In December 1914, an observer flying over Western Europe would have gazed down at a most striking, and sinister, topographical feature. Two chains of deep trenches and concertinas of barbed wire slithered in snake-like patterns as far as the eye could see from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps, slicing an unsightly laceration across the blasted out fields of northern France and Belgium.
Hunkered down within these subterranean troughs amid the stench of feces, urine, decaying flesh and gun smoke, squatted the great armies of the Western Front. They glared at each other across a moonscape of water-logged shell craters, trees blown into twisted matchsticks silhouetted against a bleak sky, and grotesquely decomposing bodies of friend and foe alike left to ignominiously rot out in the “no-man’s land” between the lines.
<div id="attachment_848779" style="width: 441px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-848779" class="size-large wp-image-848779" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3067223-431x576.jpg" alt="circa 1914: German soldiers in the trenches during WW I. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" width="431" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3067223-431x576.jpg 431w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3067223-224x300.jpg 224w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3067223.jpg 766w" sizes="(max-width: 431px) 100vw, 431px" />Circa 1914: German soldiers in the trenches during WW I. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)</div>
The big guns to the rear lobbed their deadly payloads down onto bewildered youths, many in their teens, just struggling to survive this eerily troglodytic existence; one that, considering their innocence of life just the year before, must have seemed like a nightmare from which they could not stir.
The war, just five months in, had begun as a conflict of mobility, when in August the Kaiser’s armies, distinct in their steel gray long coats and spiked pickelhaube helmets, confidently marched through Belgium to strike at the French in a drive towards Paris and victory. But the poilus and their British Expeditionary Force (BEF) allies rallied at the Marne, just 30 miles from the French capital, and threw the Germans back in a bloodletting that shocked the world.
A series of failed attempts to outflank the other sent casualties on both sides soaring, but no breakthroughs were made, and the front stabilized. In a very short time the troops settled in, burrowing deep into the ground to escape the killing power of the new technological age of machine guns and fast-firing artillery. And there they remained, stagnant, immobile, rain soaked, miserable.
And yet even in the trenches, the very monument to man’s savagery and folly, hopeful demonstrations of the better angels of our nature could occur. And so it was on Christmas 1914, that one of the most poignant scenes in the history of warfare took place.
While the men of the BEF settled into their trenches to try and celebrate the holiday as best they could, strange sounds began to drift over from the German lines. Singing. “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht / Alles schläft; einsam wacht …”
British Private Frank Sumter recalled: “And then we heard the Germans singing ‘Silent Night, Holy Night.’ And our boys said ‘Let’s join in.’ So we joined in with the song.” At first, the British sentries weren’t sure what to make of the German activity, which included lighting festive candles on the rim of their trenches. Nervous Tommies peeked their heads up over the parapets then quickly ducked back down for fear of snipers.
But no one shot.
<div id="attachment_848753" style="width: 756px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-848753" class="size-large wp-image-848753" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-506037221-746x576.jpg" alt="British and German meeting in No Man's Land during unofficial true Christmas 1914. Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Banks Sector. (Photo by: Robert Hunt/Windmill Books/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" width="746" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-506037221-746x576.jpg 746w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-506037221-300x232.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-506037221-768x593.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-506037221.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 746px) 100vw, 746px" />British and German meeting in No Man&#8217;s Land during unofficial true Christmas 1914. Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Banks Sector. (Photo by: Robert Hunt/Windmill Books/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)</div>
Pvt. Leslie Walkington remembered the extraordinary event that followed. “And then we saw a German standing up, waving his arms. And we didn’t shoot.” Instead of a battle cry, the Germans were calling out to their British Kameraden to have a truce and celebrate Christmas together. The men on both sides of the lines eventually overcame their suspicions and climbed out of their trenches. They met out in the open, offering enemies not the cold steel of thrusting bayonets, but rather the warm flesh of extended hands.
A German Lieutenant Neimann picked up his binoculars and to his surprise &#8220;saw the incredible sight of our soldiers exchanging cigarettes, schnapps and chocolate with the enemy!&#8221;
There is a commonality among soldiers that transcends national politics or flag. By this time in the war, both sides had shared the same experiences of chronic fear, physical misery and illness, filth, mourning lost friends, and homesickness. The truce extended to parts of the French sector as well. Gustave Berthier wrote to his parents, &#8220;On Christmas Day the Boches made a sign showing they wished to speak to us. They said they didn&#8217;t want to shoot. &#8230; They were tired of making war, they were married like me.&#8221;
A common legend of the Christmas Truce of 1914 has it that the enemy combatants engaged in impromptu games of football (soccer) in the “no-man’s land” but some historians dispute the legitimacy of such claims. Although, given the Christmas miracle that occurred right in the middle of a war so terrible that author William Manchester described it as “the worst thing that had ever happened” it is not out of the question.
One can imagine the words of Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Man He Killed” on the minds of every soldier no matter the uniform, on this most magical of Christmases at the front: 
 
Had he and I but met 
By some old ancient inn, 
We should have set us down to wet, 
Right many a nipperkin! 
 
But ranged as infantry 
And staring face to face, 
I shot at him as he at me 
And killed him in his place… 
 
Yes; quaint and curious a thing war is! 
You shoot a fellow down 
You’d treat if met where any bar is 
Or help to half-a-crown.
For nearly two and a half billion Christians of every race and nationality across the globe, Christmas is a joyous celebration of the birth of Our Lord, now two millennia in the past, and yet still so powerful in its meaning and presence in our lives. One hundred ten years ago, in the middle of a grisly battlefield, in the middle of a ghastly war, the love of Christ and the affection He wishes us to bestow upon each other was alive and well amidst a scene of unprecedented violence and suffering. Indeed, on this day, at this time, enemies could lay down their arms, exchange warm greetings and gifts, and, if for a short time, fulfill the Christmas promise of peace on earth and good will towards all mankind.
But Mars is not so benevolent a god; sadly, if inevitably, the truce didn’t last.
Irate officers on both sides put an end to what very well could have been considered treasonous fraternization with the enemy. Even a capital crime.
Pvt. Archibald Stanley remembered how one of his officers abruptly canceled the informal truce in his section of the trenches. There were still a few Germans out in the open when he approached Stanley and said, “You still got the armistice?”
The grim officer then picked up a rifle, took cold aim, and promptly shot one of the Germans dead. The rest leapt back into their dugouts, and returned fire. And so the war began again.
* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a fund manager and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">three books</a>. His articles have appeared on the pages of Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, The Blaze, Breitbart, Zerohedge and other outlets. You can follow him on <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a> and <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Substack</a> 

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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The following is an excerpt from the new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Jewish-State-Israel_And-America_Can/dp/164177455X" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Battle For The Jewish State: How Israel — And America — Can Win,</a>&#8221; by Victoria Coates (December 17, 2024, Encounter Books).
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<h2>The Dreyfus Affair</h2>
While the Holocaust executed by Nazi Germany may be the most sensational example of antisemitism in Europe, hatred of Jews has been a perennial and insidious evil on the Continent since antiquity, gaining strength through the medieval period and persisting into our own time. Despised as an “inferior race,” the Jews became Europe’s routine outsider scapegoats. One of the most infamous instances of such scapegoating, the Dreyfus Affair in late-nineteenth-century France, was a harbinger of horrors to come—horrors that would necessitate the establishment of a Jewish state that would, in time, become a critical ally to the United States.
During the Third Republic, Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish army officer, was accused of selling military secrets to the Germans, including cutting-edge French weapon designs.(1) A document allegedly in Dreyfus’s handwriting seemed to prove his guilt, and in January 1895 he was convicted of treason by a closed court martial. In a humiliating ceremony formally expelling him from the French army, Dreyfus’s medals and insignia of rank were torn from his uniform and his sword broken, and he was paraded in front of the assembled officers, who jeered him as a traitor and a Jew. He was shipped off to Devil’s Island, the notorious penal colony off the coast of French Guiana, where the mortality rate was so high that it was known as the “dry guillotine.”
<div id="attachment_836947" style="width: 622px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-836947" class="wp-image-836947 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-2664679-612x576.jpg" alt="Alfred Dreyfus, an artillery captain in the French Army accused of anonymously sending secret documents to the German embassy in Paris, is tried for treason before a court-martial at Rennes. (Photo by Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" width="612" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-2664679-612x576.jpg 612w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-2664679-300x282.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-2664679-768x723.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-2664679.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px" />Alfred Dreyfus, an artillery captain in the French Army accused of anonymously sending secret documents to the German embassy in Paris, is tried for treason before a court-martial at Rennes. (Photo by Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)</div>
That should have been the end of Dreyfus, but the lack of substantial evidence remained troubling to some observers, as did the growing impression that he had been targeted primarily because he was a Jew. Eventually it was revealed that it would have been logistically impossible for Dreyfus to have had dealings with the Germans in question. Another suspect emerged, one whose handwriting more closely matched the incriminating document than Dreyfus’s. The case that had once seemed open and shut began to look like a set-up.
The Dreyfus Affair was hotly debated between the traditionalists, who saw the controversy as a Jewish plot to undermine traditional French military culture, and progressives, who believed the persecution of Dreyfus was a shameful manifestation of antisemitism masked by the anti-German sentiment of that period following the Franco-Prussian War. The new French President Félix Faure, who had inherited the scandal, became the de facto leader of the traditionalists, while the journalist and future prime minister Georges Clemenceau spearheaded the effort to clear Dreyfus.
On January 13, 1898, the front page of Clemenceau’s newspaper L’Aurore screamed “J’Accuse … !” Distilling the concerns and misgivings about the Dreyfus Affair into one resonant phrase, the headline introduced an open letter to President Faure by the critic and author Émile Zola. It was the most detailed account of the injustices done to Dreyfus and a warning to the president that the scandal threatened to engulf his administration. Acknowledging that his letter potentially violated the law as libel, Zola defiantly declared, “My fiery protest is the cry of my very soul.”(2)
Zola was duly convicted of libel and fled to England, but the case against Dreyfus began to fall apart. A second court martial convicted him again but commuted his sentence, and ten days later he was pardoned by a new president. Acceptance of the pardon required an admission of guilt, but Dreyfus was fully exonerated in 1906.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Jewish-State-Israel_And-America_Can/dp/164177455X" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-836915 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/71g7pdI2YoL._SL1500_-382x576.jpg" alt="" width="382" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/71g7pdI2YoL._SL1500_-382x576.jpg 382w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/71g7pdI2YoL._SL1500_-199x300.jpg 199w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/71g7pdI2YoL._SL1500_-768x1159.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/71g7pdI2YoL._SL1500_.jpg 994w" sizes="(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" /></a>
While justice had finally been done for Dreyfus, Jews sensed a growing threat. Many believed that they could no longer depend on assimilating into European culture, as had been the hope, but needed to establish their own state to protect themselves. The Dreyfus Affair inspired the pioneering Zionist Theodor Herzl to write The Jewish State: An Attempt at a Modern Solution to the Jewish Problem in 1896, laying out the case for reestablishing a Jewish nation in the Holy Land.
The concept was hardly new, as Jews had been living in the region for millennia and had governed it as far back as the time of King David. But for the Austro-Hungarian Herzl, the pogroms of isolation and marginalization of the nineteenth century made the project immediate and urgent. As a young man he had hoped that enlightenment would lead to the end of antisemitism. However, he came to believe that hatred of Jews in Europe was so entrenched that the only real solution was a state for Jews in their ancestral homeland, where they could live and worship in peace and security. Herzl pressed his case with everyone from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. The organizations that would eventually provide the foundation of the Israeli government, notably the Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency, were formed.
Herzl’s proposition was controversial, but it was also powerful, and modern Zionism gained steam after his death in 1904. Had his vision of a safe haven for Jews been realized in the early twentieth century, one of the greatest evils in history might have been avoided. But it was not yet to be. The gathering antisemitism he identified in European society spread into the mainstream in Germany in the 1920s, feeding on the general discontent following Germany’s humiliating loss in World War I.
* * *
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a></h3>
* * *
Victoria Coates is the Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Coates previously served as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary of Energy and Deputy National Security Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa on the NSC, both for President Donald J. Trump, as well as the National Security Advisor for Senator Ted Cruz. Coates holds a B.A. from Trinity College, a M.A. from Williams College, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, all in art history.
This excerpt is published by permission from Encounter Books. &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Jewish-State-Israel_And-America_Can/dp/164177455X" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Battle For The Jewish State: How Israel — And America — Can Win,</a>&#8221; by Victoria Coates (December 17, 2024, Encounter Books). © 2024 by The Heritage Foundation Foreword © 2024 Ted Cruz. 
The views expressed in this book excerpt do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * * 
NOTES:
CHAPTER TWO: WHY ISRAEL? AMERICA AND THE JEWISH STATE
<ol>
<li>Victoria C. Gardner Coates, David’s Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art (New York: Encounter Books, 2016), 240–42.</li>
<li>Émile Zola, “J’Accuse . . . !,” L’Aurore, January 13, 1898.</li>
</ol>

Articles de Zola sur l’affaire Dreyfus

The Dreyfus Affair: A Shameful Manifestation Of Anti-Semitism In France

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A teenager who allegedly helped desecrate a World War I memorial in Central Park earlier this week was handed over to police by his father on Thursday night and charged with multiple crimes.
The 16-year-old anti-Israel protester — who allegedly spray-painted &#8220;Gaza&#8221; on the memorial honoring Americans who bravely fought in World War I — has been charged with third-degree criminal mischief, a felony, and making graffiti, a misdemeanor, The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/05/09/us-news/anti-israel-protester-16-arrested-for-vandalizing-central-park-wwi-memorial-after-father-turns-him-in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry posted a blurred photo of the teenager in handcuffs after his father had turned him in.
&#8220;The despicable vandalism we saw earlier this week on the WWI Memorial will not be ignored, and will not go unpunished,&#8221; Daughtry wrote. &#8220;One of the culprits was placed in handcuffs today thanks to the World’s Greatest Detectives. This isn’t simply juvenile hijinks- it’s an act of desecration that undermines the freedoms our heroes fought and died for.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The despicable vandalism we saw earlier this week on the WWI Memorial will not be ignored, and will not go unpunished. One of the culprits was placed in handcuffs today thanks to the World’s Greatest Detectives. This isn’t simply juvenile hijinks- it’s an act of desecration that… <a href="https://t.co/2R8uzssIqD">pic.twitter.com/2R8uzssIqD</a>
&mdash; NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDDaughtry/status/1788724471819358410?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Police sources told the Post that the 16-year-old has no prior arrests and attends Tottenville High School, which is located on Staten Island.
A group of anti-America and anti-Israel protesters <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-israel-protesters-burn-american-flag-vandalize-wwi-memorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gathered around the World War I memorial</a> in Central Park on Monday during the “Day of Rage” protests, which saw around 1,000 demonstrators rally in New York City on Holocaust Remembrance Day. During the organized protest, an American flag was burned at the base of the World War I memorial while some demonstrators plastered the American soldiers featured on the memorial with stickers that read “Stop the Genocide. End the apartheid. Free Palestine.&#8221;
Video of the protesters defacing the memorial and burning an American flag showed no signs of police presence at the memorial as many NYPD officers were dispatched to prevent anti-Israel protesters from getting close to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where A-list celebrities attended the Met Gala on Monday night.
Over two dozen protesters were arrested by the NYPD on Monday, according to <a href="https://ny1.com/nyc/manhattan/news/2024/05/07/multiple-protesters-arrested-on-upper-east-side#:~:text=Police%20arrested%2027%20pro%2DPalestinian,to%20interrupt%20the%20Met%20Gala." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spectrum News</a>. One of those arrested was 35-year-old Manolo De Los Santos, a career agitator who has spent time in Cuba, the Post reported. De Los Santos is the leader of the radical nonprofit group The People’s Forum (TPF), which encouraged anti-Israel demonstrators to recreate &#8220;the summer of 2020&#8221; when George Floyd demonstrations turned into violent riots in many cities across the country, according to the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/anti-israel-group-encouraged-columbia-protesters-to-recreate-the-summer-of-2020-hours-before-students-stormed-a-building/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Free Beacon</a>.
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The Post reported that following his arrest, De Los Santos was only hit with a court summons, meaning he is unlikely to face any punishment for his participation in the Manhattan demonstrations.

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Gather Outside The Met Gala In New York City

Teen Who Allegedly Vandalized Central Park WWI Memorial During Anti-Israel Protest Turned In By His Father

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New York City Democratic Mayor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/eric-adams" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eric Adams</a> said on Tuesday that he would donate $5,000 of his own money to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and convictions of the vandals who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-israel-protesters-burn-american-flag-vandalize-wwi-memorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trashed</a> a World War I memorial in Central Park. 
Adams’s promise comes after New York’s monument to the 107th U.S. Infantry was vandalized by anti-Israel protesters on Monday with graffiti that read “Gaza” and “Palestine will be free.” Protesters also burned an American flag and plastered the memorial with stickers with messages like “Stop the Genocide. End the apartheid. Free Palestine.”
“In spite of the unpopular notion, I’m going to say it: I love America,” Adams said during a press conference in front of the memorial, <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/05/07/us-news/mayor-adams-donates-5g-of-own-money-toward-reward-targeting-war-memorial-vandals-we-cannot-remain-silent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the New York Post.  
“We cannot remain silent when our symbols of freedom are desecrated by individuals who clearly hate our country and way of life,” he added. “I am not going to remain silent because our silence gives the belief that everything is OK.”
The monument to the 107th Infantry, first <a href="https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/107th-united-states-infantry#:~:text=The%20107th%20United%20States%20Infantry,in%20the%20throes%20of%20battle." target="_blank" rel="noopener">dedicated</a> in September 1927, pays tribute to the members of the unit’s Seventh Regiment who were vital in breaking Germany’s Hindenburg Line during the final months of World War I. The Seventh Regiment <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/news/294676/ny-national-guard-soldiers-brokethe-hindenburg-line-100-years-ago#:~:text=One%20unit%2C%20the%20107th%20Infantry,Soldiers%20who%20began%20the%20battle." target="_blank" rel="noopener">had</a> an incredibly high casualty count  — with 396 men killed and 753 wounded out of 1,662 soldiers who fought. The monument was designed by Karl Illava, who served as a sergeant with the infantry. 
“The 107th United States Infantry memorial in Central Park is a symbol of the freedoms so many fought and died for — the same freedoms many are abusing with cowardly acts of vandalism,” Adams <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1787959951698108900" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “We cannot allow these symbols to be desecrated by some in our city wanting to cause chaos and disorder.”
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The mayor added that arresting the individuals responsible for the vandalism was a top priority for the New York Police Department (NYPD), which was running down several leads. New York Crime Stoppers is offering an additional $10,000 reward for information on the vandalism.
 A monument honoring Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, a leader in the Union Army during the Civil War, was also vandalized in Central Park on Monday evening.
The anti-Israel protests in New York City were part of an organized “Day of Rage” demonstration that took place near the Met Gala, where celebrities gathered for the annual Costume Institute Benefit. It also fell on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Zach Jewell contributed to this report.

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‘I Love America’: Eric Adams Offering Reward For Info On Vandals Who Trashed World War I Memorial

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The last of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed last week at a Kentucky munitions plant, the Pentagon said Monday. 
In 1986, Congress ordered the destruction of America’s chemical weapons, and 11 years later, the U.S. joined 192 countries in the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997, requiring the weapons’ complete elimination by September 30 of this year, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/10/chemical-weapons-pentagon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Chemical weapons were first used on a large scale in the trenches of Europe during World War I, causing horrifying deaths through suffocation and wrecking of the nervous system. 
At its peak, America’s chemical weapons stockpile reached 30,000 metric tons, requiring the country to take decades to destroy the weapons while seeking the safest way to eliminate the chemical agents. 
“Destroying the remainder posed a greater challenge because it involved the more complicated approach of neutralizing these munitions’ chemicals,” said Douglas Bush, an Army assistant secretary. 
The final chemical weapon to be destroyed was a rocket filled with a nerve agent called sarin, “one of the most toxic of the known chemical warfare agents,” <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750001.html#:~:text=Sarin%20(military%20designation%20GB)%20is,the%20skin%20can%20be%20fatal." target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC says that just 1 to 10 mL of sarin can be fatal, and the chemical is even more dangerous because it is odorless and tasteless. During World War I, chemicals such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas killed approximately 100,000 people, according to the United Nations, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4089820-us-destroys-last-of-its-chemical-weapons-ending-decades-long-effort/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.  
Last month, the U.S. military destroyed the last of its mustard gas-filled projectiles and mortars at a destruction facility in Pueblo, Colorado. The U.S. was the final signatory of the convention to have reportedly destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile, but U.S. officials question if China and Russia followed through on their pledge. 
“We have questions about some of the destruction of China’s stockpile,” said Mallory Stewart, the assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance. “We also have concerns, specifically, with respect to the undeclared chemical weapons that Russia is maintaining.”
America’s destruction of its last chemical weapon comes as the Biden administration approved sending controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine last week. Ukraine, now engaged in a counter-offensive against Russian forces, is set to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-to-send-cluster-bombs-to-ukraine-bypassing-u-s-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">receive</a> a round of cluster bombs from the Biden administration in a drawdown of weapons that bypasses U.S. law. 
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Despite American law prohibiting the production, use, or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1%, President Joe Biden is able to bypass the law through a rarely used provision of the Foreign Assistance Act, The Washington Post reported.
Cluster bombs, first developed and used during World War II, are banned by most countries due to the view that they are inhumane because of high failure rates and unexploded fragments that can linger for years, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66134663" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the BBC.

Gasmask and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) suit

U.S. Destroys Last Chemical Weapon, Pentagon Says

Biden Administration

Chemicals

Global Politics

Pentagon

The first <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-navy">U.S. Navy</a> destroyer to be sunk in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-history">American history</a> has been found by divers off the coast of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/england">England</a>. 
The ship, the Jacob Jones, was a Tucker-class destroyer that was sunk on December 6, 1917, after being struck by a torpedo while traveling to Ireland from France. 
“We found the Jacob Jones, the first U.S. destroyer to be sunk, ever, and the first major casualty for the U.S. Navy-wise in WWI. It’s an incredible achievement,” 39-year-old U.K. diver Will Schwarz <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/08/18/divers-find-wwi-navy-destroyer-the-first-to-be-sunk-by-enemy-fire/">told</a> the Military Times. 
The group of U.K. divers first announced their find last week on Facebook, and they said that they would be working with the U.S. Embassy on next steps now that the ship has been found. 
“She lies in 120M of water 60 miles south of Newlyn, Cornwall. We based ourselves there and everyone has been excellent,” diver Steve Mortimer posted alongside a picture of a portion of the ship’s wreckage. 
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The group of divers, whose group is called Darkstar, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/world/europe/us-navy-destroyer-shipwreck.html">found</a> the fallen ship 400 feet under the surface on August 11. They were able to find a bell and the ship’s gun mount during their 20 minutes of exploring the wreck. One of the divers said that they cheered and gave each other high fives upon finding the Jacob Jones. 
The divers were also aware of the somber nature of the find, according to Rick Ayrton, a retired dentist who was part of the diving team. 
“For all of our excitement and adventure now, they were fighting a life-and-death struggle over a hundred years ago,” he said. 
The Jacob Jones, under the command of David W. Bagley, was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine while traveling from Brest, France, to Queenstown, Ireland. Sixty-four men of the 110-man crew died when the ship went down, including two officers. Within eight minutes of being struck, the ship had sunk, making it the first destroyer to go down in American history, <a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/uss-jacob-jones-dd-61.html">according</a> to Naval History and Heritage Command.
“It’s a really big deal, to be blunt,” naval historian Michael Lowrey said. “The U.S. Navy got into World War I late, and they didn’t lose a lot of major ships. The one destroyer they lost in combat was the Jacob Jones.”
Those who did so either survived by holding on to ship debris or in life rafts for hours in the cold Atlantic water. Lieutenant Stanton F. Kalk died of exhaustion and exposure after helping many men into life rafts. He was given the Navy Distinguished Service Award posthumously. 
British ships helped save the survivors of the wreck throughout the night, but the ship itself was never recovered or found until this month. 
The ship was named after early American Naval hero <a href="https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/06/jacob-jones-the-revolutionary-making-of-a-naval-hero/">Jacob Jones</a>, who served during several of the nation’s early conflicts, including the fights with the Barbary Pirates and the War of 1812.

Female Diver – Palau, Micronesia

World War I Destroyer, Named After American Naval Hero, Found 100 Years After Being Sunk

American World War I Destroyer, Named After Naval Hero, Found 100 Years After Being Sunk

England

U.S. Navy

A new monument was announced in Rhode Island for a World War I hero who died fighting in France during the war. The monument will replace one that was destroyed over the summer.
The original monument to Italian American Carlo Lafazia was vandalized over the summer in Providence, Rhode Island. The vandal was never identified or arrested.
“I was shocked and saddened when I learned that the Lafazia Square Monument was damaged beyond repair this past summer. Carlo Lafazia made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and he and his family deserve the utmost respect and honor, as do all of our veterans, even 100 years later,” <a href="https://council.providenceri.gov/2021/10/21/city-council-honors-memory-of-world-war-i-veteran-carlo-lafazia-with-restored-monument-and-ceremonial-street-designation/">said</a> city Councilman David Salvatore.
He continued, “Lafazia represents the history of Italian immigrants in our city and their indelible contribution to our city, state and nation.”
In honor of Lafazia, who was from Providence, a resolution to name part of the street where the new monument will be placed as “LaFazia Way” was approved by the town’s city council. The resolution was passed on October 7.
Lafazia fought with the 16th Infantry Division, first landing in France in 1917. Just a month before an armistice to effectively end the war was agreed to in 1918, Lafazia was killed in the line of duty on October 11, 1918. He had been participating in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a part of the Western Front in France.
“Several years after the war ended, the United States disinterred the bodies of 14,000 American soldiers from French cemeteries so that they could be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Sadly, Carlo Lafazia was not among them, and could not be laid to rest at home because his remains were never found,” said the nephew of Lafazia, Jeremiah C. O’Connor Sr.
“While his memory was not afforded that honor, thanks to the Providence City Council and the City of Providence Special Committee for the Review of Commemorative Works, Carlo Lafazia’s sacrifice will not be forgotten,” he continued.
Dubbed in 1933 by the town as an “Emblem of Italian loyalty to the Stars and Stripes,” Lafazia was a first generation American, with his parents coming from Italy. O’Connor noted that the base of the monument had served as a sort of de facto grave for his uncle, as his body was never recovered.
“What we have now is a war that’s been forgotten, the men that died and suffered in that war who’ve been forgotten, and I don’t think that Carlo should be one of those,” O’Connor said, <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2021/10/21/monument-providence-world-war-veteran-destroyed-replaced/6118675001/">according</a> to The Providence Journal. “Not as long as I’m alive he won’t be.”
Local officials hope that the rededication will provide expanded opportunities to learn about World War I and their community’s participation in it.
“We’re going to relocate it to a new area that is going to allow for an education opportunity, first and foremost about the history of Private Lafazia and the contributions that he made, and secondly, some of the history around World War I and what that meant to the Eagle Park community and to Rhode Island as a whole,” Salvatore explained.
The new monument is slated to be finished by 2022.

World War One

World War I Hero Gets New Monument After Old One Destroyed Last Summer

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