[gershwin]

"World War I started when Austria-Hungary attempted (justly by most accounts) to punish Serbia for an assassination."

At this moment, this point may be minor but I think we should correct these misconceptions when they come up. The position of Austria-Hungary in 1914 was similar to that of U.S./Nato in 1999. Both were looking for an excuse to disable a proud and spirited so they could have a free hand in the area.
Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with conditions it could not sign on to because A-H wanted a war with Serbia.
in 1999, U.S./Nato wrote out conditions at Rambouillet that Serbia could not possibly have signed on to because U.S/Nato wanted a war there also.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Vienna wanted to insure that the asasination of their presumptive Crown was punishished as the murder and Act of War that it was. No doubt remains that it was the calculated crime of the Serbian military. Serbia sucessfully struck at the heart of western society and proved that terrorism could be the most effective tool of all against western institutions.