Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Adviser Harlan Ullman writes for UPI on the anniversary of November 11, 1918 and the historical significance of that day:
11/11/11 represents the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when an armistice was declared on the Western Front ending World War I. President Woodrow Wilson subsequently declared November 11th Armistice Day. In 1954, the law renamed Armistice as Veteran’s Day, not to be confused with Memorial Day that celebrates those Americans who gave their lives in battle.In the UK, 11/11/11 is known as Remembrance Day with the wearing of red paper poppies commemorating the end of a war in which more than fifty million perished. And the next year, 1919, perhaps another fifty million died in the Spanish Flu epidemic. But the likelihood of a future 11/11/11 moment to mark the end of President Barack Obama’s pledge to degrade and ultimately destroy the Islamic State seems as remote as outer space.