Instapundit also links to this one, and plenty of people have responded to the myths myth. The generals were indeed mostly idiots, and I don’t know why they argue against this one. The Australians and New Zealanders commemorate the Gallipoli landings above all others because of the catastrophic losses they suffered in proportion to the numbers engaged, and the total size of their population. I don’t think anyone actually claims they were the only ones there. There were also lots of Indians. Why didn’t they get a mention? A number of other ones, that they claimed were common beliefs, were new to me: who said the aristocracy got off lightly? See Instapundit comments section for a number of other problems with this link. I think one of the reasons it’s possible to write an article like this, is because virtually all people who remember the first world war are now gone, and chances are, anyone in the 30s or younger never even knew someone who was a veteran. I call “bollocks” on the attempt to rehabilitate “quite a nice war really”, also known as WWI.
It reminds me strongly of the old Flanders and Swann song, The War of 14-18. At least they knew that they were performing satire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW1aVuGHUwk
War has had it’s apologians,
Ever since history began,
From the times of the Greeks and Trojans, when they sang of arms and the man,
But if you asked me to name the best, Sir,
I’d tell you the one I mean,
Head and shoulders above the rest, Sir, was the War of 14-18,
Head and shoulders above the rest, Sir, stands the War of 14-18.
There were the wars against all those Louis,
There were Caesar’s wars in Gaul,
The was Britain’s war in Suez, which wasn’t a war at all,
There was the war of the Spanish succession,
Many other wars in between,
But they none of them made an impression like the war of 14-18,
They didn’t make the same inpression as the war of 14-18.
The war of American independence,
That was enjoyable, by and large,
Watching England’s free descendants busy defeating German garge,
But the Boer war was a poor war, And I’m still inclined to lean,
Though Sir, it possibly isn’t your war like the war of 14-18,
Though, it probably isn’t your war, Sir, the war of 14-18.
There are certainly plenty of wars to choose from, you pick whichever one you please,
Like the one we’ve had all the news from liberating the Vietnamese,
Or those wars for God and country, be it Korean or Philippine,
Sir, if you’ll pardon my affrontry, give me the war of 14-18,
If you’ll pardon my affrontry, Sir, the war of 14-18,
Every war has it’s own attraction from total war to border rage,
Call it rebellion, police action,
War of containment or crusade,
I don’t underrate the late war we see so often on the screen,
But that wasn’t the really great war like the war of 14-18,
No, the late war wasn’t the great war like the war of 14-18.
No doubt Mars, among his chattels, has got some really splendid war,
Full of bigger and bloodier battles that we’ve ever seen before,
But until that time comes, Sir, when that greater war comes on the scene,
The one that I on the whole prefer, Sir, is the war of 14-18,
Yes, the one that I still prefer, Sir, is the war of 14-18.
Having lived long enough now to see events which I witnessed personally become warped and transmogrified to fit prevailing agendas, I’ve become more or less inclined to Henry Ford’s POV.
Instapundit also links to this one, and plenty of people have responded to the myths myth. The generals were indeed mostly idiots, and I don’t know why they argue against this one. The Australians and New Zealanders commemorate the Gallipoli landings above all others because of the catastrophic losses they suffered in proportion to the numbers engaged, and the total size of their population. I don’t think anyone actually claims they were the only ones there. There were also lots of Indians. Why didn’t they get a mention? A number of other ones, that they claimed were common beliefs, were new to me: who said the aristocracy got off lightly? See Instapundit comments section for a number of other problems with this link. I think one of the reasons it’s possible to write an article like this, is because virtually all people who remember the first world war are now gone, and chances are, anyone in the 30s or younger never even knew someone who was a veteran. I call “bollocks” on the attempt to rehabilitate “quite a nice war really”, also known as WWI.
It reminds me strongly of the old Flanders and Swann song, The War of 14-18. At least they knew that they were performing satire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW1aVuGHUwk
War has had it’s apologians,
Ever since history began,
From the times of the Greeks and Trojans, when they sang of arms and the man,
But if you asked me to name the best, Sir,
I’d tell you the one I mean,
Head and shoulders above the rest, Sir, was the War of 14-18,
Head and shoulders above the rest, Sir, stands the War of 14-18.
There were the wars against all those Louis,
There were Caesar’s wars in Gaul,
The was Britain’s war in Suez, which wasn’t a war at all,
There was the war of the Spanish succession,
Many other wars in between,
But they none of them made an impression like the war of 14-18,
They didn’t make the same inpression as the war of 14-18.
The war of American independence,
That was enjoyable, by and large,
Watching England’s free descendants busy defeating German garge,
But the Boer war was a poor war, And I’m still inclined to lean,
Though Sir, it possibly isn’t your war like the war of 14-18,
Though, it probably isn’t your war, Sir, the war of 14-18.
There are certainly plenty of wars to choose from, you pick whichever one you please,
Like the one we’ve had all the news from liberating the Vietnamese,
Or those wars for God and country, be it Korean or Philippine,
Sir, if you’ll pardon my affrontry, give me the war of 14-18,
If you’ll pardon my affrontry, Sir, the war of 14-18,
Every war has it’s own attraction from total war to border rage,
Call it rebellion, police action,
War of containment or crusade,
I don’t underrate the late war we see so often on the screen,
But that wasn’t the really great war like the war of 14-18,
No, the late war wasn’t the great war like the war of 14-18.
No doubt Mars, among his chattels, has got some really splendid war,
Full of bigger and bloodier battles that we’ve ever seen before,
But until that time comes, Sir, when that greater war comes on the scene,
The one that I on the whole prefer, Sir, is the war of 14-18,
Yes, the one that I still prefer, Sir, is the war of 14-18.
Having lived long enough now to see events which I witnessed personally become warped and transmogrified to fit prevailing agendas, I’ve become more or less inclined to Henry Ford’s POV.
Or, Professor Terguson.