The Battle of the Somme, 1916

Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, which was a five-month bloody slog during the First World War that ended with no clear victor. Not a big deal in the States (we hadn't entered WWI yet), it is one of the most solemn occasions in Great Britain, where on the first day alone (July 1, 1916), the British took 60,000 casualties, with 20,000 killed-in-action. By the end of the five month battle, the British, encompassing Aussies, New Zealanders, Canadians, Newfoundlanders, South Africans, as well as English, Scots, Welsh, and Irish, lost a total of 400,000 men, 100,000 of which were KIA. The French lost 200,000, with 50,000 KIA. The Germans lost anywhere from 450,ooo to 600,000, with 160,000 KIA.

It is a source of lasting annoyance to me that the Europeans remain soft in their views regarding the impending takeover of the Islamists on their continent. But when one puts it into context, any time the Europeans used war as an instrument of change in the 20th century, it has had disasterous consequences. Sadly, the one time when they're needed to stand up for Western Civilization, they can't muster the courage anymore. If one needs to have some idea why, look up the story of the Somme.