Posted on 05/01/2024 6:59:10 AM PDT by Rev M. Bresciani
I find it interesting to note that during World War 1, we didn’t call it “World War 1,” because we didn’t recognize it as the first of many. It was first called the “European War.” Then American newspapers called it “World War.” And the British called it the “Great War.” Soldiers fighting and families left at home had no idea they were fighting “World War 1.” Then, it was FDR who first used the term “World War 2” in 1941. But soldiers fighting and those at home didn’t realize they were fighting “World War 2” until Roosevelt named it that.
(Excerpt) Read more at new.americanprophet.org ...
Seems like that war hasn’t happened yet.
For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh, I must have killed a million men
And now they want me back again
But I ain’t marching anymore
It’s always the old to lead us to the wars
Always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun
Tell me, is it worth it all?
— Phil Ochs
Personally I don’t know any ordinary citizen who is “giddy” about the start of World War 3. But maybe we travel in different circles. As to government, yes, we have a war making regime in power, and they have been excited about it. Biden can’t wait to bill himself as “a wartime president.” Clinton was sorry he didn’t have a war to fight and establish some kind of historical legacy, but unfortunately for him, there was too much peace going on after the end of the Cold War. To be fair, GW Bush fell for the same aspiration. After 9/11 he even announced it himself so there would be no doubt. “I consider myself a wartime president.” So yes, in these days, government thrives on war even while citizens perish.
1916 - Motorhead
Sixteen years old when I went to the war
To fight for a land fit for heroes
God on my side, and a gun in my hand
Chasing my days down to zero
And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died
And I never did get any older
But I knew at the time that a year in the line
Was a long enough life for a soldier
We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names
And we added two years to our ages
Eager for life and ahead of the game
Ready for history’s pages
And we brawled and we fought and we whored ‘til we stood
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder
A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun
And that’s what you are when you’re soldiers
I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother
And I fell by his side, and that’s how we died
Clinging like kids to each other
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood
And I wept as his body grew colder
And I called for my mother and she never came
Though it wasn’t my fault and I wasn’t to blame
The day not half over and ten thousand slain
And now there’s nobody remembers our names
And that’s how it is for a soldier
In WWI, many of the larger Indian tribes in the US were very enthusiastic about enlisting in the US Army. And some with more organized governments made a *separate* Declaration of War against the Central Powers.
When the Armistice was declared, at least one of these tribes did not agree and so technically, if quietly, they remained at war, unknown to everyone else. But when WWII was declared, they jumped back on board the war wagon.
Otherwise, other reservations already had long lines waiting for the recruiters to show up.
In Flanders Fields
BY JOHN MCCRAE
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
When Hitler invaded Poland, Time Magazine dubbed the conflict World War II in a September, 1939 article.
WWII started when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
Yeah, come on all of you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Well, come on generals, let’s move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds -
The only good commie is the one who’s dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we’ve blown ‘em all to Kingdom Come.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Huh!
Well, come on Wall Street, don’t move slow,
Why man, this is War-a-go-go.
There’s plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,
Send ‘em off before it’s too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.
And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
I’m going to put up a contrarian view — the world as we know it would not have existed if there wasn’t a World War one.
1914 - the world is still under empires.
No WWI then most likely Central Europe gets Germanized/Russified. And neither of those powers gave any reign to individual liberty.
No WWII - or at least no Darwinian-based race ideology wars.
The world would be completely, utterly different - not necessarily good nor bad, but just different
Very interesting to know. I have no clue when Germans began to call it that. It was called just „this war“ in the first years, and I don’t know when that changed.
In 1943, shortly after the Battle of Stalingrad, Hitler asked in an address, Wolt ihr den totalen Krieg? (do you want total war?) and his followers responded, chanting over and over again, Führer, befiehl! Wir Folgen! (Leader, command! We'll follow!)
WWI should have just been Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia.
It was France’s alliance with Russia that got things kicked off. Because France didn’t like the “new kid on the block”.
Of course we do say „Der zweite Weltkrieg“, but I have no clue when this term began to be used in the German language. Possibly it was introduced by way of Switzerland and the Swiss press.
And to the speech in the Sportpalast: it was not held by Hitler, but by Goebbels, and it was mostly outlining the threat to Europe by the Soviet Union and reacting to the threat of unconditional surrender, which had been pushed through at Casablanca by FDR against the wishes of Churchill, who felt that this could undermine the resistance movement in Germany.
After the collapse of the 6th Army and the smashing of the Hungarian 2nd Army, the military situation had deteriorated so much that the censored press and newspapers could not totally hush it all up any more.
And it was, of course, a rhetorical masterpiece. Goebbels was nearly as legendary as his boss for his oratory skills. The rest was lies, and of course the audience, all of it, was handpicked by Goebbels himself. Thus, the frenetic applause of the audience could easily be construed as an „agreement“ of the entire nation.
Well, those who don‘t live in a tyranny have no way of knowing how propaganda works in one. And how could they? Lucky are they, not to know about it.
And the effect on the run-of-the-mill Germans was not considered great by the Gestapo. They wanted peace. But since when has the weal of the citizens mattered to politicians with their grandiose schemes?
P.S.
And strangely coinciding, that very day, the 18th of February, the White Rose was arrested, while distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in the University of Munich…
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