'The Kaiser's Germany was a nasty militaristic regime noted for its cruelty to its subject people in its colonies.'
Course they were - and didn't the Hun bayonet babies and rape women - the newspapers said so at the time, so it must be true!!
Does anybody seriously believe that one regime was any worse than the other and that the people living under German colonisation fared any worse or better than did those of India or Malaya or Ceylon - give us a break!
And when the carnage was all over-then what?
Many of those brutalised in the trenches changed their uniforms from khaki to black and tan and went off to brutalise the Irish (where they are still spoken of with hatred and fear); or were shipped off to Russia to throw their weight behind the forces attempting to re-instate the Tzar.
And what about those who stayed at home having fought 'the war to end all wars'?
For them there was mass unemployment, hunger and degradation on the dole and on the street corners of Salford and Liverpool and Jarrow and Whitechapel.
And then the roundabout started up all over again and we were into yet another world-wide conflict; this time for 'a world fit for heroes to live in'.
And when that one was over there was Palestine and Greece and Korea and Cyprus and Malaya and Kenya and The Gulf and The Falklands - and Ireland, of course.
Since the end of WW2 our ally, the US, had invaded, bombed over 50 countries and has interfered clandestinely in the internal affairs of countless numbers of others, mostly with British support, if not with our active participation.
Our language has even been altered to cope with the ongoing situation - torture becoming special rendition, and the slaughter of civilians, collateral damage.
Nowadays the weapons used are napalm and Agent Orange and phosphorous rather than mustard gas, but it seems little has really changed fundamentally. The reasons for sending young people to kill and be killed are still very much the interests of the wealthy and powerful and despotic, and it is still the people who stand to gain least who give most.
When will we ever learn - as the lady sang.
Jim Carroll