WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
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The First World War was also a war against people
We recognize those who were forced or fooled into making the ultimate sacrifice to defend and preserve the One Percent’s way of life!
Militarists increasingly viewed their nations’ armed forces as above criticism. And many greatly admired such military values as self-sacrifice, discipline, and obedience. War was increasingly seen as an adventure, an opportunity to fight and even die for one’s country. Karl Pearson, a British writer at the time, claimed that wars are necessary. He maintained that nations could establish their rightful position in the world “by contest, chiefly by way of war with inferior races, and with equal races by the struggle for trade routes and for the sources of raw materials and food supply.”
“Frantic competition among European powers marked the late 1800s and early 1900s. The strength of a nation was measured by the scope of its wealth and resources, the amount of land it held, and the size of its army and navy. The leaders of many countries believed that a nation could only achieve its political and economic goals if it had a strong military, a belief known as militarism. Conscript armies grew in most countries, in which young men were required to undergo a year or two of military training and were then sent home as reserves to be mobilized or called to action when needed for fighting. Naval budgets increased every year, especially in Great Britain and Germany. No country wanted to be without allies if war broke out, so two major military alliances took hold. Germany, fearful of being hemmed in by enemies on its east and west, signed an agreement with Austria-Hungary to support each other in a European war. Russia and France reached a similar agreement.”
“In Britain, early failures in munitions manufacturing led to full government intervention in war production. These controls helped its industry produce nearly 4 million rifles, 250,000 machine guns, 52,000 aeroplanes, 2,800 tanks, 25,000 artillery pieces and over 170 million rounds of artillery shells by 1918.”
It is Far Better to Face the Bullets…
“The First World War was not inevitable or accidental, but began as a result of human actions and decisions.
“Over 65 million men volunteered or were conscripted to fight in mass citizen armies. Millions of civilians also contributed to the war effort by working in industry, agriculture or jobs left open when men enlisted. Victory depended on popular support. Some nations were forced to surrender as their people, pushed to their physical and emotional limits, lost the will to continue fighting. The First World War was also a war against people. Invading armies committed atrocities against civilians in the areas they occupied. Attacks on civilians became increasingly common as each nation tried to break their opponents’ home morale and diminish popular support for the war. Propaganda demonized entire nations and attacked the ‘national characters’ of enemy peoples. ”
World War I was a global war of destruction originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously known as the Great War or “the war to end all wars“, it led to the mobilization of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history, and also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated 8.5 million combatant deaths and 13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war. Resulting genocides and the related 1918 Spanish flu pandemic caused many millions of deaths worldwide.
And the rest is history…
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