Peter Hitchens on World War I and War in General

My Subject is War

Cambon, by the way, would remark after the war that a revolution had taken place in Britain in the years between 1914 and 1918. It simply was not the country it had been. How right he was. Huge numbers of the best people were dead, and so were centuries of tradition, loyalty, faith and kindness. In my view it was a revolution we could well have done without, and whose effects we still feel. I treasure the fantasy that at Christmas 1914, the truce in the trenches had spread and spread, across time and distance, until the soldiers of both armies, recognising the whole thing was futile and wrong, piled up their weapons, shook hands and walked home to their wives and children, laughing at the puce-faced ‘statesmen’ who swore and shouted at them to remain at their posts.