Are we Brits really as bright as we think?

Millions of British and empire casualties in 4 years to stop Germany rivaling the British Empire with their own collection of countries ruled by Kaiser Bill.  Were we out of our minds?

It was not as though we were attacked first, either.  We were safe and sound, well away from all the action across the North Sea.

It was not as though we were in danger of being invaded.  And, we were never at risk of invasion throughout this four year idiocy.

Our army was far too small a band of five divisions to ever stop Belgian neutrality from being violated by the plucky Brits coming to their rescue to drive the German troops back to their own border.  The 1839 treaty was simply an excuse for doing what Churchill was desperate to do - go to war.  Throughout the mad month of July 1914, we failed to take the normal precautionary measures: to put our troops on the Belgian border with Germany; we failed to bring in conscription, failed to rearm.  In the 19th century, we had staid our hand and chose our own time to go to war on the mainland.  Even then, it was not unknown for us to break our international obligations, treaties and promises when it suited us.  The 1839 treaty was a less than honest excuse that the politicians put about to justify their idiocy.  It was not the reason for war.  And, we were not in danger of being attacked.

Yet, Asquith and Churchill somehow thought that our security was being threatened.  The Cabinet was wrong to take us to war.  Less than honest and competent - and war mongering, in my book.

In addition, according to historian Niall Ferguson (Feb 2014 'BBC History Magazine'), the Liberal government thought they had better go to war to prevent resignations that would then have brought in the Tory government.  What a disgraceful reason to send young men to war!  Even after more than four years, there was still so much unfinished business, resentment and even hatred after the one-sided Treaty of Versailles, that many historians believe it led to part two of the Great War in 1939.

Just as we all believed our security was being threatened after the attack on the twin towers in New York in 2001.  Millions then lost their homes, or became refugees or were injured and killed in the War of Terrorism against Arabs in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Was this fair and proportionate?  Or, are we the war criminals?

Britain set a bad example - the sad evidence

This, I think, is a corrective to much prejudice in favour of Britain by Brits and how the West is best - but, minus me!

1. Britain was the first with concentration camps in the Boer War that killed over 20,000 women and children.
2. Our scorched earth policy in that war was not noble and the war itself was nothing about protecting these British islands of ours.
3. Next, Churchill turned our warships from being fueled by coal to being driven by oil.  He then saw the domination of the Middle East for oil as the prize to gain world mastery.  Not Hitler, after world mastery but our own beloved Churchill actually did it and used those two words of intent when Hitler was still a boy!  (Source: 'The Prize' by Daniel Yergin)
4. In 1914, Churchill turned a friend into an enemy; he then persuaded the War Cabinet to initiate an attack on that Ottoman Empire and, after months of bloody war, lost catastrophically.
5. According to Admiral Lord West, in his Radio 4 series, 'Britain at Sea', we Brits attacked Russia from 1917, after their defeat/withdrawal in the world war.  This was to gain their re-entry on our side against Germany so that German troops would have to be moved from fighting us to fighting the Russians on the eastern front, once more!  After the November armistice of 11 Nov 1918, we carried on our war with Russia because of their Bolshevik government - totally unacceptable to us fine British folk!
6. Our premature entry into the 1914 World War before we were attacked or about to be attacked was wrong.  It was simply unethical and contrary to all normal standards of decency, especially at that time of far greater church-going and Christian belief.  We should have known better.  Our declaration of war on the 4 August was not self defence.  Our security was not threatened.  It was really all about not wanting to see the status quo, the balance of power, changed on the mainland of Europe.  The war was sold to the public as us gallant Brits coming to the defence of poor, trampled all over, Belgium and teaching the wicked Germans a lesson.  Yet, we had a history of keeping to alliances and treaties only when it suited us at the time.  On 4 August 1914, we over-reacted to an assassination 37 days earlier and, then, on the side of the assassin against the wronged party, Austria-Hungary!  That doubly wrong decision by Asquith, Churchill and Grey, et al had the unfortunate effect of leading to 'Britain's 100 years of War' (see 9, below).  Then and now, we just could not resist keeping our noses out of other countries businesses.  Well, we did know what was best for them, after all, just as we do now over the need for EU reform.
7. Throughout the mad month of July 1914, our government did absolutely nothing to bang heads together on the mainland of Europe to prevent a continental war.  Our very stupid and far too early entry into the war turned it into a worldwide conflagration by virtue of our huge empire.
8. We controlled/dominated 30% of the world with the largest empire in the history of humanity.  This is not something to be proud of.
9. Nor, was our untold riches gleaned from the abominable trade in our fellow members of the human family - the slave trade.  More pernicious deaths in the human family of which we were responsible.  Still no reparations paid.  We pocketed the immoral earnings from our filthy trade and have no intention of returning even a penny to a single African nation.
10. Britain was as anti-Semitic as many other European countries were for centuries.  Germany took it to a new and disgusting level between 1933 and 1945 yet, we did nothing officially to save the Jews and the many other minorities in Germany.  There were a handful of very brave people who did all they could, throughout the war, to shelter Jews.  Our government did nothing.  Yet, Churchill at least, it seems, knew what was going on from before war was declared.
11. Our total war, our saturation fire bombing of German towns, cities and other settlements in the closing months of the war, when our victory was assured, was a war crime.  No regret has ever been whispered by us upstanding Brits, despite our fine British values of high morality!
12. Our armed forces ended up slaughtering many more Germans than they did of our people.
13. 'Britain's 100 years of War' - the four page spread in the Guardian, 12 Feb 2014, of proof and shameful evidence of aggression and killing of foreigners in every single year since the 4 August 1914, if not earlier, to the present.
14. Germany's non-aggressive foreign policy has been excellent and exemplary since 1945 (somewhat undone by its membership of NATO!).  The Germans are, rightly, the respected leaders of the EU.  Their energy and transport policy is also superb and sensible.  We Brits could learn much from them.  Instead, we want out - and the sooner the better.