World War One!! ..... it seemed like a good idea at the time
I see that the Conservative Party and their friends in the MSM are getting ready to try and brainwash you into thinking that World War One was a glorious moment in Canadian history. You are being told that Canadian soldiers died for Canada's 'freedom' during the First World War ... to 'protect and preserve our nation'. Nonsense!!!
Any one with even a fleeting knowledge of history will struggle with this interpretation of the pointless, meaningless conflict known as 'the First World War'.
Stop any citizen on the street and ask them what the reason for the First World War was ... and see if they know. Essentially, three Royal 'cousins' ... England's King George V - Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II - Russia's Czar Nicholas II (all three were grandsons of Queen Victoria) ... had a royal 'family feud'.
Here is what triggered World War One:
-In June, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated by a Serb.
-The Austria-Hungarian Empire retaliated against the Kingdom of Serbia.
-The Russian Empire told Austria-Hungary to keep hands off Serbia.
-Austrian-Hungarian Empire said 'screw you' ... declared war on Russia.
-The German Empire joined with Austia-Hungary.
-England joined with Russia and France... Canada was automatically at war because Britain was in a state of war.
-All hell breaks loose ... 20 million people DIE.
In all of this, I am not sure how Canada was threatened as a nation. I am not sure why 60,000 Canadians died (4000 from Saskatchewan) in mud filled trenches in Europe. It seemed like a good idea at the time. In reality, it was an idiotic bloodbath.
Canada's victory in taking Vimy Ridge from the Germans was a moment of great pride for a young nation that found itself at war automatically because of it's almost colonial ties to Britain. Thirty-six hundred Canadians died at Vimy Ridge and almost 10,000 were wounded. Courage? Absolutely! Worth the sacrifice? In a conflict involving European royal families, corporate interests and imperial spoils ... I'd say no. Again, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Nearly a century later, our government has been struggling to bring meaning and reason to the death of Canadian soldiers in the pointless war in Afghanistan. Our Conservative government has a record of praising our troops while they are in uniform but promptly ditching responsibility for them when they arrive back in Canada as 'veterans'.
I do NOT doubt the courage of Canada's armed forces. I doubt only those who continue to propagandize the 'need' for armed conflict and the death of young men and women who get caught up in feelings of patriotism.
War is primitive. It is neanderthal. Shame on those, in the modern era, who jump to war as a first option, without any attempts at alternate resolution.
This fixation with past military accomplishments it truly fascist. Notice how the deifying of troops lost in Afghanistan has slowly taken a back burner as that mission slowly proves to be a disaster?
Posted by
Beijing York |
7:15 pm, April 09, 2013
I agree. What do we as citizens or even soldiers gain from war? Nothing. The big companies who want wars are the only ones to gain. They make money selling arms to all nations. They make money by hoarding resources making it a supply and demand situation. The lower the supply the more they can charge for things especially if there is a high demand for those things.
In this day and age there is no need for war.
Posted by
Jwysard |
9:14 pm, April 09, 2013
"What do we as citizens or even soldiers gain from war? Nothing."
What about defeating Hitler and his allies? Your ignorance would send chills up the spines of those who remember.
To add to your post, BD, WWI, followed by the unjust, unfair Treaty of Versailles contributed greatly to the rise of Hitler and his Nazi party.
Posted by
Canadian Patriot |
9:18 am, April 10, 2013
@Beijing What about the struggles for freedom? Are they not wars? Shouldn't they be celebrated? What about the Spanish Civil War? What about the murder of protester in Syria by Assad? Didn't that lead to the civil war going on there?
Posted by
Canadian Patriot |
9:20 am, April 10, 2013
Whenever I encounter this sort of war-drum banging, triumphalism, I go back to this poem found on the body of WWII's greatest American war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, killed in the closing days of the war.
"But there are many of the living who have burned
into their brains forever the unnatural sight of cold dead men
scattered over the hillsides and in the ditches along the high rows
of hedge throughout the world.
"Dead men by mass production - in one country after another -
month after month and year after year. Dead men in
winter and dead men in summer.
"Dead men in such familiar promiscuity that they
become monotonous.
"Dead men in such monstrous infinity that you come to
almost hate them. These are the things that you at home need
not even try to understand. To you at home they are columns
of figures, or he is a near one who went away and just
didn't come back. You didn't see him lying so grotesque
and pasty beside the gravel road in France.
"We saw him, saw him by the multiple thousands.
"That's the difference."
Few realized Pyle had such bitter contempt for warfare until he too fell victim to it.
Posted by
The Mound of Sound |
6:25 pm, April 10, 2013
Whenever I encounter this sort of war-drum banging, triumphalism, I go back to this poem found on the body of WWII's greatest American war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, killed in the closing days of the war.
"But there are many of the living who have burned
into their brains forever the unnatural sight of cold dead men
scattered over the hillsides and in the ditches along the high rows
of hedge throughout the world.
"Dead men by mass production - in one country after another -
month after month and year after year. Dead men in
winter and dead men in summer.
"Dead men in such familiar promiscuity that they
become monotonous.
"Dead men in such monstrous infinity that you come to
almost hate them. These are the things that you at home need
not even try to understand. To you at home they are columns
of figures, or he is a near one who went away and just
didn't come back. You didn't see him lying so grotesque
and pasty beside the gravel road in France.
"We saw him, saw him by the multiple thousands.
"That's the difference."
Few realized Pyle had such bitter contempt for warfare until he too fell victim to it.
Posted by
The Mound of Sound |
6:26 pm, April 10, 2013
Can Pat .. right .. WW1 sowed the seeds of WW2. Another thing I didn't mention above was how the Conservatives implemented compulsory military service by means of conscription in 1917. As the war went on and on from 1914 thru 1917, volunteers dried up because of the horrors of trench warfare, and the high casualty rates. The only way the Borden Conservatives could continue to meet British military demands was to draft young men into service. Another black mark on the entire affair.
Posted by
leftdog |
8:57 pm, April 10, 2013