The Breakthroughs

"The American Front" -- the motives of the war. "Walk in Hell" -- the machinery of the war. "Breakthroughs" -- the fallout of the war. At the end of the war, the characters who fought in "Breakthroughs" are divided into two diverse camps. In one is the Let's Never Do This Again Camp. Some here wanted to punish the losers, preventing them from rising again, and others wanted to refrain from doing so. "Let them hate, as long as they fear." The other camp is the "Let's Get This War Behind Us So We Can Get Thinking About the Next One." I think bitterness runs deep in both. Comparisons from WWI to today: I saw a comparison in the book between the Socialist and Democratic Parties and today's Democratic and Republican Parties. The coal board bureaucracy reminded me of LIHEAP, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and Unemployment. Don't even get me started about trying to get Social Security Disability. Back in WWI, a woman would lose her job to take off work to take care of her child/loved one. Despite current laws, this still happens today. If she works full-time, she will get paid only until her paid leave runs out. If she works part-time, she will get paid leave for the time off. There is no guarantee she will have a job when she comes back. Wages rose but so did everything else, sometimes higher than the wages.