When
WWI ended, European society would be forever broken. It has not
recovered. Right now, demographic rates show that Europe is not
even reproducing itself at replacement levels. Europe has
lost the will to live.
Patriotism is all
but dead in Western Europe.
Religion is dead. Most West European nations are nowhere near
American church attendance.
It is easy for us Americans to criticize the Europeans; but we did not
go through the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and
World War II in our own backyard. 58,000 dead in Vietnam over
a decade was enough to bring us Americans to social disruption.
Europe saw that many die in one day during the Napoleonic
Wars at Borodino.
... Russian forces
fought Napoleon's men in the apocalyptic Battle of Borodino,
leaving 70,000 people dead - LA TIMES
Starting in 1914, Western Civilization collapsed. Even the
victory of 1918 by the Allies could not hide the damage.
Since then, despite its rising prosperity, the West has lost the will
to live… as evinced by it collapsing demographic – and abortion
rates where the West kills its unborn.
The White race went
from being supremacists to having an inferiority complex.
We in America are presently the last redoubt of the West. We may
not be in as severe a retreat as the rest of the West, but we are
retreating. We have to do some serious soul searching if Western
Civilization is to survive. Europe may be lost.
A hundred years after 1914, on the anniversary of the disaster, the
West has to change its attitude and policies. [
Full
Article]
Looks like Frenchy died a happy warrior though.
ReplyDeleterighty gomez
Certainly gives you a different perspective. Especially the part about the French and WWII--I'd never thought about it that way.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever get the chance to visit Kansas City, three places you need to visit: Oklahoma Joe's BBQ (the best in KC), Mount Moriah Cemetery (to piss on Walter Cronkite's grave) and the National WWI Museum. The museum's incredible--we spent 6 hours there and plan to go back soon--but very depressing.
Europe was rotten long before 1914.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think there was so much 19thC migration to America?
Oh yeah, and screw that pseudo-fascist racist (Progressive) Wilson.
My grandfather was in France for 18 months with the AEF 42nd (Rainbow) Division. In 9 months of combat, they were actively engaged with the enemy for all but a few days, and their 28,000 man division had nearly 16,000 casualties in that time from gas, artillery, small arms and even bayonets.
ReplyDeleteI have his diary and a number of letters and all his letters but one say little about his nine months of combat, except an occasional comment like "the Boche have plenty of gas and shrapnel and play a lively tune around us". Most of the content is only day-to-day small talk about how people are doing and his often strange accommodations, as if he were simply in the army, without a war going on around him. That one letter is very moving, speaking volumes of his experience in just a few sentences.
After the Armistice, he wrote a letter to his mother on Nov 13, 1918, in which he stated "I suppose you heard the big news of two days ago. The French made a big thing of it, but most of the Americans just sighed and said 'Well, that's good.' After the horrors I’ve seen and the hell I've been through steadily since last February, I hold you and Pop much dearer to me now than ever before. It sure does make a fellow think…."
That's from nine months in hell. Imagine how other men from other nations felt, having been subjected to that same hell for four years, not 'just' nine months. Imagine how their families felt, reading enormous casualty lists day after day for four years. It must have been like our own ACW, but on a much larger scale.
I still damn Wilson for ruining the lives of both of my grandfathers, cheating me from knowing them. I realize most men coped well afterwards, but some did not, including my grandfathers, and all that blood and treasure was spent for one man's ego in a war we had no business getting involved in, a spat between inbred cousins that killed millions.
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick
Wow Dick, you oughta publish that there
ReplyDeleteOutstanding Tailgunner - Anymouse
ReplyDeleteIf bloody war were the reason for Europe's downfall they'd have gone the way of the dodo several hundred years ago.
ReplyDelete"you oughta publish that there"
ReplyDelete"Outstanding Tailgunner"
Thanks fellas - Rodger, check your mail.
My garndfather served in the 1st South African Brigade at Delville Wood in July 1916. 1,200 men marched in; 120 marched out. (He wasn't one of those; he'd been shot and bayoneted, and carried out on a stretcher.)
ReplyDeleteAnd as for France: they lost the Battle of France in 1940 when they fought the Battle of Verdun in 1916.
No other war, before or since, has caused such damege to a civilization. Not even close.
Kim
Since it's about time you wrote another book Kim --- ahem.
ReplyDelete