Here is Some Good News

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the First World War, the War to End All Wars, will officially end on Sunday, when the last repatriation payment comes due and is paid.

The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.

Germany was forced to pay the reparations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 as compensation to the war-ravaged nations of Belgium and France and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging what was then the bloodiest conflict in history, leaving nearly ten million soldiers dead.

But, deep down in side you history buffs must realize that since WWI was about the breakup of three empires, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, and since that breakup is still going on, the war hasn't really ended.  Sure, the Austro-Hungarian breakup may have finally ended with the sorting out of the former Yugoslavia, but don't bet on it.  And, the Ottoman Empire is still having rumbles, like in Iraq and Palestine.  And Russia is still sorting through its own Empire.

Regards  —  Cliff