100 years after Armistice, still searching for peace
U.S. Army Private Harry Miller described the moment the Armistice took effect on Nov. 11, 1918 as like "Stepping from hell into heaven."
The Armistice ended the fighting of World War I. The United States and its allies had defeated Germany and the Central Powers. Private Miller, in a letter to his mother printed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrote "when 11'oclock came and all the firing ceased there was joy everywhere. You at home will never know what it really meant for those guns to cease firing.”
Many others did not make it to see that joy of the war finally coming to a merciful conclusion. Many soldiers had such severe wounds, both physical and mental, that the war never really ended for them.
During World War I there were close to 40 million casualties. Behind each one of those numbers is a story of tragedy. My own great uncle, Ira Pitzer, was killed in action eight days before the Armistice. His mother was overcome with grief for the rest of her life.
There was even a book written called the Lost Generation detailing how Britain lost so many youth in the war. The newspapers there would print columns of the fallen. William John Mason, a lecturer at Bristol University who died in the 1916 Battle of the Somme, wrote "The sufferings of the men at the Front, of the wounded whose flesh and bodies are torn in a way you cannot conceive; the sorrow of those at home....all that is being piled up day after day in France, England, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey! What a cruel and mad diversion of human activity!"
The weapons of the First World War were not the only killers. We must also remember the starvation that always accompanies war. The First World War led to severe food shortages.
Malnutrition kills too and is the evil partner of war. Many relief organizations developed at this time to help hungry and sick war victims.
World War I, or the Great War, should have been the last one. Surely the soldiers who fought so valiantly would get a lasting peace. That is the tribute they wanted and which was so deserved. But it never came as so many wars have taken place since.
It is the Lost Peace. The best way to honor their sacrifice is to find that peace and freedom for all people.
As we mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, there is still immense suffering from war ongoing. The civil conflict in Yemen between a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the Houthi rebels has led to the worst humanitarian crisis on the globe. Like World War I, the fighting has caused food shortages.
The UN World Food Program (WFP), which is leading relief operations in Yemen, says about two-thirds of the population lives in hunger. They depend on the WFP and humanitarian agencies for survival.
Carolyn Miles, the president of Save the Children, says “This brutal conflict continues to claim the lives of more than 100 children per day – not just from conflict but also from disease and extreme food insecurity, which have been exacerbated by the ongoing violence.”
Save the Children was founded because of the suffering of World War One. Now one hundred years later they are still seeing children victimized by war.
Yemen’s warring forces must get a ceasefire and peace negotiations started. They too need that moment, like the Armistice, when the guns stop firing. They need to follow through on this for a lasting peace.
In Afghanistan the longest war continues claiming the lives of soldiers and civilians. A massive hunger crisis from drought and conflict has also engulfed Afghanistan.
Syria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the Sahel of Africa and so many other regions are still afflicted by conflict.
We must all start with recognizing the futility and destructive nature of war. On this 100th anniversary of the Armistice let’s remember what they fought for, a lasting peace. We must never give up on that dream.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger.