WWI Deserters

At a time when some are referring to the "War on Terrorism" as World War III, it might be interesting to take this peek into that bloodiest and most horrific of all wars, World War I, or what at the the time was called The Great War and, later (and mistakenly) "The War to End All Wars." This short Morning Edition piece (8/17/06) by Guy Raz, "UK to Pardon WWI Deserters" (3:33) deals with one lingering aftermath of the horror that so affected an entire generation of British life. At the heart of the issue was trench warfare (see Wikipedia on trench warfare)--the first time that countries brought the full weight of industrial culture to bear on warfare, with the result that deeply dug in armies could bring immense killing power against an enemy who attempted any offensive maneuver.

World War I is memorable for the amount of literature it produced and eventually films. Two notable ones that deal specifically with the horrors of trench warfare are Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957) and Peter Weir's Gallipoli (1981).

The NPR piece raises the question of then-and-now as related to the condition of shell-shock, now referred to as PTSD (post-traumatic shock syndrome). Here is just one NPR commentary, by Jesus Bocanegra, on PTSD and Iraq.