"Membership in the family of God is neither inconsequential or something to be casually ignored. The church is God's agenda for the world. Jesus said, "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it." The church is indestructable and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it."
- Rick Warren
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Lars Walker writes about World War I:
Someone asked on Facebook today, “What one historical event would you change, if you could go back in history?” My answer was, “I'd stop the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo.”Amen. World War I was horrible and pointless, and it led to worse events in that bloody twentieth century. Read the whole thing, which also includes the story of C.S. Lewis' wounding in the war.
I'm convinced it was World War I that spoiled everything. Maybe it was inevitable. Maybe Europe was bound to stumble into continental war eventually, through one mishap or another, and then to get mired like a man in quicksand, as hundreds of thousands of its best young men sank and died.
But I seem to recall at least one historian who argued that the whole thing was unnecessary. Nobody seems to know to this day what it was about. With luck it could have been avoided, and then World War II would have had no cause.
Because when the Great War ended, everything had changed. The boys had marched off to Flanders and Belgium with heads held high, full of faith (civic and religious) and idealism. They stumbled home broken in spirit, believing in nothing, the germ of a lost generation. All the decline and malaise we've seen in the West since that time rises (it seems to me) from the disillusionment engendered by that massive exercise in stupidity and cruelty.
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Comments on ""That massive exercise in stupidity and cruelty"":
2. Ken Leonard
- 11/14/2011 12:25 am CST
WWI was absolutely pointless and stupid, and it led to WWII because of the world's miserable handling of the first.
Yes, I think you're right ... if I could change one event in history, that might well be my choice, too.
3. jez
- 11/14/2011 5:03 am CST
I am not an historian, but I tend to think WWI was inevitable. Europe was habitually at war through the preceding centuries, and the appetite for it was strong in the general population. Archduke Ferdinand really had almost nothing to do with it, I'm sure he was a nice bloke but no-one's that popular.
WW2, on the other hand, was entirely avoidable. Had the French not insisted on hammering the Germans after Versailles, the 20th century could have learned the lesson of WWI instead of doing it again. (not including Japan).
Bobbi: spanish flu was an act of God? Wow.
5. Jeff the Baptist
- 11/15/2011 8:57 am CST
I'm with Jez, stopping Franz Ferdinand's assassination would not have stopped the Great War. Europe was a powder keg and another spark would have set it off eventually.
The real issue with WWI is that the Treaty of Versailles was awful in a multitude of ways. It's policies toward Germany caused WWII, but the breakup of the ottoman and austro-hungarian empires still cause problems today.
6. Kit
- 11/15/2011 11:46 pm CST
The Spanish flu may have played a part in that it sicked many German soldiers. But it also sickened many Allied soldiers as well.
However, the way it might have factored into the end o the war was because Germany was carrying out a MASSIVE gambit that involved knocking Russia out of the war (which they did quite easily) and knocking out France before the US could send in reinforcements. This part did not go so well. It required massive offensives, I believe, across the Western Front.
The flu may have slowed them down enough to allow the US to arrive -at least that is what I think Ludendorf claimed. But he was kind of known for blaming everyone but himself.
Here is a letter/diary entry by an American Army doctor in the Midwest treating flu patients, chilling to read.
Here is a seleciton, not for those with weak stomachs.
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"These men start with what appears to be an attack of la grippe or influenza, and when brought to the hospital they very rapidly develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen. Two hours after admission they have the mahogany spots over the cheek bones, and a few hours later you can begin to see the cyanosis extending from their ears and spreading all over the face, until it is hard to distinguish the coloured men from the white. It is only a matter of a few hours then until death comes, and it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate."
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Another: (emphasis men)
"One can stand it to see one, two or twenty men die, but to see these poor devils dropping like flies sort of gets on your nerves. We have been averaging about 100 deaths per day, and still keeping"
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cyanosis: Cyanosis is a bluish color to the skin or mucus membranes that is usually due to a lack of oxygen in the blood.
The body was producing so much mucus to wash out the virus that it was getting clogged.
The young men in the ward were drowning in his own mucus.
These deaths were nearly always quick (12-48 hrs) and always painful.
There are stories of young men waking up healthy and robust, getting sick, collapsing in the afternoon, and dying before sunrise.
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Link to the Letter.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/influenza-letter/
7. Robert
- 11/30/2011 1:40 pm CST
My Grandfather fought in WWI in Belgium and France
and it would have been interesting to know him without that influence on his health and attitude, which seldom arose and yet...a movie I saw "The Man Who Reclaimed His Head" with Claud Raines based on a book by the same name by Edward Ludwig 1934, makes it seem it would take more than the prevention of the assassination to have avoided that war.
a link to some oreviews of that movie are here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025453/reviews
Leave a Comment:
I remember reading somewhere that the flu epidemic of 1918 is what ended WW I. Everyone was praying for the war to end and God ended it in His way.