100 Years After WWI

July 28 will mark the centenary of the start of the First World War.

I haven't heard anything about events planned -- have you???

No. Not at all. It will be interesting to see how the political elites spin that one.

Yeah you can bet Germany won't be participating.

I found a few small-scale websites:

• UK: http://www.1914.org/
  
• Australia: http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/war-memorial-reveals-wwi-centenary-program/story-e6frfku9-1226832091033
  
• New Zealand: http://ww100.govt.nz/
  
• Belgium, France, UK, Australia, New Zealand, US: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/events/2014-2018-ww1-centenary-events.htm

I guess with none of the combatants still alive people's memories are fading. The conflict that took 16 million lives -- one out of every 100 people alive -- is one nobody is very proud of, and now that there's nobody left to honor, the living would just prefer we forget the whole thing.

If it was up to me, I'd revisit the horrors of the war and use it as a cautionary teaching tool. But that's just me.

NoCoPilot wrote:

If it was up to me, I'd revisit the horrors of the war and use it as a cautionary teaching tool.  But that's just me.

I'd go for that too, but it doesn't serve the leaders' purposes for us to recall so readily.

It doesn't take a hundred years for the populace and the government to completely forget about a war and all the people who had to live with the consequences of their actions for a lifetime.

WWI was a bad one though -- or was it the Civil War, now I forget? -- where more casualties occurred off the field of battle from primitive medicine than from combat.

Quote :

About two-thirds of military deaths in World War I were in battle, unlike the conflicts that took place in the 19th century when the majority of deaths were due to disease.

Quote :

Most casualties and deaths in the Civil War were the result of non-combat-related disease.  For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease.

These statements come from Wikipedia, so I do not vouch for their accuracy.

One percent of world population died in WWI.

What percent of US population died in the CW?

The most widely accepted number, 620,000, is about two percent of the population. That is military deaths only. The number of civilian deaths is less well known, but is estimated to be from 50,000 to 100,000.