To the editor:

I just finished reading Margaret MacMillan’s massive book called “The War That Ended Peace.” It deals with the gross incompetency of European politicians during the years leading up to the outbreak of World War I.

With the exception of France and Great Britain, Europe’s only major democracies at that time, the sole prerequisites for becoming a foreign policy adviser or an ambassador seemed to be wealth and noble bloodlines. Many of these people were naïve, untrained plutocrats, quite similar to the billionaires President-elect Donald Trump has nominated for his cabinet.

In great detail, MacMillan describes how Kaiser Wilhelm II, a spoiled, ill-tempered, bellicose “man child” had, over a period of 15 years or so, replaced all of the competent members in his government (including Otto von Bismarck) with militaristic sycophants. In the end, these men became largely responsible for plunging Germany and all the rest of Europe into the needless, devastating maelstrom of World War I.

We as a nation need to pray every day that history will not repeat itself.