Ww1

Amazing blunders, arrogance, stupidity, blindly stumbling along that brought about the death of millions and set up the circumstances that led to WW II.

 

No one really wanted the war. They stumbled into it. The 'black check' that Germany gave the Austro-Hungarians forced Germany into a way the Kaiser really did not want. But we all know what happened.

 

The correspondence between the Kaiser of Germany and Tsar of Russia (who were cousins via Queen Victoria) shows how hard they tried to avert war yet each had to satisfy his own political constituency. If anybody wants to read about that I'd be glad to send the pdf of my book on the Christmas truce of 1914.

 

Another title given to "The Great War" -- That's what the conflict was called in the early decades of the 20th century since there was no other past armed conflict with which to compare it until the outbreak of world-wide armed conflict in the 1930's that we now call WWII -- was "The War to End All Wars."

Far from ending all wars, it tended to accelerate the arms race among most of the major developed countries. World War II merely pushed the arms manufacturers to an even greater pace -- a pace that not only absorbed much of the developed nations' financial resources (resources that could have been used for more positive ends), but also most of their other human resources as well.

Billions and billions of dollars were (and still are) spent to develop weapons, tactics, and strategies that are used primarily to destroy peoples' lives and livelihoods.

It's been that way from the very start of human "civilization[?]" and will continue to do so until its very end.

I say these things not because I'm a pacifist (because I'm not), but rather as a Biblical realist.

The Bible reveals that man's bent towards destroying each other is a result of his total depravity.

The Apostle John, after being given the revelation of how terrible this world will be as its end times draws nearer could only cry out to heaven this prayer found in Revelation 22:20 -- "....Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

----ktn4eg, retired USAF/ANG