Shootings and explosions in Paris

[Tamas]

Not sure abou fault, but he did say that Britain entering WW1 was the biggest error in modern history: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/britain-first-world-war-biggest-error-niall-ferguson

I'd tend to agree

[Razgovory]

Are those verbatim quotes?

No.  Do you require verbatim quotes?  They are really arguments, not quotes.

Well it won't do much good to give you page numbers but here's a blurb for his own damn book
http://www.amazon.com/The-Pity-Of-War-Explaining/dp/0465057128

In The Pity of War, Niall Ferguson makes a simple and provocative argument: that the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. Britain, according to Ferguson, entered into war based on naïve assumptions of German aims—and England's entry into the war transformed a Continental conflict into a world war, which they then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces.That the war was wicked, horrific, inhuman,is memorialized in part by the poetry of men like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, but also by cold statistics. More British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War; indeed, the total British fatalities in that single battle—some 420,000—exceeds the entire American fatalities for both World Wars. And yet, as Ferguson writes, while the war itself was a disastrous folly, the great majority of men who fought it did so with enthusiasm. Ferguson vividly brings back to life this terrifying period, not through dry citation of chronological chapter and verse but through a series of brilliant chapters focusing on key ways in which we now view the First World War.For anyone wanting to understand why wars are fought, why men are willing to fight them, and why the world is as it is today, there is no sharper nor more stimulating guide than Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War.

[The Brain]

More British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War; indeed, the total British fatalities in that single battle—some 420,000—exceeds the entire American fatalities for both World Wars.

Shocking. Just shocking.

[mongers]

More British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War; indeed, the total British fatalities in that single battle—some 420,000—exceeds the entire American fatalities for both World Wars.

Shocking. Just shocking.

And inaccurate too.

[viper37]

420 000 is the total loss for the British from July 1st to november.

[Valmy]

Not sure abou fault, but he did say that Britain entering WW1 was the biggest error in modern history: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/britain-first-world-war-biggest-error-niall-ferguson

I'd tend to agree

I will remember that if Britain ever gets invaded. Honoring ones treaty obligations to your allies is the biggest error one can make it seems.

Fuck you modern Europeans.

[Richard Hakluyt]

420,000 casualties not fatalities.

[Valmy]

420 000 is the total loss for the British from July 1st to november.

Yeah less than 100,000 were killed.

[mongers]

420 000 is the total loss for the British from July 1st to november.

I was referencing to the first part, something like 55,500 died in Vietnam, off the top of my head 55,000-60,000 British casualties on July 1st, of whom about 15,000-17,000 were killed/missing, for some reason 16,781  or 15,781 sticks in my mind*.

So I'd guess someone, somewhere confused casualties with fatalities.

* No doubt wiki will have much more accurate figures.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Not sure abou fault, but he did say that Britain entering WW1 was the biggest error in modern history: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/britain-first-world-war-biggest-error-niall-ferguson

I'd tend to agree

I will remember that if Britain ever gets invaded. Honoring ones treaty obligations to your allies is the biggest error one can make it seems.

Fuck you modern Europeans.

Speaking of helping your allies; the French defence minister has directly asked Britain to help France in Syria :

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/26/france-appeals-britain-join-syrian-war-against-isis-french-defence-minister-le-drian

They are debating whether to attack ISIS in Syria in Parliament right now.

[viper37]

420,000 casualties not fatalities.

ah, I thought this was high, I got confused between the 2 words

[Admiral Yi]

I stand corrected Raz.

[Razgovory]

Done with poise and grace.  We have a lot to learn from you.

[dps]

Not sure abou fault, but he did say that Britain entering WW1 was the biggest error in modern history: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/britain-first-world-war-biggest-error-niall-ferguson

I'd tend to agree

I will remember that if Britain ever gets invaded. Honoring ones treaty obligations to your allies is the biggest error one can make it seems.

Fuck you modern Europeans.

Did the UK actually have any treaty obligation to defend France in 1914?  If they did, it got missed in any histories I've read--and I've read a lot.

[Admiral Yi]

Did the UK actually have any treaty obligation to defend France in 1914?  If they did, it got missed in any histories I've read--and I've read a lot.

They had treaty obligations to defend Belgium.