Remembering Armistice

Volume 2, Issue Number 45- November 11-17, 2011

International Tribune

Almost a century ago, during the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in Compiègne, France in 1918, the Allies of World War I and Germany signed a treaty to end the war to end all wars.  Fifteen years down the road, with great misfortune, the spirit of the Armistice Day treaty did not last very long in the European continent.  The Second World War took place, entangling more nations to the worst global conflict this planet had ever staged.  Have we truly learned from this immense catastrophe?  

Europe had staged some of the most lethal and engineered warfare since the dawn of time.  Whether it is in the name of religion or nationalism, the European continent has been embroiled in unending contentions that test the limits of mankind and the hostilities they have, indeed, imposed on one another. With billions of lives lost over time and unresolved ancient hatreds still looming in the relations of some, it is almost inexplicable how this continent has survived and remains an economic giant.  

There is no other place in the world where you can find a never ending list of conflicts since the first Trojan Wars in 1194 BC.  Any war historian can get lost remembering them all.  First came the religious wars starting with the Crusades (11^th-13^th century), the Reformation that started in Germany (1520-1540), the Eighty Years War (1568-1648), the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598), the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1639-1651), and etc… just to name a few.   Second, wars were fought for the glory of conquest, commencing with the Trojan Wars (1194 BC- 1184), War of the Roses, (1455-1487), French Revolutionary War (1792-1802), the two greatest world wars (1915 &1939).  And finally came the dark side of nationalistic fervor, beginning with the Post-Communist ethnic genocides that took place in the former Yugoslav Republics and the states of the Former Soviet Union, war has been part of life in this continent.

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes once said, “The natural condition of man is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”  And it gets even worse, apart from the order of society, Hobbes also plainly stated that every individual’s “life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Dark and dreary, Hobbes’s gloomy philosophy could have some practicality to our everyday lives today.  This was written four centuries ago and yet is still applicable in some society.  Whether you are in a battle field, or not, men’s natural instinct is to outdo one another for one’s self-preservation.  

Image from the New York Times

Today, the battle goes on in the European continent, but not necessarily with guns, artilleries, and tanks.  Contemporary hostilities are now in the corporate board room, in cyber space, and now in the European Parliament.  Disintegration of the European Union is hanging on a thin thread line that can once again, bring down the entire world- at least, economically.  The streets of Athens are in flames.  Greece is completely bankrupt and might soon leave the EU.  Italy is next to default.  France is worried to lose its standard credit rating.  And Spain is fighting for its survival with one of the worse unemployment rate among all the industrialized countries.  I wonder what is next.

The eleventh year of the twenty first century is about to end.  Luckily, wars are no longer fought in a global scale.  I just hope the genius Einstein can sometimes be wrong.  He once predicted, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Here is to remembering Armistice Day, and let the truce permanently shape relations among nations in the European continent and beyond.