The truce was very good. But the damn stupid and egotistical leaders (including the national leaders) didn’t like it. So the flower of Europe had to be destroyed, for no good reason.
There are days when I think those leaders should be dug up, and burned. But maybe that’s a bit too medieval of me.
Indeed! I think it was one of the most pointless and avoidable wars. It did NOT need to happen. Stupid proud saber-rattling leaders started that nonsense.
The soldiers realized they had more in common with each other than with their elites; couldn’t have that.
When Russia surrendered in 1917, the Germans allowed fraternizing with the Russians on the Eastern Front; during the Allied offensives in 1918 the German high command left a million troops in Russia because they were afraid of how radicalized they’d become. They lost the war with those troops still doing nothing in Russia.