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by Fred Kirby                August 4, 2004 

90 years ago on August 4th the war to end all wars began. World War I came about through miscalculations of the countries’ politicians and military leaders coupled with the incompetence of the Russian Imperial government along with the arrogance and ambition of the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm. It did not have to happen. In spite of the propaganda, the war had nothing to do with democracy or freedom. 

Following the armistice in November 1918, the Allies met at Versailles and, just as they had marched blindly into war, the victors argued, made deals, and sought revenge until they drafted a peace treaty guaranteeing the breakdown of Germany and making the country ripe for a dictator promising to make Germany strong. It was in Versailles the seeds of World War II were sown. 

5,100,000 Allied soldiers were killed in WW I while Germany and other Central Powers saw 3,500,000 of its soldiers killed. This does not take into account the millions more who suffered shell shock, horrible wounds, lungs rotting from gas, and suffering beyond imagination. As in WW II, many were our best and brightest. Did the one who would have advanced the cure for cancer by years killed in the senseless violence? Was our heritage of music and literature diminished when gifted men died? Did we so stunt our future that we pay for it still? I believe so. 

Today, the names of Canada’s 60,000 WW I men written on the cenotaphs in villages, towns, and cities across Canada are now fading. The far more who came home crippled in mind and body are now gone as have those loving families who cared for them over the years. We do not remember them nor have learned from the stupidity and futility of war with its suffering, sacrifice, and waste. Remember August 1914 for we still send young men and women into harms way because our leaders continue to fail us. 

We would do well to place close to our hearts the words of Siegfried Sassoon, MC written while serving in France:

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.