"Armistice\n\n\nNovember 11, 2010 in \nhistory and current events\n | by \nNeddy Merrill\n \n| \n18 \ncomments\n \n\n\nTom \nLevenson\n:\n\n\n\nThose final six hours of the war were surreal. The news of the cease-fire \norder passed swiftly down the line, but the fighting did not stop. U.S. Army \ncaptain Harry Truman, commanding an artillery battery, fired under orders until \n10:45 a.m. British troops were ordered forward, with instructions to achieve \ntheir objectives by eleven. German fire persisted too. Among those killed were \nBritish soldiers wearing the Mons star, veterans of the first battle of the war. \nWithin the German lines, troops waited for news of the negotiations in the midst \nof preparations for a last battle. Early that morning Georg Bucher went to his \ncompany commander to beg for more machine gun ammunition. At 7:15, an attack \ncame; Bucher's machine guns broke it up before the Americans facing him reached \nhis barbed wire. His company's casualties were light. One new recruit went down \nwith a chemical burn. Bucher comforted him by telling him how much worse it \ncould have been, how he could have lost his leg. "The youngster seemed, God knew \nwhy, to find comfort in my words," Bucher wrote. At that moment, Bucher's \ncompany commander returned, leaping along like a mad man, shouting "Cease fire \nat eleven a.m.. Pass the word along, cease fire at eleven." ….\n\n\nThere was one incident that captured the essence of war on the western front, \nthe distillation of its arbitrary violence. At two minutes to eleven in the \nvicinity of Mons a Canadian private named George Price was hit by a sniper's \nbullet. He died instantly. The man who killed him remains unknown. That man made \na choice. He was a marksman, a skilled soldier. He had just moments remaining in \nwhich it was legal for him to kill. There was no need to fire, no purpose, and \nsome risk at least to himself and any comrades near him. If he waited until \neleven, and then put his gun down, the only consequence would be that
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if one applies the Congressional Budget Office’s basic assumptions about the duration of the conflict (“a small but continuous presence”), it will cost nearly a staggering $1.27 trillion dollars before all is said and done. The number is so high as to defy human comprehension. All the numbers en...
Updated on Nov 25, 10
Created on Sep 06, 10
Category: Government & Politics
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