War Loose in Europe

A century ago today, the first battle of the Great War began.

Over at Taki's Magazine, says Theodore Dalrymple:

For myself, I believe that the assassination was disastrous in effect and furthermore a wicked act. Franz Ferdinand was not a bad man, if not always an attractive one, and his dying words to his dying wife—“Sophie dear, don’t die, stay alive for the sake of our children”—still have the power to move, as has his insistence that his wound was nothing. A man may be tender in his personal relations and stoical in the face of suffering, and yet be a monster politically, but Franz Ferdinand was no political monster.

Writes The Guardian:

The Royal Armouries has verified that silk has bullet-stopping capabilities – but Archduke Franz Ferdinand forgot to wear his the day he was assassinated.

Elsewhere on the war: The Mad Monarchist, Ad Orientem (more)