It is conventional wisdom that the Great War of 1914-1918 was a senseless waste of the 10 million young soldiers who died in it.
Foolish generals bungled the trench warfare stalemate to an inconclusive end.
Or so critics argue.
In this centennial summer of the Great War's bloody start it is important to challenge these conclusions.
Alberta, less than 10 years old at the outbreak, paid a huge price in blood to support the conflict.
One-tenth of our population of 470,00 – 45,136 men – enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Those who stayed home raised beef, grew the grain and made petroleum-based munitions for the European conflict.
The implacable scythe of war reaped a bloody harvest.
Ten thousand died and 30,000 more were wounded – six per cent of the province's population.
This figure does not include British, French, Belgian, Italian and Serb military reservists, who had immigrated here but returned to the home country to fight.
Imagine a war in 2014 in which 384,000 Albertans enlist, 80,000 are killed and 252,000 come home wounded, and you grasp the impact.
There were mistakes made in the young Dominion; we needlessly interred Ukrainians as an “enemy” population for example.
Still part of the vaster Britain, Canada did not make its own foreign policy and automatically became a combatant when the Empire declared war on August 4, 1914.
Nonetheless, Canadians cheerfully fought with vigor and courage.
Was it all in vain?
No.
The allies won the war by stopping German and Austria-Hungarian ambition to rule Europe.
Had they been successful, they would have turned on the British Empire.
Statistically, the “Hun”, who believed in war as “politics by other means” had the economic, naval and land army power to break up the British imperial world.
Canada would have been cast adrift.
This is what 10,000 Albertans died and 20,000 were maimed to prevent.
It matters little that most who fought did not understand the bigger picture.
One hundred years later, we do understand it, and are grateful for their sacrifice.
Frank Dabbs is a veteran business and political journalist, author of three biographies, and a contributor to, researcher or editor of half a dozen books.
