Not long ago, every kid in America had read that poem and most had had to memorize it at some time. Try finding it in a literature book, or a history book, now.

The worst thing about it? It didn’t need to happen. This war was solely fought over politics and land. A terrible waste. And whose to know? If England and the United States had chosen sides differently, Europe might very well have followed a different path altogether. Indeed, even within historical context, one has to ask what we were thinking when we supported the Third Republic instead of the Kaiser. If we had chosen differently, we may never have had Fascist Germany, Soviet Russia, or so many of the other evils that we know have. The pathetic German groveling would not have started. The insatiable French pride would have been vanquished, yet history tells us they probably would have maintained their identity. Spain and Eastern Europe would have been spared decades of dictatorship.

Having spent some much time touring the area, I don’t believe we should have ever gotten involved in this conflict.

But only a few miles away, one can find memorials, cemeteries, and battlefields dedicated to the other World War. In this war, there was a real evil. An ideology that screamed for the death of those in its way, for the suppression and destruction of thought, ideas, and liberty. It was, though many refuse to understand, a religious war. I, and most Americans, regret that we didn’t get involved sooner.

There are lessons to be learned here. The wars we are fighting now, and that we will need to fight in the future, are they more like World War II or the Great War? Liberal media and academia insist they bear similarities to the Great War. They refuse to see that we are now fighting an ideology, a religion, which demands the death of those in its way, the suppression and destruction of thought, ideas, and liberty. In reality, our current situation bears much more resemblance to the Second World War than the Great War. The lesson must be learned and quickly if we are to survive.