Niall Ferguson wrote in his 2000 book on WWI, The Pity of War. "Men fought because they wanted to.”

Yeah, nine-million men wanted to be slaughtered, deformed, torn into pieces, driven insane, turned into non-living matter.

The unspoken pact among scholars: I won't draw attention to your bullshit if you don't call out my bullshit.

Richard Koenigsberg