A Day of Anger and Horror

by Will Wilkinson on November 11, 2009

A Veteran’s/ Armistice/ Remembrance Day observed on November 11 in particular shouldn’t just mean a gauzy and somber honoring of live veterans and fallen soldiers. It should be in part a day of anger and horror about the particular war that ended on this day, the stupid brutality of it, and the evil that followed in its wake. Of course, no continuously-existing government (US, UK, Canada) is likely to create a day officially dedicated to pointing out that its predecessor contributed to the deaths of millions for no good cause. But we have the capacity to remember lessons other than the official ones.

John Quiggin strikes the right note here.

And with Quiggin.

richard

I have stood and wept in the cemetry at Polygon Wood (one of the most moving places on earth) where are buried hundreds of teenagers from Newfoundland who died horribly alongside similar boys from Munster and Macclesfield... But

I profoundly disagree: to describe Asquith and even Bethman-Hollweg as "war criminals" is however simplistically satisfying (as with Bush and Blair) just wrong. Asquith was a hopeless war leader because he was horified by what happened in 1914, his son died in the trenches and he was removed in what was effectively a coup by the much more sanguinary and culpable Lloyd-George ; who prevented a German victory that would have created a very different and truly abominable imperial destiny for our civilisation. There is also compelling evidence that Hollweg played his impossible and inescapable hand in a brave intelligent and even morally creditable manner.

Many factors contributed to the tragic horror of WW1 among them criminal conspiracies in Serbia, sentimentalism, mass hysteria - and ignorance of history.

y81

A spambot agrees with me! Sweet vindication!

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Now I too agree that if people were celebrating the wisdom and courage of Asquith and Wilson, it would be appropriate to sound a contrary note, but they aren't.

Thanks for the great reading, we buy Gold in a recession. I will pass this on to our Ira clients to read.

y81

What is the purpose of anger and horror at something that happened 91 years ago? You might as well remember the Thirty Years War.

Now I agree that if people were celebrating the wisdom and courage of Asquith and Wilson, it would be appropriate to sound a contrary note, but they aren't. No one remembers the First World War as heroic, noble or worthwhile. Mostly, no one remembers it at all.

TheFieryScribe

For a particularly poignant reminder of the "Great" War, look no further than the final moments of Blackadder - Back and Forth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ba-64h6d6Q .

The entire fourth season is top-notch, but the last bit is epic.