Remembering WW 1

From USA Today:
"Obama honors the dead of World War I"

President Obama paid tribute Wednesday to those who gave their lives during the First World War a century ago, walking among the crosses at Flanders Field in Belgium. "The lessons of that war speak to us still," Obama said. The president, noting that World War I included the first use of chemical weapons, cited contemporary international efforts to remove chemical weapons from Syria. "And so this visit, this hallowed ground, reminds us that we must never, ever take our progress for granted." Obama said. "We must commit perennially to peace, which binds us across oceans." The year 2014 marks the centennial of the start of World War I. Obama toured Flanders Field with Belgian King Philippe and Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. During the ceremony, Philippe said that "we remember and honor all those who took part in the First World War and who were killed or maimed, and those who, even if they survived, were often scarred forever by the dreadful experience. We will always be grateful for the sacrifice." Philippe also described that brutal war as "the acid bath in which many of the old beliefs were dissolved." In his remarks, Obama noted that, in the years since, Americans and Belgians "have stood shoulder-to-shoulder" in conflicts ranging from the second world war to the Cold War to Afghanistan and Libya. Obama also discussed the famous poem about the grave site — "In Flanders fields, the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row" — and stressed the final lines that quote from the dead: "To you from failing hands we throw/The torch; be yours to hold it high/If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields." Obama, referring to a response to that poem written by an American school teacher, told the mourners: "To all who sleep here, we can say we caught the torch. We kept the faith, and Americans and Belgians will always stand together for freedom, for dignity, and for the triumph of the human spirit."

^ It is important for the US to remember World War 1 - not only because it is 100 years since it started for Europe (the US didn't enter until 1917) but because it led to World War 2 which led to our current world. One thing I didn't like is Obama talking about Syria and the gas used there with the gas used during World War 1. Obama had said that if the Syrian Government uses chemical weapons on their own people they would be "crossing a line." Needless to say they used the chemical weapons, crossed the line, and the US and the world did nothing but say they shouldn't have. Obama was weak with Syria and shouldn't have brought it up while remembering World War 1 (when the US was strong and did what was right.) ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/03/26/obama-flanders-fields-belgium-world-war-i/6902317/