this author speaks much truth you'll never hear from 'our free press' or be exposed to in school. and its only a minor part of what really happened which can only be revealed by extensive research. one book that will reveal greater truths is: the sleepwalkers by christopher clark because you only get the tip of the tip of the iceberg in this article;

We are now before the 100th anniversary of World War I, the war that was supposed to end all wars.  While honoring the 16 million who died in this conflict, we should also condemn the memory of the politicians, officials and incompetent generals who created this horrendous blood bath.
I’ve walked most of the Western Front of the Great War, visited its battlefields and haunted forts, and seen the seas of crosses marking its innumerable cemeteries.
As a former soldier and war correspondent, I’ve always considered WWI as he stupidest, most tragic and catastrophic of all modern wars.
The continuation of this conflict, World War II, killed more people and brought more destruction on civilians in firebombed cities but, at least for me, World War I holds a special horror and poignancy.  This war was not only an endless nightmare for the soldiers in their pestilential trenches, it also violently ended the previous 100 years of glorious European civilization, one of mankind’s most noble achievements.
I’ve explored the killing fields of Verdun many times and feel a visceral connection to this ghastly place where up to 1,000,000 soldiers died.  I have even spent the night there, listening to the sirens that wailed without relent, and watching searchlights that pierced the night, looking for the ghosts of the French and German soldiers who died here.
Verdun’s soil was so poisoned by explosives and lethal gas that to this day it produces only withered, stunted scrub and sick trees.  Beneath the surface lie the shattered remains of men and a deadly harvest of unexploded shells that still kill scores of intruders each year.  The spooky Ossuaire Chapel contains the bone fragments of 130,000 men, blown to bits by the millions of high explosive shells that deluged Verdun.
The town of the same name is utterly bleak, melancholy and cursed.  Young French and German officers are brought here to see firsthand the horrors of war and the crime of stupid generalship....https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/11/eric-margolis/the-stupidest-most-tragic-war/