A hundred years after the First World War and the Western Front in France is still a danger to all living things. It’s not just the unexploded shells and mines that litter the area (and explode the occasional farmer’s tractor) but the pollution of war.
Poison gas shells remain a constant threat as does the lead pollution from so many bullets making the land uninhabitable today. While the French have worked for a century clearing and reclaiming the farm land, there is still about 100 square km that will remain Zone Rouge.
Stupid bastards should have never mobilized against Germany from the get go. The assassination of the Arch Duke was a local thing and should have been treated as such. Saddest part of all is the Ferdinand sympathized with the dumb bastards that killed him.
Dialogue would have been the smart play but you can’t teach that to barbarians. I’m sick of listening myself regarding the Fedcoats. We, talk, complain until blue in the face and the leftist Fedcoats do whatever they fuck they want. Fuck them!
The huge clusterfxck known as WWI. I pity the fools who went to die in that meat grinder. The enlisted men from all sides should have turned on their commanders and killed them ruthlessly.
I ran onto a movie that showed me a side of WW1 that I didn’t expect….you all probably know this film, but I didn’t….I liked it very much….”Beneath Hill 60″…..
What a strange article. The dig at Fox News gives the game away.
WW1 joined the ill-fated team of Germany and Persia, who are best buds, economically, still today. Once all of old Persia has been reunited, and Germany makes the common cause (probably when Israel has to do some self-defensive tactical nuking) with Russia and its allies and satellites… look out!
When I was stationed in Germany in the 80s we went to Verdun. The bones they collected are stacked in an ossuary like cordwood. There were no bodies to bury because of the constant shelling.
YO!@Billy Fuster – the generations that died in WWI were just Men that reacted as Men always do when they think their home, tradition & history are threatened. Reflexive honor is the signal of the rattlesnake, communicating a reputation for retaliation summed up by the old motto Nemo me impune lacessit, or “No one attacks me with impunity.”
Regardless of the stupidity of WWI, Men were called & they went, in a sense of honor & honorably – in their millions.
I’ve stood in the rain, in full dress blues, at the Cenotaph in London and watched English people bring flowers to the memorial a half century later.
It’s been 15 yrs since the Towers went down and America is at the mall or watching “Dancing with the Stars” and don’t even know we’re at a war for our survival.
“Fools?”
That their were more honorable fools amongst us today than the .05 percent of the American population that defends the other 99.5.
Douglas, you’ve been brainwashed. All modern wars are fought for the benefit of bankers and the military industrial complex.
Billy,
How are modern wars different from old or ancient wars? Where do you draw the line? What was the last “just” war? There were no bankers prior to 1300, so those were all “good” wars? Caesar waging war on Gaul to solidify his hold on Rome was OK cuz there were no bankers or military-industrial complex?
I smell BULLSHIT!
And does the cause of the war diminish the bravery and heroism of the soldier called upon to fight the war?
Round up ALL that shit put it in one place then tell the FUKINMUZZIES it’s the perfect place to build a mosque!
No, Billy – you’ve been co-opted. Men die for honor – whether well placed or misplaced –
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt, Strenuous Life
Men don’t get to pick their wars, their wars pick them.
As someone who grew up in southern Belgium where some of the fiercest fighting in the early days of WWI were fought, I can attest that to this day you still find chinks of shrapnel and spent cartridges just digging around in a flowerbed or gardens.
@Diogenes – “In Flander’s fields, where poppies grow….
Why we still have Poppy Day.
I said “modern” wars (after 1900) because that is what has shaped the geopolitical world we live in today and those are the mostly the wars that I’ve studied. (I’m sure many–perhaps most–wars before that were fought to enrich the elite.) Ignorance is an excuse and there are many brave heroic fools that gave their lives for what they BELIEVED to be true, however, they were lied to. Do you think Woodrow Wilson and FDR were not tainted by the money powers? Do you think Obama is not tainted? Do you think our entire political system is not tainted? It was as true then as now.
@Doc, best idea yet. 😉
Diogenes, I always smile at the life you have led. 🙂
Fascinating.
@ struandouglasrobertson:
Yes I’m well aware. It’s burnt into my memory…
http://suckersonparade.blogspot.com/2015/05/on-memorial-day.html#.VWz3cEZJmUk
Lied to or not, they responded to a sense of honor. As I said, well placed or misplaced. You don’t seem to get the point that it doesn’t, never nor will it ever matter to men that respond to a call to honor. Every leader in the history of the world has lied, cheated & propagandized their own interests & honorable men have died for those lies. Was the Pax Romanus, one of the most productive times in out history, a hollow victory? We still live on those precedents those Legionnaires fought & died for – we, in Western culture, are still Romans.
Was the great experiment of freedom initiated by the Founders of the United States of America based on fools? These fools died for a “maybe?” Maybe so – or dreamers? For the first time in human history Men ruled themselves. They separated the divine right of kings from their subjects. They separated, for the first time, the rule of religion in favor of self rule – many fools risked all, paid all, to change the world.
Before we have civilization, culture, art, religion, philosophy government and the discretionary leisure time to ponder these things, not mention the vacuous & pondering luxury of fools, we have to have Men willing to fight & die for abstractions – like honor.
Men die for stupid reasons but they die as Men. You may judge and scorn warriors as you wish. Know as well however that they judge and scorn you. They fulfill themselves as you do not. Hate them for their pride and power. They will pity you for your shame and weakness.
@Diogenes – I followed your link. I can’t speak for those you’ve so honored but I can speak for we, the living – a crisp Marine Corps salute to you, sir.
@ struandouglasrobertson: And a Thank You from a grateful American for your service in the defense of freedom.
I’m no poet, but I ask you to permit me a humble submission for those that serve:
Once I used to read and cry,
For I could see through their eye.
But now I can’t, I turn the page.
No longer can I stomach the pain.
I have my place, I live my life,
And I’ve little fear of reliving their strife.
Still I’m drawn, and read again
About the wars and those remarkable men.
I’m no different, Just more naieve.
But so were they on their war’s eve.
They gave their best against evil’s tide,
I’m ashamed that I try to hide.
I’m sorry I can’t remember more today,
It’s hard to keep the tears at bay.
I do not wish to withhold respect.
Sometimes I try, but I’ll never forget.
the european cemetaries are sacred ground ..my god .. i have a hard time keeping the tears
from welling in my eyes ..
just wait until the muslims start desecrating the graves , because ‘it’s an insult to their religion’ ..
count me kamakaze ..
count me patriot
standing in the front lines ..
@Sturge & bob e – warriors, gentlemen, poets & philosopers – my compliments.
yeah….
The belief that ALL wars are the results of greedy manipulation by bankers is the belief in the Dialectic Materialism of Marx. It has been proven false so many times that it isn’t worth repeating.
Choosing the wars after 1900 and limiting that choice to the biguns, isn’t intellectually honest.
Tim – – the bankers financed the Bolsheviks as well as Hitler.
Yes they did.
But did they finance the Dervish Uprising?
The Russo-Japanese War?
The Bailundo Revolt?
The Sasun Uprising?
The Lodz Insurrection?
The Zulu Uprising?
The Albanian Revolt?
And there are, literally, dozens more.
Indigenous people thirsting for freedom, willing to die, rather than live under the yoke of oppression. Do we toss off their sacrifices, by calling them manipulated fools of the elite? Even the purest campaign needs money to succeed: Money for weapons, money for food, money for armor, money for clothing.
Just a fact of life that in no way diminishes the honor, bravery, and sacrifice of the soldier.