Was World War I a Necessary War?

[SPC]

     I don't know how accurate it is, but I've always gotten the impression that WWI was a rather pointless war (disjointed series of conflicts, really) that didn't need to be fought at all.

Most wars are pointless.

Concured.

It seems like the war could have easily been avoided if the European powers were more focused on their own defense and less focused on the defense of other countries.

[SPC]

A german victory would have been catastrophic for democracy and freedom in Europe.

Yeah, if the Germans had won, authoritarian dictators like Lenin, Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler might have come to power.

[SPC]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't Germany and Austria the two European nations most friendly towards Jews prior to WWI?

[SPC]

The only way the US -- read President Wilson -- would have remained neutral until the war exhausted itself (as it would have, because of the Spanish flu epidemic) was if the Russian empire remained a combatant throughout. This in spite of the occupation of Belgium, the poison gas, the submarine attacks, minefields in the Atlantic, ethnic pogroms, trench warfare, etc. The Zimmermann telegram was just a pretext.

The United States entered the war before the Russians surrendered, though. Do you mean that he would have entered the war of the Russian Provisional Government hadn't come to power in February 1917?