By Rosslyn Smith

There are grand forces in human history. Then there are the actions of fools who think they can control events and who then start actions that spiral out of control.

Ninety nine years ago this summer, a small series of events soon sparked a World War that resulted in decades of carnage -- World War I, The Russian Revolution, WWII, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War all had their beginnings in that period. Few people today are taught much about WWI except perhaps that it began with an arms race. That race was almost more symptom than cause. The huge fleets of surface naval fleets that had been the focus of the arms race were largely bit players in the war that ensued. The real cause was that far too many European leaders of that era were certain that events could be manipulated to their political advantage.

It must be emphasized the crowned heads of Europe knew each quite well. Indeed, perhaps they knew each other too well. The German Kaiser was, after all, a grandson of Queen Victoria. The Russian Tsar was married to one of Victoria's granddaughters. The Tsar's mother was sister to the mother of Britain's reigning monarch, King George V, another grandchild of Victoria. Nor were the elected political leaders strangers to each other. In the run up to WWI, European leaders were pretty much playing an insider's game of one-upmanship. As they were raising the stakes on each other in the quest for ever bigger battleships, more overseas colonies and more advantageous mutual assistance pacts, the players missed signs of simmering discontent among those they ruled or governed. The major difference between those leaders and the West's leader's today seems to be that the leaders in 1913 felt they were entitled to rule by Divine Right. Political leaders in 2013 leaders seem to feel almost as entitled because they are certain they are smarter than everyone else.

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