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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Was WW1 pointless or beneficial?


bkristof

Was WW1 a futile waste?  

36 members have voted

  1. 1. Was WW1 a futile waste?

    • -Yes, it was a futile waste of life and effort
      6
    • -No, it changed Europe in a positive way
      5
    • 50 / 50 The sacrifice was enormous but the results were positive
      6
    • None of the above
      7


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What do you think about it?

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None of the above.

It was tragic, it was a defining moment of history, it shaped a short century to come and closed off a long century past.

Meaningless, no, I cannot agree with that, otherwise all this is meaningless too.

It shaped Europe whether for the better(6 million murdered in camps would say not).

It was history, our past, who says we ever learn from it...... :unsure:

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i like to edit the choises, but i can't...

sorry

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Guest Brummy

It was just so inevitable, and when you look at the politics of the day, surprising that it had not happened earlier.

Brum

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How can such a complex event be meaningless? The Great War (like most conflicts) had both positive and negative outcomes in terms of politics, society, the economy, even the arts. And this is before you take into account the human cost of the war, and its psychological effects. It is extremely difficult to say categorically whether or not it was, as Sellar and Yeatman might have put it, "a good thing" or "a bad thing", and for this reason I voted for none of the above.

Dave

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As the saying goes, 'It seemed like a good idea at the time'.

But seriously, it's so wrong to judge the correctness of decisions or the worth of actions with hindsight. To me, the great tragedy of the Great War was that after all that struggle and sacrifice, it was followed by WW2. But no one knew that then.

Imagine, someone saves a child from drowning and a week later that same child is run over by a car and killed; was the first action futile?

Regards

Anthony

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Without wishing to be disrespectful to the original poster of this “VOTE” - I think it is this poll that is “meaningless”. If we take a literal interpretation of the question put – “Was the Great War Meaningless?” , that is to say was the Great War without any meaning – like some unfathomable puzzle, or conundrum or just jibberish – then clearly we would say no. It does have meaning that is susceptible to academic study, interpretation and argument. But above all else, it had the ultimate and tragic meaning of shattering the lives of millions.

Regards,

Chris.

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Too many people died and were maimed for life for it to be meaningless. For the sake of their sacrafice we must be a better world for it.

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I think one would have to consider the outcome had the Kaiser been allowed to reign supreme throughout mainland Europe?without any opposition from the Allies?

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Bkristof

Meaningless !!,bad choice of word.WW1 destroyed a complete generation,8 miilion dead by the end of it all.It changed peoples lives (especially those left behind),it changed countries,it changed the world.

Given the political situation and the attitudes and ambitions of many of the countries involved,it was going to happen.If it hadn't been triggered by the assasination in Sarejavo it would have been triggered by something else.However as someone else has already said it is a wonder it didn't happen sooner.

Yes i think i did lead to WW2,WW1 probably created as many problems as it solved.You could say that what started with an assasination in 1914 resulted in the use of the Atomic Bomb in 1945.But as someone else has already pointed out there is no way those involved at the time could have predicted that it would all lead to another global conflict and it's eventual outcome.

Meaningless !! with 8 million dead in WW1 and many millions more in the resulting WW2,you can only say NO.

Tragic most definately though.

I havn't voted.

Stephen White

Edited by STEVEN
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I havn't voted.

Stephen White

that's why this is a forum, you don't have to vote or answer.

If you don't like the topic, you don't need to read it. So don't feel insulted.

what word should you use instead of meaningless? Any suggestion is welcome.

To me it wasn't meaningless at all. But it was a sad part of our history.

cheers,

kristof

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If WW1 was meaningless, we all paid a terrible price.

WW2 we could identify much more because we fought an evil regime, and the arguments of the price that was paid are far less.

Today we have democratie, therefore if we all vote, we control who governs us all,

and the idiots still go to war.

Frans

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If WW1 was meaningless, we all paid a terrible price.

I think even when it had a descend meaning, the price was very high.

To me the message the soldiers left us was the most important meaning off WW1, not the politics.

Ok, not everyone gets it. But the people on this forum (i hope) understood it.

This may never happen again!

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what word should you use instead of meaningless? Any suggestion is welcome.

Kristof

Maybe 'futile' or 'pointless' would have been better words. However, I for one understood the thrust of your wording. Your English is certainly better than my Flemish!

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Terry or someone,

maybe you can edit the topic and change meaningless in to pointless. That would be better...

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that's why this is a forum, you don't have to vote or answer.

If you don't like the topic, you don't need to read it. So don't feel insulted.

what word should you use instead of meaningless? Any suggestion is welcome.

To me it wasn't meaningless at all. But it was a sad part of our history.

cheers,

kristof

I agree,you don't have to vote or answer anything you don't won't to.If you don't like an area of the forum don't go there,if you don't like a topic don't get involved,but let those who want to have their say do so,as long as it's not offensive.That's what the forum is all about

I didn't feel insulted,i just thought it was a bad choice of word/phrase and felt i had to say so without being insulting to you.I didn't think you meant you thought it was meaningless,if you did your in the wrong place (this forum).As i've said just a wrong choice of phrase.

I don't know what word you could replace meaningless with.The whole issue is too complex to be describe with one word or a simple/short phrase or answered by a poll,in my opinion.Which is the reason i didn't vote.

Stephen White

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Kristof

I have edited your poll for you. No problem.

Terry

thanks terry,

i still need to learn much huh? ;)

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Sorry Kate,

didn't knew it was you.

Thank you very much then !!! ;)

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Thankyou Kristof!! but were my efforts

a) futile

B) beneficial

c) neither

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i'll go for Superb, but that is not in the list ;)

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