Teribus:

All sides used propaganda and we were no worse than any other.

Exactly, except for the pronoun "we", assuming that nobody originally responsible posts to Mudcat from the Hereafter. For reasons to be collectively ashamed, we may well stick to the politicians currently in power and elected by ourselves. Reasons to be collectively proud are even harder to find (- but some do exist!).

Keith, you may note that the Schlieffen plan was published in 1905/06, for the world to read. As you never fail to mention, it posed a case for the Treaty of London. Of course, such "scraps of paper" would often be ignored, but in this case it came handy, and the French government had no doubt about that - guess why.