The writer did, last week, offer the suggestion that the global population – or sufficient numbers to influence the rest – is never learning from its mistakes. Big mistakes, too; and none bigger, from both humanitarian and practical perspectives, than the two world wars (WW). Woefully insufficient time is devoted to commemorating and showing undying gratitude to those who did die - in the two world wars of the 20th century.
The casualties were off the chart. In WW1 (1914-18) there were 9.7 military deaths and 6.8 million civilian deaths, with 60 per cent suffered by the Allies (Britain plus mainly France). In WWII (1939-45), the number of deaths shot up to an unbelievable 50-85 million, with the military: Civilian ratio the opposite of the previous war, mainly because of the aerial bombing attacks by both sides that didn’t exist 25 years earlier. That war from 1939-45 was the deadliest in human history.
Both wars were fought by heroes but one aspect of the WWI, that didn’t happen in the second one, was the trench warfare. Many have devoted their quieter moments studying the utterly shocking details of that war in the trenches, which was about as squalid and self-destructive as any other fighting mode. If you survived the missile and face-to face attacks when either your side or the enemy attacked the opposing trenches, you would risk dying from disease, malnutrition and ‘trench foot’. The last was a condition acquired from prolonged immersion in cold, wet and unsanitary conditions. It was nothing short of a continuous nightmare.
Twenty per cent of the alumnae of Greshams School in Norfolk, England, where three of my children were educated, lost their lives in WWII; a war in which former high school students were appointed junior officers with a life expectancy of around 12 weeks. They led the men from the trenches. Not much to look forward to, though they were unaware of that when recruited.
The world never learns. After a few years of penitence exhibited by the Germans along came demagogue Adolf Hitler. While Germany gradually forgot the damage of WWI, Hitler had a go at taking over Germany, failed and enjoyed a short time in jail – a very light punishment for his treachery – then emerged to lead the German nation into the bigotry and ethnic hatred of the 1930s and then to WWII. Pity he didn’t apply his skills instead to an early ChatGPT invention, made a billion or two and retired in peace.
After that came Mantra Number One of the 20th century: ‘Never again.’ After the Korean War of the early 1950s, the United States bravely, but foolishly, launched itself into one of the biggest mistakes of the millennium when suffering 50 000 deaths in a Vietnam War, trying to protect the world from the encroaching Communist ideology.
Not necessary. Communism devolved quite naturally, making a transition to a quasi-capitalism in China, and dying a death in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), usually referred to as the Soviet Union. Enjoying fraudulent domination of the Olympic Games for decades with State-sponsored drugs for its athletes, the USSR fell apart in 1991. The decline was primarily motivated by the words and initiatives of leader Mikhail Gorbachev, now no longer the local hero, though still highly revered in the Western World. After all, he ended the Cold War!
I guess that when these demagogues develop extreme political obsessions, they apply their powerful oratory skills, not to negotiating skilfully to resolution, but simply pressing the button for thousands of innocent people to be robbed of a life. It is coming up to four whole years since Russia invaded Ukraine. They had both been member States of the USSR and both embarked on a separate sovereign State life from 1991 after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Current Russian leader Vladimir Putin (surely no relation of that darkly dangerous man of pre-Russian Revolution years – Ras Putin lol) was clearly in a state of permanent grief over the demise of the USSR and spread the false belief that Ukraine had become a Nazi State and a threat to Russia. Forty-eight months of continuous war between Russia and Ukraine, with modern weaponry, has caused a vast loss of life on both sides and a huge degree of destruction of essential services.
What next? It’s already WWIII because of the proxy counter-attack by the USA in the form of vast quantities of weaponry support for Ukraine. Thank God for their commitment and Donald Trump is surely not going to pull the plug on that one. If he did, Putin wouldn’t stop with Ukraine. Unfortunately, a world war does not get resolved by fruitless politico-speak. It’s when one side clearly wins or one concedes. And that appears unlikely to happen. Hitting assets seems to be the dominant strategy. Ukraine is smacking Russia’s oil refining infrastructure with the use of drones, while Russia itself is knocking out Ukraine’s electricity and gas supply facilities, leaving people demoralised in the cold and dark. Result -stalemate and an expensive one. The solution must lie in Donald Trump imposing penalty tariffs on Western nations doing business with Russia. Trump is already putting his foot down, imposing sanctions on Russian giants Lukoil and Rosneft. With a bit of luck, countries like India will reduce, even stop, buying from Russia. Recent cosier-than-normal USA/China talks might help too.
In WW1 (1914-18) there were 9.7 military deaths and 6.8 million civilian deaths, with 60 per cent suffered by the Allies (Britain plus mainly France). (Pic: CNN)