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It seems to be a common opinion, that the first world-war was an absolutely pointless conflict, with both sides of the conflict being a bunch of suicidal morons charging mindlessly into machine-guns just to gain a few miles of land. 20 Million people having to die because an austrian guy was shot.
| It was pointless | 12 | |
| It wasn't pointless | 3 |
A lot of young people were forced to fight. They weren't "suicidal morons". Go thank the Lord you've never been through something so horrific and try again.
Europe was a big ol powder keg of random alliances and old tatics. It just so happened that Ferdinand was the spark.
Most wars are pointless. Some wars, like the Revolutionary War or individual countries' civil wars can be literally world-changing, but the overwhelming majority of the time both sides come out having gained nothing but thousands of corpses of their own soldiers
I think the international treaties put the world at war in a 'domino affect' when it otherwise might just have just been a conflict between two countries. A lot of countries promised to support each other in the event of war, in a complex web of alliances. But even without the treaties, mistrust had been brewing for years on multiple fronts and Britain and Germany in particular had been boasting to each other in a sort of dick-measuring contest about their ever-increasing militaries a bit like North Korea tries to do today, against the 'West', though either the 'West' knows better than to respond, or it doesn't consider North Korea much of a threat yet. Maybe the treaties were a symptom of the mistrust, and not the driving force behind it. I think something big was always going to flare up sooner or later.
Oddly, international treaties (NATO, the European Union) seem to be what's keeping the 'West' out of war with Russia right now. When the first domino falls though, I bet they all will.
Well, that's basically the premise of every war before that time as well. But the new tactic of trench warfare was so good that it made it incresibly hard to make any attacks that are worthwhile. And the treaty of versailles played a major role in WW2, as well as the Geneva conventions.
Well duh. All wars are pointless. War is old men talking and young men dying.
I disagree that "all" wars are pointless. But, do agree that many are indeed pointless.
A current example of a war that is not pointless is Ukraine's war with Russia. Ukraine is defending itself against an invading neighbor - which is not pointless, and the invader has no reason other than wishing to control Ukraine similar to how the failed USSR controlled Ukraine.