Historian Christopher Clark in his 2013 book The Sleepwalkers forever buried the black legend of German aggression in 1914, with proof from Russian archives that the Czar’s mobilization – with French incitement – provoked the outbreak of war. There’s no hero to cheer, no villain to boo in the first tragedy of the 20thcentury, just mediocre and small-minded politicians unable to step back from the brink.
March 09, 2022
Reliving the Nightmare of 1914 (We're Doing It Again)
Dana Mathewson
David P. Goldman, who for many years wrote "undercover" with the name Spengler, offers this analysis as to what's going on now.
World War I had no good guys and no winners. France rightly sought the return of the provinces Germany had annexed in 1870. Russia rightly feared that German influence would sever its industrial centers and tax base in the Western parts of it its empire; England feared that Germany would encroach on its overseas empire; Germany feared that Russia’s railroad system would overcome its advantage in mobility and firepower. None of them wanted a war, but each of them decided that it was better to fight in 1914 than fight later at a disadvantage.
All of them acted rationally in the pursuit of their vital interests, but at the same stupidly as well as wickedly, and the ensuing world wars undid the achievements of a thousand years of Western civilization. We look back to 1914 in horror, and wonder how the leaders of the West could have been so pig-headed. Nonetheless, we are doing it again today.
That should be an object lesson for today’s Ukraine crisis. Vladimir Putin acted wickedly, and illegally, by invading Ukraine, but also rationally: Russia has an existential interest in keeping NATO away from his border. Russia will no more tolerate American missiles in Kyiv than the United States would tolerate Russian missiles in Cuba.
The United States could have averted a crisis by adhering to the Minsk II framework of local rule for the Russophone provinces of Eastern Ukraine within a sovereign Ukrainian state but chose instead to keep open Ukraine’s option to join NATO. That was rational, but also stupid: It backed Putin into a corner.
There is no excuse for Putin’s action, but there is an explanation that’s similar to one that applied to his forbears of 1914: Putin chose to attack before the West had the opportunity to arm Ukraine with sophisticated weapons that would raise the future cost of military action.
The rest of the article is here: https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2022/03/08/reliving-the-nightmare-of-1914-were-doing-it-againi-n1564934 One thing that is left out, or maybe just glossed over, is the fact that Kaiser Wilhelm's insistence on building a deep-water navy -- basically as a toy to gratify his huge ego -- pushed England into an existential crisis and led to their re-arming.
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Posted by: Lily Walker at March 10, 2022 04:01 AM (sfIlg)
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Good essay and I pretty much agree. I think he may be downplaying the economics of it a bit, and also the internationalism that is at the core of the West's hostility toward Russia in this regard. Internationalism did play a part in WWI - even then - but it was not as much an issue as it is now with the WEF and their "Great Reset". Also, the Spanish flu didn't happen until AFTER the war.
That said he's right, and it looks very much like the final days before the War to End All Wars.
BTW that business about France wanting Alsace and Lorraine back brings up an interesting point; I wouldn't be here if that weren't the case. My maternal grandmother was a woman named Alblinger and her family immigrated to America because they did not want to live under the Kaiser. The Franco-Prussian War made my existence possible.
I would imagine my great great grandparents would have loved to move back to Alsace had the Germans just handed it back to France.
I never met my great grandfather, but my mother says he was an old kraut with a big bushy mustache. A coal miner in Illinois, he was a tough old bird. Once a dog jumped up and bit him on the face, biting through his cheek. He smeared tobacco juice on it and went about his business, having a big hole that completely pierced his cheek. He had a bad permanent scar. When asked when happened he mumbled "it was that crazy dog." That was that!
We just aren't the same men as were they.
That said he's right, and it looks very much like the final days before the War to End All Wars.
BTW that business about France wanting Alsace and Lorraine back brings up an interesting point; I wouldn't be here if that weren't the case. My maternal grandmother was a woman named Alblinger and her family immigrated to America because they did not want to live under the Kaiser. The Franco-Prussian War made my existence possible.
I would imagine my great great grandparents would have loved to move back to Alsace had the Germans just handed it back to France.
I never met my great grandfather, but my mother says he was an old kraut with a big bushy mustache. A coal miner in Illinois, he was a tough old bird. Once a dog jumped up and bit him on the face, biting through his cheek. He smeared tobacco juice on it and went about his business, having a big hole that completely pierced his cheek. He had a bad permanent scar. When asked when happened he mumbled "it was that crazy dog." That was that!
We just aren't the same men as were they.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at March 10, 2022 08:40 AM (VtOU6)
3
David P. Goldman, who for many years wrote "undercover" with the name Spengler, offers this analysis as to what's going on now.
Posted by: Fake Watches at August 28, 2023 02:45 AM (OAWTR)
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