This past week, I travelled to Iowa to deliver remarks on Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I. Instead of comments typical of the day, focusing on those young soldiers who served, fought, and died, my remarks dealt with the impact of that war — on the people of the Arab world and the Arab American community. I titled my speech: “How ‘the war to end all wars’ planted the seeds for a 

century of conflict.”

Beginning in the last half of the nineteenth century, the US experienced a flood of immigrants from Europe and the Mediterranean regions. Many found the freedoms and opportunities this new land had promised, but it was WWI that gave many a sense of belonging, of being fully American.

In the lobby of the clubhouse for the Lebanese American community in Peoria, Illinois, hang framed photos of that community’s members who served in the military in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The Lebanese of Peoria are proud of their service to America, and you can see that pride in the faces of the young boys in the photos. Similar photos can be seen in Italian and Greek centres around the US.

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