Jump to content

100 Years since the start of World War I


lapal_fan

Recommended Posts

Really disappointed with the tv coverage of all this...

I'm rather disappointed at the tone of some of the coverage. It's verging on the celebratory from what I've seen. I feel like I've been taken back to school remembrance services.
Celebratory, and also superficial.

There's some interesting talks and papers by Terry Boardman on the net, looking at the events leading up to the war, the strategic significance of the Ukraine (and parallels with the current created crisis), and the steps that were taken to sideline or kill potential peacemakers who were working to avoid war. Another parallel there would be Israel's murder a couple of years back of the Hamas leader who was about to sign a peace deal; not something which fitted the longer-term plan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder how willing people would have been to go and fight if the Internet was around back then.

 

do you mean in this sense - 

 

image036.jpg

 

image037.jpg

 

either way, i dont think the masses would be deterred by a cause or great leadership, the internet would work both ways, WW1 people might have looked at the reality of it and declined to join up, apply the reality to WW2 though and how many do you think would sign up?

Edited by villa4europe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder how willing people would have been to go and fight if the Internet was around back then.

 

This is really quite relevant now.

 

An entire region has kicked off, largely due to meddling from the West.

There's talk of troops going back in again.

To do what? Clear up the mess? Like the last few attempts?

 

But Squaddie is literate and has IT.

 

News of bankers bonuses, whilst picking your way through booby traps in Afghanistan, must be quite annoying.

Seeing veterans killing themselves after getting caught up in the Ian Duncan Smith disaster, must leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

Looking back, oil did seem to get more of a priority than stabilising the region.

 

Awol is probably right about a big scrap coming.

 

Is it a coincidence politicians and media seem to be bigging up the army and adding some shine to WWI?

Edited by Xann
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder how willing people would have been to go and fight if the Internet was around back then.

 

I am not sure it was a problem of a shortage of information but rather a question of attitude.

 

They certainly would have been aware that 700 000 Americans had died in the American Civil War and that Germany had the best part of 3m troops, which had completely routed the French in Franco-Prussian war and Great Britain had lost 20 000 troops, a few years earlier, fighting a few farmers in the Transvaal.

 

So it would seem that they had more than enough information but as the pre-eminent global super-power, especially on the seas, their attitudes were probably rather more bellicose and jungoistic, than we can quite imagine today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are some interesting quotes in The Times today from the 9th of August 1914 issue.

 

Two Archbishops endorse the declaration of war; one appeals to young men to be as manly as Christ and the other bases his recommendation on the integrity of the Foreign Secretary, a certain Viscount Grey, who had secretly promised the French support against the Germans, and who had threatened to resign if the cabinet did not agree to British intervention. 

 

So we have two beliefs which would be impossible to imagine today; that killing Germans is being like Jesus and that the dignity of the Foreign Secretary is worth killing and dying for.

Edited by MakemineVanilla
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We still have military chaplains, which, in itself, invalidates the churches' credibility.

 

Tales of Woodbine Willie have a lot of sentimental appeal, until you read on about his strange obsession with the pleasures of using the bayonet: almost certainly spoofed with the Clive Dunn character's famous 'They don't like it up 'em!'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

re. Mr Mooney's post ; I guess that in time of war, particularly if mortally  wounded, one might gain succour from the words of a well-meaning clergyman. 

 

That's the way they justify it. But it goes beyond that. They are uniformed, paid by the army, and bless troops going into battle. 

 

I would have a little more respect if the clergy unequivocally refused to have anything to do with the military, on the basis that Jesus was supposedly a pacifist and that killing is a sin. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â