Quote:
Originally posted by Ustwo
Sorry but lets not over generalize here. I'm glad that dolt was fired, since I rather doubt the population of England was fighting for the wealth and power of the few.
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Well, for starters WWI was touted as a war to protect small nations and in support of self determination. It wasn't. It was mostly due to treaty obligations, a naval arms race and an enormous amount of arrogance and pomposity in the political and military leadership circles of the main protaganists.
I recommend you read some of the following books for a more detailed insight into this conflict.
The Guns of August by Barbara W Tuchman
1914 by Lyn Macdonald
1915 - the death of innocence by Lyn Macdonald
Dreadnought - Britian, Germany and the coming of the Great War by Robert K Massie
The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War by David G Herrmann
The Lions of July - Prelude to War, 1914 by William Jannen Jr
The Pity of War by Niall Ferguson
The Peacemakers by Margaret Macmillan
First World War by Martin Gilbert
And yes, I have read them all. I think you'll find that such simplistic sweeping generalizations are no more appropriate to examining WWI, than saying something like "America is a war-mongerer".
Also, for the record, 40,000 Irishmen died during WWI. Many of them brave Ulster protestants massacred during the Somme, but many more Irish nationalists who signed up under the mistaken promise that supporting the British Crown would result in Irish independence. Obviously it did not, and the Irish War of Independence then broke out around 1919-1922.
Mr Mephisto