War Criminals

Today is Remembrance Day and it's fitting to look behind the marching men and ask the question. Why

1911 - 1914 the Great Powers like peacocks fluffing out their plumage began the diplomatic dance which was to lead to war. 

The alignments  Germany with Austria and Italy, France with Russia and Great Britain, each relying on the other, each caught in the trap of being forced to go to war on behalf of the other. The gigantic forces which were involved, not least the financial strain where whole economies were distorted by the rush to rearm. 

Like a dance the steps forward or backward were balanced on the proviso that ones partner was also in step as the telegrams passed between the embassies informing or demanding. This war dance had only one conclusion.

The delicate balance of power which was supposed to provide a brake on hostilities only seemed to provide more heat as the governments considered each action and reaction with growing alarm. Conversations become shrill and threats begin to fall like confetti.  There is a moment in mans affairs when things seem to tip over the edge and the hubris which was locked away beneath each nations history was brought out and aired. The slights of the past and the elemental hostility some nations have towards each other were at play, waiting for only a spark to burst into flame.
Sitting at home the people, on either side were fed a diet of propaganda entrenching their dislike encouraging their open hostility. 

The people are the fodder, the people are the chaff they are the tinder that when the conflagration begins are fed onto the fire, a fire which is so preventable but like unruly children with matches, our leaders strike, each unable to fully imagine the consequences of his action.

Clever refined men, well  versed in the arts, sensitive to the pathos of historical example, still they continued to play the diplomatic roulette which, little by little brought us all to the brink and over. 

What is it in men that they can commit their fellow man to such atrocity. Is it a blindness sitting in the great Chancellories surrounded by acolytes, removed from the 'man in the street' who would in the end pay the ultimate price, his life.

Was it only a matter of a calculation. Our munitions and our men against there's ? 

Did the arithmetic define the argument, if so then all our leaders are War Criminals !!