From that same Spectator piece, by Hastings himself, that you found and quoted Jim.
He rubbishes all of you views, and agrees mine.
So does every other historian of recent decades.
I suggest we leave it there unless and until you can find any support for your dogma from people who actually know about WW1.


"The looming centenary of the outbreak of the first world war offers an opportunity to break away from the Blackadder/Oh! What a Lovely War vision (incompetence), which dominates popular perceptions. Nobody sane suggests a celebration. But, in place of the government's professed 'non-judgmental' approach to commemoration, ministers could assert that although the war was assuredly ghastly, it was not futile. Whatever the shortcomings of the Treaty of Versailles, a peace imposed by a victorious Germany would have been much worse. David Cameron often mentions with pride Britain's role in resisting Hitler. In 2014, it would be good to hear him acknowledge that Britain, and those who died in her name, were also right to resist the Kaiser's generals."