> So without being threatened you attack another country and kill how 
> many
> people?


You need to read some history of WW1 before you start making 
statements like that. No war is easily justified OR explained in every 
aspect after the event and it is good to have some idea of what is/was 
involved if you wish to make judgements about it. The aim was to save 
innocent lives. War is not always very fair on the small scale and 
often enough not on the large scale either :-(.

A VERY short VERY simplified summary which only gives you the vaguest 
picture is that Germany was at war with much of the rest of Europe. 
(Note that Germany is NOW a valued friend of most of the countries 
that were at war with it then.) Germany invaded other countries and 
the main fighting occurred in very bogged down conditions in trenches 
in Belgium and France . Not in Germany. For reasons which seemed good 
to them at the time (and which they probably latter greatly regretted) 
Turkey sided with Germany. The "allied" forces sought to bypass the 
bogged down trench warfare and open lines of supply to Russia at 
Germany's rear. The Turks, quite reasonably in the circumstances, 
blocked the obvious line of access. By siding with the Germans the 
Turks identified with their aims and actions and promoted and 
supported their activities.

The actions of the Germans were seen as a threat to the peace and 
freedom for most of the people of Europe. They were, but the situation 
was of course more complex than that. If you had been a Belgian or a 
Frenchman at the time you would have had little trouble understanding 
this perspective.

The countries of the British Empire made their farmers and accountants 
and office workers and factory workers and fathers in general 
available to serve as troops for employment by Britain as Britain saw 
fit. It "just so happened" that a large proportion of the "ANZAC" 
troops were sent to fight the Turks so that the British could bypass 
the Germans so that the French and Belgian farmers could get their 
countries back and get on with their lives.

A ***KEY*** thing to note is that all of the combatants are to a 
greater or lesser extent on good terms or good friends now. It took 
another major war after WW1 to get to this stage.

FWIW, Erwin Rommel in WW2 rated NZ soldiers as the top soldiers he 
fought against. If you don't know who Erwin Rommel was I suggest you 
either Google to find more about him or just ignore this piece of 
information.




            Russell McMahon

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