The most tragic part of WWI was the ability of war planners to devise extremely effective strategies of getting thousands of people killed. Every time they thought of a new (fantastic) idea, it mostly involved storming the other side's trenches and being shot. Why?
Was the world not really ready for this war? Maybe technology and war mongers and society was still in love with the old style of war (heroic charges and honor), and wasn't ready for a war of this scale with these new technologies... Maybe they still wanted the honorable part of war, and weren't really ready for anonymous mass killing. But they did that. To win the war? So why not devise better plans as well?
I like the idea that military planners were stuck in the idea of honor and code. I've been wondering why this stalemate was seemingly unstoppable, and I think that maybe this idea of bravery was so fixated in military planners minds that they couldn't think of a better way.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that the leaders were the old white men and had not yet thought of war without valor. They wanted a flight into bullets and honor as the enemy plummets.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a point that maybe they were not ready for the technology. But at the same time you would think it was being developed for the purpose of war, so wouldnt they know how to use ti effectively? but you definitely have a great point in that it was really the first time technology of this intensity was used and they were not prepared. is it possible that the lack of utilization of technology in WW1 was technology reason technology was such a major role in WW2 and the cold war with nuclear weapons?
ReplyDelete