The Treaty of Versailles at 100: Wilson's Progressive Abomination

[rangerrebew]

June 28, 2019
The Treaty of Versailles at 100: Wilson's Progressive Abomination
By Michael Filozof

Today marks the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.  Though the treaty ended World War I — supposedly the "war to end all wars" — it practically ensured future conflict and charted a course directly toward World War II.  A century after its signing, it remains an object lesson reminding us what kind of disasters lurk when self-righteous progressives, who think they can run the world, get their hands on the levers of power.

The basis of the treaty was the progressive internationalism of college professor–turned-president Woodrow Wilson.  Wilson had only two years of political experience as governor of New Jersey after leaving the ivory tower of Princeton when he became president.  A self-righteous Presbyterian progressive, Wilson detested the grubby deal-making of practical politics and suffused religious moralism with academic idealism into his governing style.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/06/the_treaty_of_versailles_at_100_wilsons_progressive_abomination.html

[goatprairie]

Wilson was a scoundrel, but the writer is a moron. I guess he thinks the Islamo-fascist forces that caused 9/11 and have killed numerous Americans and other people never happened.

[Free Vulcan]

Eight months after committing troops to war, Wilson cobbled together a list of progressive war aims in his Fourteen Points.  They demanded an end to secret deals (i.e., the Treaty of London and the Sykes-Picot Agreement); "ethnic self-determination" for Poland and Austro-Hungarian territories that would soon become Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia; "a free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims," and finally, a collective security organization, the League of Nations, which would be formed by a "covenant" (using the biblical term for a pact with God Himself) to maintain peace and territorial security of all nations.

Upon reading the Fourteen Points, French prime minister George "the Tiger" Clemenceau is said to have sniggered, "God gave us only ten."

Well played Prime Minister, well played.