Esqueçendo o Dia de Armistício

Se existiu guerra que devia ter ficado como emenda sobre a inconsistente teoria das "alianças" e o combate ao terrorismo transformado em Guerras entre Estados foi a Grande Guerra.

O que começou por ser uma reacção da Áustria a um atentado terrorista Sérvio contra o seu herdeiro, transformou-se numa Guerra Mundial (tendo irónicamente os "aliados" ficado do lado dos terroristas...). Cada nação, evocou a necessidade e falsa inevitabilidade de ajudar um "aliado", a Russia à Servia, a França à Russia, a Alemanha à Austria, a Inglaterra desculpando-se com a passagem Alemã pela Bélgica, os Otomanos com a potências centrais, e finalmente, no quarto ano de guerra os EUA fazendo a guerra pela "democracia" (como se as potências centrais não tivessem já uma estrutura proto-democrática, até foram os sociais-democratas alemaes que abraçaram com entusiasmo a guerra, curiosamente como na Rùssia) e a "paz eterna". Resultado: os comunistas tomaram o poder prometendo a paz e tirando partido da debilidade do regime por causa da guerra (Wilson insistiu com o Czar a não fazer um acordo com os alemães, e estes responderam pondo literalmente Lenin no comboio a caminho da Rússia). Depois foi colapso civilizacional a o que o Papa Bento XV (o actual Papa Bento XVI prestou uma homenagem explicita) avisou, mantendo a neutralidade, de suicidio da grande civilização cristã: e assim foi, obtendo nós o nosso glorioso século 20.

"Thanks mostly to mutual defense treaties among nations that had no rational reason to fight other, what started out as a royal family feud and regional squabble exploded into a global bloodbath. Serbia was joined by Britain, France, Belgium, Greece, Romania, Italy, Russia, Portugal, Montenegro, Japan, Brazil and, eventually, the United States, to fight Austria-Hungary’s alliance, which included Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. This madness was triggered when a Bosnian Serb secessionist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. One act of violence – over one localized territorial dispute – resulted in the loss of lives, property and liberty of tens of millions of human beings.

In one battle alone, the Battle of Verdun, the insanity of war was most apparent. From February to July in 1916, Germans and Frenchmen slaughtered each other relentlessly because their governments told them to. Germany "won" after losing 330,000 soldiers to France’s 350,000. It was all over a worthless piece of land, which, by the end of the battle, was littered with corpses and with about 1,000 rifle shells per square meter. Neither side gained any true strategic victory from the battle. (...)

The disastrous effects of World War I continued, however, and US entry had prolonged the conflict, most likely making the outcome worse. The property destruction eventually translated into global depression. The brutal treatment of Germany under the egregiously unfair Versailles Treaty and German suffering under crushing sanctions and debt made the country ripe for the rise of Adolph Hitler. The prolonged war had given Lenin what he needed to establish communism in Russia. As totalitarianism of different strains began to take root throughout Europe, Americans looked across the sea and saw the failures of foreign intervention. World War II would come far too soon, but at least, for the time being, there was armistice. " Forgetting Armistice Day by Anthony Gregory