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| Via The Guardian |
"It is not to be supposed," wrote a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian analysing the significance of the assassination 100 years ago on Saturday, "that the death of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand will have any immediate or salient effect on the politics of Europe."
Thirty-seven days later, Britain declared war on Germany and Europe was plunged into a worldwide conflict in which more than 16 million people died in four years."Hah," we laugh, "how incompetent they were back then." We roll our eyes and scoff. "Primitives."
Turn on the TV. A Very Serious Professional News Anchor asks Dick Cheney or Paul Wolfowitz what we should do about Iraq.
Who, again, is the blinkered fool?
