Why War?

!
!
World War 1 came about through the building tensions between many nations at the
time, caused by four major movements that were taking the globe by storm: militarism,
imperialism, arguments between allies, and nationalism. The industrial revolution in Europe
brought about larger, more advanced militaries. Europeans thought a strong military is what
makes a nation great, and so an arms race broke out between Great Britain and Germany. At
the same time, there was a lot of arguments over colonies in Africa and Asia, a matter of
territories, which has been known to push european countries to the brink of war. Germany and
France almost went to war three times in Morocco, France and England fought over the rights to
Sudan, and Germany, England, and Russia were fighting over the rights to build a railroad in
India. Mounting rivalries brought about the formation of two great alliances: The Triple Entente
comprised of England, France, and Russia, and the Triple Alliance comprised of Germany, Italy,
and Austria-Hungary. Through all of these militarist and imperialist arguments, the nations of
Europe tried to remain at peace with one and other, while also trying to overpower each other.
This all culminated in 1914 when archduke Frans Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated,
serving as the tipping point for all this tension, and within the same year, the world was fullswing in the grips of World War 1. Soon, the Triple Alliance would be joined by the Bulgaria and
the Ottoman Empire and would become known as the Central Powers, and The Triple Entente
would be joined by many nations around the world and would become known as the Allied
Powers.!

!
The US initially didn't want to get involved in this mass genocide, because we weren't
really involved. We continued to trade with both the Central and Allied powers, but we traded
more with the allies. In 1915, Germany sunk the RMS Lusitania, an allied ship with 159
Americans on board, in their attempt to cut off trade with Great Britain to try to starve them from
within. After the ship was sunk, posters began being put up all over the US about "taking up the
sword of justice," and propaganda against the Central Powers. This, along with the other
atrocities committed by Germany and the other Central Powers caused America to join in the
Allied forces on April 6th, 1917. Many years passed, and in 1818 Germany formally
surrendered, and in 1919 fighting officially stopped, with the Allies left badly battered but
victorious. Germany was stripped of their right to hold a military, and the US finally became one
of the world's most important powers.!

!
Today, conflict in the Middle East and the formation of a powerful terrorist regime called
ISIS poses a threat to many countries, and has formally threatened the US and many other
powerful nations around the world. We need to decide whether to get involved, and in what way.
Many people have come to the conclusion that the best options might be to fist Propose an

International Conference with the United Nations to help coordinate, train, equip, and finance an
alliance of countries in the Middle East to contain and defeat ISIS because they have proved a
worthy adversary, and we need more troops to be able to take them on. Then we should take
economic action against ISIS by freezing its access to international banks and limiting trade,
which would cut off their income for military weapons and forces. The trade with the countries
involved and their subsequent capture by ISIS gives the terrorist group access to powerful
modern weapons and top-of-the-line vehicles, primarily their massive fleet of brand new 2016
Toyota trucks. Finally, we need to arm the moderate rebels in the area with ammunition,
machine guns, and other equipment, who might help fight against ISIS. These rebels would
have to be supported by American Special Forces and advisers to make the best use of their
efforts, despite their lower level of training. The additional forces would be massively helpful in
the fight against this threat.