The Great War

[Deleted]

Have any of you been involved in events to celebrate commemorate the start of the First World War? In Britain, France and Belgium there have been a number of memorial services at major battlefields and military cemeteries. It's rather odd to think that the start of this war is now closer to the Battle of Waterloo (1815) than it is to today. Should we continue to remember The Great War, or should we use this anniversary as an opportunity to draw a line under what happened, and consign it to the past?

Commonwealth nations, how do you feel about the price you paid at the behest of the Empire? Was it worth it as it set many of you on the path to independence, or perhaps it was worth it just to (temporarily) prevent a German super-state from emerging?

[Kalis]

The Great War was consigned to the past a long time ago, apart from this one off anniversary it's barely even a thing in Britain.

We commemorate our war dead on Remembrance Day, but that has long since ceased to be just about the First World War and covers all conflicts.

[Trassk]

I do feel that, given that it was 100 years ago, while I agree it should be given a form of respect to the people who lost their lives back then, in truth if we spent a whole day in remembrance for every war fought and those who died for it for their country, we would have having war memorial celebrations all the time.

An hour was kind of a long time, but I did it anyway, I think the message could have been just as powerful if it were 5 minutes.

[Deleted]

While I think it is important to remember the massive loss of life during the Great War and to keep on preventing such a thing from ever happening again, my country (the Netherlands) doesn't really ''celebrate'' it in any (significant) way, because we weren't directly involved in that conflict (Germany respected our neutrality that time). It's just overshadowed by World War II here, because in that war, Germany did not care about our neutrality.

[Masark]

The Great War was consigned to the past a long time ago, apart from this one off anniversary it's barely even a thing in Britain.

"In the year A.D. 2014 journalists will be writing on the centenary of the great war — that is, if there has not been a greater war."