World War I, The Great War, 1914-1918, really is one of the most poignant chapters in America’s extraordinary history.

1) Imagine – America gathers up a million troops and throws them at another continent where wages an atrocious, industrial war that Americans have no fight in.

2) This war has consumed the unbelievable tally of 47 million lives in four years, and the two sides are still raising troops with no end to the bloody stalemate in sight.

3) The war is really about no important principle – not freedom, not democracy, it’s really about European ego.

4) Unlike WWII, neither side, Allie or Axis, is slaughtering innocent people or has any crazy political or racial vision to do so, and the people of both sides are perfectly content with their governments.

5) In this hellacious balance of power, there is no telling how much longer the egos would have kept butchering their armies; the only force on the planet that could tip the scales to bring an end was the United States.

6) Americans did so, in about six months, at the cost of 160 thousand lives.

Now, 100 years after the last gun fell quiet – take a moment today to see some corner of your nation from a height, and meditate for a minute on the land before you and the astonishing accomplishments we Americans are part of.

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image via WinchWeb (Pixabay