Explained Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, Britain’s policy was to “starve the whole population-men, women, and children, old and young, wounded and sound-into submission.” By the end of the war malnutrition and starvation stalked the Central Powers. London’s tactics hurt American farmers but were far more devastating to civilians in Austria-Hungary and German, as intended. Previously such goods were “conditional contraband” only subject to seizure if meant for military use. Moreover, Britain treated food and other civilian goods as unconditional contraband of war. Belligerents traditionally stationed ships near the three-mile territorial limit, but the Royal Navy conducted a “distant” blockade, declaring entire seas and oceans to be war zones. London ignored the traditional rules of war when imposing a starvation blockade on Germany and neutrals supplying the Germans. Nearly 20 million died in the resulting military avalanche. Every state was willing to risk war for interests that look dubious, even foolish in the light of history. Great Britain entered the conflict citing Berlin’s violation of Belgian neutrality but mostly to maintain the continental balance of power and neuter German maritime power. The revanchist French supported Czarist tyranny as the only means to recover Alsace and Lorraine, territories lost to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War 43 years before. The Russians backed Serbia to ensure their predominance in the Balkans, but Imperial Germany was unwilling to allow the destruction of Austro-Hungary, its main ally. The Serbs wanted to destroy the so-called “dual monarchy,” which in turn believed it had to impose “regime change” in Belgrade. Contending alliances acted as transmission belts of war. World War I was a mindless imperial slugfest triggered by an act of state terrorism by Serbian authorities-the murder of the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Most recent has been supposed Iranian “support” for Yemen’s Houthis, a local group fighting over domestic grievances for decades. Much was made of Muammar Khadafy’s nonexistent plan to slaughter Libyan civilians after he threatened his armed opponents. Americans were lied into invading Iraq when the Bush administration relied on falsehoods from Iraqi exiles, most spectacularly Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. Washington attributed phantom horrors to countries which had committed more than their share of documented crimes, Iraq and Serbia.
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