100 years ago, the slaying of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered one of the deadliest conflicts the world has ever seen – the First World War. Political arguments led to a war that devastated much of Europe.

It saw France, the UK and Russia take on the Axis forces of Ggermany and Austria-Hungary. The Great War, as it is known, resulted in the deaths of more than 9 million soldiers. The two powers ended up throwing men over the trenches to march into deathstorms of machinegun fire. It rapidly became clear that it would be a war of attrition. A was that the central powers eventually lost. In reality, the frontline never changed much as infantrymen stormed the trenches of the enemy and the gaining of a mile of territory after months of assaults was deemed by the hapless and insensitive commanders of both sides to be a victory.

This was was the first modern one in which indiscriminate artillery fire and chemical weapons – in the form of mustard gas – were used. Millions of lives snuffed out, and for nothing worthy.

100 years later, we have seen many other conflicts. There was WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq II and others. You would think that humanity would have learned. But no, we have not. Let us look back on all we have mentioned – out of all the wars we have cited, only one can be deemed to having had some beneficial after effect, and that was the birth of the European Union following the end of WWII. The others have only seen death and misery and division. Korea was a pointless conflict that saw the division of a country that is still divided and a source of misery. Vietnam was useless and tragic. After the West tried to parachute democracy into Iraq and Afghganistan, the subsequent pullout saw the birth of the Islamic State, and again, absolutely nothing was achieved apart from piling more and more misery on the peoples of these countries.

There have also been civil wars. Although totally different animals, these wars are (as they always have been) the bloodiest affairs as brother kills brother as has been happening in Libya, Syria. Another conflict has also risen in Europe as Ukraine descends into further chaos. The war crime that saw an airliner being blown out of the sky is testament to the brutality of such wars.

And of course, there is the conflict in the Middle East. Israel has continued to respond to attacks by Hamas by pummelling Gaza. While the two factions (grossly mismatched) battle it out, it is the people of Gaza who are bearing the brunt of the attacks. Missiles and artillery shells have claimed the lives of hundreds as shells and rockets have rained down on schools, homes and refugee centres. Children have been blown up as they played in a makeshift park. Death and destruction is everywhere. The Middle East issue is so politicised that the West is paralyzed and will not do anything to stop Israel from committing atrocities that would earn stern rebuke if they happened anywhere else in the world.

Israel argues that it has a right to defend itself. But this is no defence. This is an assault on the world’s largest open air prison. A prison where no one can run and no one can hide. It is truly shocking.