Hi Terribulus! Any chance of you standing with your mates pointing and laughing at whatever you seem to be aiming at me?

Mind you, two problems with that....

On other matters, I agree with guest completely regarding the role of historians. It's ok to believe their conclusions but that infers a) they flatter your views and b) their selectivity of evidence to deliver their view is also to your comfort.

It is clear, self evident and factual that the deaths of so many people in such a short time cannot lead to a conclusion of "well led." It is also a fact that social class division meant people respected the country's leaders so therefore were more inclined to swallow jingoistic bullshit. It is a fact that war between nations occurs when diplomacy has failed, questioning leadership in any and every way you wish to judge it.

The war was a beast of its time and to judge it by today's standards would be wrong. People fell for bullshit, were less world wise and informed and let's face it, gullible. Most people were superstitious a hundred years ago, so used to being told what to do.

No. The war resulted in the needless slaughter of a generation of Europe's finest. Not a single lesson was learned as we raped what was left of the German economy, leading to extremism flourishing and for that, the sacrifice was futile, wasted and for no purpose.

To defend inept military leadership and to judge the attitude of common or garden recruits against today's intellect is not only wrong but rather distasteful. Sadly, there are many people with the same base intellect as Terribulus. After all, without such ignorance, we'd never get tomorrow's cannon fodder.