Student eager to start Vimy trip

How many US Americans would know this history so important to Canadians?

Scott Morphet is getting ready for a major reality check.

He's one of about 25 students from White Pines collegiate who will mark the 95th anniversary of the Canadian capture of Vimy Ridge in France in April.

The victory, after other Allied forces were defeated by the Germans, was a major accomplishment for Canadian soldiers during the First World War. The battle marked the first time all four Canadian divisions fought together.

"We all know it's one of the biggest things that was part of Canada's history," said Morphet, 17.

"Going there is going to be a huge awakening to what it really means to be a Canadian."

Student eager to start Vimy trip - The Sault Star - Ontario, CA

Syria: World War 1 Continues

From Austin Bay’s response to Fouad Ajami’s essay on Syria as the final stage of the Cold War.  I’ve always felt as Bay below, no, this is the last act of World War 1 and the resolution of all that was left undone with the Ottoman Empire.

The current Syrian revolt, the entire Arab Spring phenomenon, and for that matter, the Cold War share a sobering (and I suggest more explanatory) origin: World War I, the Great War. Four authoritarian empires fell in that conflagration: the Ottoman Turk, the German (Hohenzollern), the Austro-Hungarian (Habsburg) and the Russian Romanov. The Western Front slaughterhouse damaged France and Britain; though decolonization came decades later, the democratic imperialists never really recovered. What to do with all the imperial fragments? The Nazis, exploiting German grievances with World War I's outcome, tried to create a super German empire, but lost. The Soviets did resurrect the Russian empire, and extended it, until 1991. Gone forever? As Ajami noted, Putin exhibits commissar tendencies. He is not above creating an empire with an authoritarian sword.

Syria: World War I Continues