CONCERNING 'THE GREAT WAR,' PROPER THANKS GO TO MICHAEL DUFFY, AND HIS 2009 CREATION OF "FIRST WORLD WAR.COM", WITH QUOTES, SERIOUS COMMENTARIES, MANY EXCELLENT PICTURES AND VINTAGE ART WORKS.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO THERE WAS A BATTLE THEN KNOWN AS THE 'THIRD YPRES,' INVOLVING A BRITISH PLAN TO DEFEAT AND DEMORALIZE THE IMPERIAL GERMAN 4th ARMY, THEN IN BELGIUM, BEFORE THEIR MILITARY RESERVES COULD ARRIVE FROM THE EASTERN THEATER OF WAR.

Revolution was paralyzing Czarist Russia, and both the Bolshevik and the Menshevik political movements were winning, while many, many thousands of men had been killed and even more had been wounded, in fighting the Germans and the Austrians. Edmond Taylor crafted a comprehensive discussion of the destruction of so many European kings, dukes and princes, in The Fall Of The Dynasties -- first published in 1962.

As Duffy notes in his explanation of the Passchendaele fiasco, British troops and their new tanks were bogged down in the Belgian mud, which had been churned up by a week of artillery fire, leading up to July 31st and the heavy rains. Also bogged down were their French allies, who had endured a widespread army mutiny only weeks before. German forces in the area had something less in total numbers but their positions were well-plotted -- and well defended -- and they were not trying to move in the mud. Passchendaele was only a village, thus it had no real strategic value to either contending army, and it now stands as a "trope" for the futility of the entire Great War.

What, indeed, has changed in this one long century ??

Technology !! We can see and hear events happening almost anywhere in the world, provided that there is electric power available and a satellite in orbit: does this mean we can understand these events ?? would Kim -the only Fat Boy in North Korea- still be "inscrutable" if there was no TV ??

Would anybody care about him if he did not have these big missiles ??

One hundred years ago there was no radio, no television, no internet and a telegram cost less than a dollar. Yet as technology has advanced, have we humans also advanced ??

We have beaten polio but we can't beat riots over skin color, we have beaten famine but are we truly healthy ?? Can we be ??

We all say we want peace but then we all prepare for war !!??

What is up with that ??

And what's the real lesson with little ol' Passchendaele ??

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