now in the driver’s seat in Europe in spite of her catastrophic defeats in two of her last three European conflicts. The results speak, perhaps, to the great resiliency and productivity of the German people.

But wars are costly in human capital. In the Great War, Canada, in its role as a loyal member of the British Commonwealth, suffered 66,976 deaths and 149,732wounded. That amounts to 3% of the population of 7.2 million at the time. The United States suffered 322,000 casualties or about .33% of its population of 92 million at the time.

Germany lost 6.7 million (2.5 million deaths) or 3.4% of her population.

Overall 16.5 million souls perished (7 million civilians) during the Great War in Europe while another 21.2 million wounded and disfigured emerged from the disaster. Perhaps worse, the political settlement (League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles) of the Great War laid the foundations for a second far more disastrous conflagration in the 1930s. In that war more than 60 million perished and there were 80 million casualties, 4% of the world’s population.

By 1945 Germany was devastated. She lost between 6.7 and 8 million killed, 8 to 10.5 % of her population and all her industrial base and infrastructure.

Moreth hour /11th day /11th month /11th year