Thanks to war, I can be a pacifist
This summer I gained an increased sense of reverence and respect for the First World War. I listened to Dan Carlin's 6-part program on the war entitled, "A Blueprint for Armageddon". I realized that my knowledge of the two world wars had a real American bias that came from movies and literature. There are not many blockbuster movies about The Great War, primarily because the U.S. did not play as significant a role in it and no major production company is going to bank on a movie that extols the heroism of the Canadians in Vimy Ridge or the Australians in Gallipoli. In any event, I learned that I had a lot to learn about World War I and I also learned that it was horrible. This Remembrance Day I have reflected on the accounts of trench warfare, gas attacks, and years of painful and miserable stalemates and my first reaction was, "couldn't they have done something else? Was this just prideful, evil men who were willing to let their people suffer and die just to