France's Sarkozy Honors Executed WWI Soldiers

During World War I, also known overly optimistically as “The War to End All Wars,” the French military executed over 600 of its own for failing to obey orders. Most of them were involved in the 1917 mutinies that broke out right after the disastrous Second Battle of Aisne, in which the French lost 118,000 men. Yesterday, President Nicholas Sarkozy acknowledged the truth about those executed; they were not cowards but were human beings who had been pushed too far.

It is a standard rule in any military that a soldier or sailor will obey an order. Sometimes, this is limited to obeying a lawful order, but nevertheless, when the sergeant says “jump” the private replies “how high?” Or as Alfred Lord Tennyson expressed it, “Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die “ Cowardice on the battlefield can get other men killed and must clearly be discouraged.

Yet some context is in order as there are limits to human endurance. The “Great War” was the first time industrialized societies engaged in total war. The American Civil War may be an exception but again, some context is needed. During the 1961-1865 war, something like 625,000 Americans on both sides perished. The French alone lost that many from August 1914 to December 1915. Johnny Reb never faced poisoned gas, nor a strafing run. The Yankees didn't sit in trenches that were full of water for days on end either.

President Sarkozy chose to speak at Verdun rather than at the Arc de Triomphe where November 11 speeches are usually held. He said, “That total war ruled out any indulgence, any weakness but 90 years after the end of the war, I wish to say in the name of our nation that many of those who were executed at the time did not dishonor themselves, were not cowards but went to the extreme limits of their strength.”

Across the Channel at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, Harry Patch, the last British survivor from the trenches of the First World War (there also are the RAF's Henry Allingham and the Royal Navy's Bill Stone), said, “I am very happy to be here today. It is not just an honour for me, but for an entire generation. It is important to remember the dead from both sides of the conflict. Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims.” He was at the Battle of Passchendaele, which he later described as "mud, mud and more mud, mixed with blood."

At first it was shell shock, then it became battle fatigue, then operational exhaustion, then that somehow morphed into post-traumatic stress disorder. The truth is that many of the vets celebrated yesterday need help that they aren't getting. And many in France in 1917 weren't cowards – they were just human in an inhuman situation for too long.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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