War = murder?

2 July

At what does war become murder? This thought struck me while I watching some of the events from yesterdays remember services when someone said that the dead gave their lives for our todays. But did they actually ‘give’ their lives? I’m not keen on Roan Atkinson but I do remember seeing part of the Black Adder shows where he plays a WW1 officer. He’s just been told that he will lead part of the offence the next day, and he asks, ‘Will that begin by a large artillery barrage, followed by whistle blowing before we go over?’ The general is anger by that because of it being top secret.

A comedy show yes, but all good comedy is based on some element of truth. How many times had that been the usual plan of attack I wonder? It doesn’t take long for an enemy to pick up on things like that, and they would have been out of their covered bases and be waiting for the advance when it came. And the same thing happened time and time again after I July 1916 for the next fine months. And this is where my question comes into play; surely the generals hadn’t been so sure of themselves and their own invincibility’s that they couldn’t see the error in what they were doing. Didn’t they learn anything by each attack?

That first attack didn’t work, yet they still kept pushing men forward time after time over the next four and a half months. Over a total of four years the same plan was enacted, yet it wasn’t until 20 November 1917 when there was no artillery bombardment at Cambrai when the British advance was begun by 450 tanks. A German field marshal, Prince Rupprecht, later claimed it was the first time that the British took the Germans by complete surprise. Even so, it took 17 days and the German Army had pushed the British Army back to almost their start point. They had lost most of the ground taken by that first attack.     

Men’s lives were thrown away like so much cow muck, and that was on both sides too. From what I remember of the OU course I did that cover the war, there are no clear figures of the casualty list. This morning I found this website however … http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/world-war-one-and-casualties/first-world-war-casualties/  … which give this total figure for all the nations caught up in the fighting. The list reads … men mobilised – 65 million; killed – 8.5 million; wounded – 21 million (but many of the smaller minor wounded were patched up and sent back to the front); POW/Missing – 7.7 million; total casualties – 37 million, making the percentage of all men within the whole list – 57%.

                      

It is at that point that war does become murder in my book. Yet who is to blame for it? Is it the generals, or politians who sent the men to war? That is when it becomes difficult to lay the blame, and the killers of 27 million men get away with it. Another comment I heard yesterday was that lessons were learned and no war has been as bad as that one. Even so, WW2 claimed 72 million+ lives. These figures include the deaths of civilians too, of which 33 million+ died. So, what was the lesson learned for WW1? To my mind, nothing was learned.

The sad thing is, it’s still happening today. We may never know what the death figures are for the 2^nd Gulf War simply because Iraq wasn’t able to keep accurate records. There was no plan for what would happen after Sadam fell and Iraq fell apart. ISIS is the result of that. The same thing happened in Afghanistan, and again there will not be any figures, this time because there is no accurate count of the population or of the Taliban. It’s all so sad.   

And so for today’s photo …

A general perhaps?

Today’s funny …

You know you're in a small town when ...
... You dial a wrong number and talk for 15 minutes anyway.
... You are run off Main Street by a combine.
... You can't walk for exercise every car that passes offers you a ride.
... You don't use your turn signal because everyone knows where you are going.
... You get married and the local newspaper devotes a quarter page to the story.
... You drive into a ditch five miles out of town and the word gets back to town before you do.
... The biggest business in town sells farm machinery.
... You write a check on the wrong bank and it covers you anyway.
... The pickups on Main Street outnumber the cars 3 to 1.
... You miss a Sunday at church and receive getwell cards.
... Someone asks you how you are, and actually wants to know.