Was the War worth fighting. Ben Macintyre in The Times

[Ghazala]

Unlike todays soldiers, those of the First World War went into battle without any idea why they were asked to fight

Was the Afghan War worthwhile? Was the First World War worth fighting? Those two questions elide as we emerge from one war and look back on another, 100 years apart.

Yet amid the continuing debate over the moral and political reasons for going to war in 1914 there is a danger of overlooking a vital and poignant point about the Great War the vast majority of soldiers who fought in that war never questioned it and were not even invited to think about the justification for fighting, or lack of it. Indeed, the First World War was the last major conflict in which British soldiers fought without any real understanding of the political issues at stake.

The argument over whether our latest Afghan war was justified will continue long after it is over: but crucially, unlike their predecessors a century ago, the ordinary soldiers who fought can join that debate.

The vast majority of letters sent back from the trenches suggest only the most superficial understanding of what it was really about. There are no allusions to the balance of power in Europe, Britains international alliances, the Kaisers ambitions, the arms race or the issues of militarism, imperialism and nationalism that underpinned the conflict.

Such letters frequently complain about the nature of the war, the discomfort and inefficiency, but never even obliquely doubt the rightness of the cause itself or the Governments entitlement to send ordinary men to die for it.

Instead they are filled with allusions to king and country, God and honour, home and hearth, made all the more moving because they have clearly been learnt by rote. The references to chivalry and patriotism sound almost medieval to modern ears. I recently read a last letter written by a private shortly before his death, in which he described himself in the third person as a brave British Soldier, not afraid to die, as if martyrdom alone was a reason for fighting.

The war was seen in strict Manichean terms, an epic battle of good against evil, the moral allies versus the rapacious Hun; for many soldiers, the issues went no further than the words of Henry Newbolts pernicious poem Vitaï Lampada, which sent so many young men to uncomplaining, uncomprehending deaths: Play up, Play up, and Play the game. It was all a glorious, manly sport.

Men fought because of the intense social, political and religious pressure to do so, and the terror of being accused of cowardice if they did not. They fought because the ferociously moustached Lord Kitchener told them their country needed them, and because friends and family would shun them if they thought otherwise.

The intense, brutal and often unthinking pressure to fight was symbolised by the Order of the White Feather, the organisation that sought to shame men into enlisting by encouraging women to present those out of uniform with a white feather, the symbol of cowardice a peculiarly nasty campaign in which people took the moral high ground from a position of complete safety to force others into danger.

The white feather zealots made mistakes that might have been amusing had they not been so grim. In 1915 George Samson was wearing civilian clothes when he was haughtily presented with a white feather by a woman on a bus; he was on his way to a reception to be presented with the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the Gallipoli campaign.

Thousands fought and died unquestioningly because they felt that they had no choice, because others told them to, or because the propaganda from the pulpit and the politicians reduced a highly complex political event to a few simple, unopposable patriotic slogans. What did you do in the Great War, Daddy? replaced any coherent argument for war in favour of mere shame as a motivating force.

Popular support for the war did not waver as the casualties mounted. Conscientious objectors, conchies, were despised and vilified to the end. As the carnage continued, there was almost no debate about the righteousness of the cause or every mans duty to play up and play the game: theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.

The disillusionment set in afterwards, with a great wave of anger at the waste and futility, a reaction that ensured British soldiers would never again fight a war without understanding what it was about: there was patriotism aplenty in the Second World War, but it was underpinned by genuine awareness of the political and moral issues that led to war. There were far fewer white feathers in that war because men, fully informed of what the conflict meant, did not need to be bullied or shamed into fighting.

The men and women deployed to Afghanistan over the past 13 years fought out of duty and as a professional choice. Some Afghan veterans are enthusiastic about the rectitude of the cause, some rather less so but I have yet to meet a modern soldier who was not fully cognisant that this is a war open to discussion and debate, not some chivalrous, one-dimensional campaign for Queen and country.

What are we fighting for? sang Country Joe McDonald. Dont ask me, I dont give a damn. That song became an anti-Vietnam War anthem, but it reflects a modern understanding that war waged by people who do not understand why they are fighting is an abomination.

The tragedy of the First World War is that its footsoldiers were not allowed to ask that question until it was over.

[David_Underdown]

I'm not sure that's really true. Many were motivated by what happened to Belgium, the theme of fighting "for right against might", or variations there on crops up pretty frequently (including the roll of honour I've been researching, see links in footer). For others more simply there was the prospect of adventure and seeing something beyond your home village and the local market town, or more simply still, regular pay and relatively plentiful food.

[Guest Ungern]

If you explain all,
nobody will accept to fight ...

Everybody want to dead for liberty and democracy

Nobody want to dead for the access to the straits, for the supremacy of the English industry,for the access to foreigns markets,for acces to petroleum countries .

No creusade without the tomb of the Christ
.
But the tomb of the christ is not the cause of the creusade ....only the sauce ....

[Ghazala]

If you explain all,

nobody will accept to fight ...

Everybody want to dead for liberty and democracy

Nobody want to dead for the access to the straits, for the supremacy of the English industry,for the access to foreigns markets,for acces to petroleum countries .

No creusade without the tomb of the Christ

.

But the tomb of the christ is not the cause of the creusade ....only the sauce ....

Pardon?

[squirrel]

"Unlike todays soldiers, those of the First World War went into battle without any idea why they were asked to fight".

Plenty of evidence to the contrary as David says - the "threat" from Germany had been known about for a number of years and many had seen the War coming.

[River97]

"Unlike todays soldiers, those of the First World War went into battle without any idea why they were asked to fight".

Plenty of evidence to the contrary as David says - the "threat" from Germany had been known about for a number of years and many had seen the War coming.

I agree, and as a veteran of Afghanistan, the author would be surprised to know the vast numbers who went to Afghanistan, not 'out of duty and a professional choice" but to stand and fight and do something so our children don't have to grow up in a world of fear.

Due to freedom of speech and the introduction of political correctness us modern veterans have heard opinions from all sides of the armchair expertise.

Cheers Andy.

[neverforget]

I think that Max Hastings presented a very compelling opinion on whether or not WW1 was worth fighting, in his recent programme; The Necessary War.

Ferguson presented the opposing view and lost the argument hands down in most people`s opinion on here.

[John_Hartley]

Due to freedom of speech and the introduction of political correctness us modern veterans have heard opinions from all sides of the armchair expertise.

Good to be reassured that society has made progress over the 100 years.