Outrageous invention
From Jonathan Headland
Sir: J.G. Cluff’s letter (11 November) on The Spectator’s perceived support for Bush and Blair reinvents history outrageously when he writes, ‘Blair’s contempt for casualties and public opinion echoes that of the first world war politicians and generals.’ British public opinion was in favour of winning the war with Germany, AustriaHungary and Turkey, not against it. The popular view of the execution of the first world war did not become as negative as it is today until the 1960s, half a century after the politicians and generals in question had done their job, and it is anachronistic to claim otherwise.
As for complaining about the scale of British casualties in Western Front engagements, this makes little sense, unless one can propose a workable contemporary alternative which would have held back the massed German armies pushing forward. It is arguable that the level of casualties suffered is largely proportionate to the quantity of soldiers deployed by each side, not the arrogance of the generals.
Jonathan Headland Cambridge
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