Sir, please take no offense at this, but I strongly suggest you study the conflict more deeply.

The first attacks were by Austria-Hungary against Serbia. Russia mobilized to defend Serbia (which many Russians considered as something akin to an ally), and Germany warned Russia to stop mobilizing — which meant that Russia would have to stand back and allow Austria-Hungary to continue their invasion of Serbia unhindered. Russia refused, so Germany and Russia declared war on each other on 8/1/14.

The very next day Germany launched its invasion of Luxembourg and a few days later sent its army to invade Belgium. The Brits had signed a treaty and defense agreement with Belgium to defend them against invasion. So Britain was legally bound — and more importantly, in the context of the times, honor-bound — to defend Belgium, and so declared war.

When I say Britain felt “honor-bound”, if you’ll read some of the more detailed histories, you find that while the Brits had actually been for neutrality until the very day that Germany invaded Belgium, and it’s been noted several times that Britain’s attitude as a whole changed literally overnight, as soon as they read the newspapers and listened to the radio. Most felt Britain could not stand by while Germany — which had so soundly beaten France a mere 40 years before — poured all its might on little Belgium.

That — and not Churchill — was what drove the Brits to declare war on Germany.

The Germans were incensed that the Brits would declare war just because of “a scrap of paper” — the defense agreement — but most nations honor such agreements. After all, it’s that metaphorical ‘scrap of paper’ that has been holding NATO together for decades.

So…no, bringing the UK into WWI is not Churchill’s fault. Was he for the war? Surely. But he was not the one who made the decision.