Bigthink - Idea Comments Feed

Comment on: Re: What is the most important war in human history?

Bigthink — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:51:27 +0100

No question WWI was very important and had lasting affects. But remember that all of these nations you just mentioned would not exist as they do or did at the time if not for the Greek victory over the Persians. Western Civilization would have been crushed. Rome would not have become so strong, or at least not strong enough to challenge Persian might. And without Rome the European states would not have inherited a culture that would allow them to challenge the Persians. There would have been no WWI.

Comment on: Re: What is the most important war in human history?

Bigthink — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:46:58 +0100

The only acceptable war is one that frees people from tyranny or oppression. To insist the focus be on ending tyranny and oppression and not on warfare is appealing to many of us who have put our backpacks and rifles aside.

Comment on: Re: What is the most important war in human history?

Bigthink — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:10:37 +0100

Which war ended communism in the wastern world? Just wondering.

Comment on: Re: What is the most important war in human history?

Bigthink — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:32:43 +0100

Your thesis seems to be that wars cause nothing beyond death and destruction. I think you will have a very hard time finding evidence for that assertion.

Wars that are won decisively cause the ideas of the victor to dominate and often for a very long period of time.

Do you really believe that such battles and wars as Thermopylae, the barbarian sack of Rome, the Muslim conquests of the Middle East, South West Asia, North Africa, and Spain had no lasting impact on the lives and welfare of millions?

Do you think you would be sitting at a computer writing your ideas for the world to see if Hitler had won WWII?

Wars have solved the problems of tyrannies down through the ages. They have ended slavery, Communism and Nazism in the Western world.

The only periods of relative peace in history have come through the decisive victories of great powers in war.

Historically, war is the normal state of mankind. Peace is only attained by being enslaved or being too powerful for despots to take on.

Simply hating war and thinking it foolish does nothing to prevent it because there are always tyrants standing ready to brutalize gentle souls.

Comment on: Re: What is the most important war in human history?

Bigthink — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:21:15 +0100

I think this is a bit of a simplistic view. Not all wars are the same. I think a better way to look at the issue would be, not "good" wars and "bad" wars.

But "necessary" and "unecessary" wars. The obvious cause is World War Two. Clearly, it was not a struggle of "good" vs "evil" as is often portrayed, but I would argue it was a necessary war, in a way that the current one in Iraq is not.

I like to think of myself as a pacifist, but to treat all wars as identical is a dangerous way of ignoring the past.

But back to the question at hand of the most important war. I would suggest The Great War of 1914-1918. It really signalled the end of European dominance, and fueled independence movements throughout the world. It wiped out autocracies in Russia, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, Germany and forced a fundamental re-shaping of political, cultural and ethnic realities, especially in Europe, but all around the globe as well.

The world in 1919 was an entirely different place than in the Summer of 1914, in a way that I'm not sure can be said of most 4 year spans in human history.

We can argue about the value of wars...but I think certain war's impact on human history are undeniable.