tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post116604333011501856..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Change One ThingAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-59954664876299072282006-12-17T14:33:00.000-05:002006-12-17T14:33:00.000-05:00Remember that after WWII the US sent the soldiers ...Remember that after WWII the US sent the soldiers to College and they came out ready to work and innovate. Our presant day prosperity dates from that. The no-war alternative would have left the US in deep depression and ripe for the development of a dictator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-65162557037815381812006-12-17T05:11:00.000-05:002006-12-17T05:11:00.000-05:00Unfortunate as it is to say, I really believe one ...Unfortunate as it is to say, I really believe one of main reasons Hitler was <i>really</i> defeated and Nazi ideals don't hang on to this day (minus the freaks gathered in Iran), is Hitler <b>had</b> to build the extermination camps.<br /><br />If you intervene too early in a movement where the participants are blind to their folly, it is like trying to drag an alcoholic to therapy while the good times are still happening.<br /><br />And yes, I am trying to make a comparison in how we deal with the Islamofacists. Timing is critical. (And no we can't solve it without getting hurt or taking real risks)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-45469056765452523712006-12-16T22:53:00.000-05:002006-12-16T22:53:00.000-05:00There are several things I wish had happened diffe...There are several things I wish had happened differently during and prior to WWII. Of course, it would be ideal to avoid the whole thing, or at least anything that resulted in horrific suffering and deaths, but I'm not enough of an historian to speculate how altered events would impact history. Anyway, as Jaed and AVI mention, the alternatives might have been worse rather than better.<br /><br />Nevertheless, I think I would be willing to redo Roosevelt's agreements at Yalta to almost anything else, and I'd bet the post-WWII free world would have been better off as a result.<br /><br />BTW, my word verification is "suckpd." I hope that's not a statement on the intrinsic worth of my comment.DRJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18185807047984353497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-4156624465583504512006-12-16T21:01:00.000-05:002006-12-16T21:01:00.000-05:00I can think of two possibilities. 1] Undersecret...I can think of two possibilities. 1] Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson acto on Patton's conviction that the Soviets should be pushed back out of Eastern Europe after VE day. 2] Strike the reparations from the Treaty of Versailles. They were bad enough to be seen as punative, but not bad enough to actually prevent Germany from re-making its industrial base. They were also the reason that the French invaded the Ruhr in the first place (the Germans hadn't sent the required reparations).<br /><br />In reality, WW II was the last in a long chain of linked-together European wars. The only reason that the chain was broken was that Germany was leveled and then rebuilt into a modern government and state at the allies whim, and that the British and Americans had the foresight to be benevolent in victory.Jerub-Baalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17011380665828984398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-83793028084632248562006-12-16T13:23:00.000-05:002006-12-16T13:23:00.000-05:00To continue my post above - perhaps he could have ...To continue my post above - perhaps he could have enlisted their support by promising them that after the conquest of the middle east, that they would receive a homeland, maybe in Palestine.tomcalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14832644088020680313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-75208110583082634512006-12-16T13:13:00.000-05:002006-12-16T13:13:00.000-05:00What if Hitler had not been Anti-Semitic at all? ...What if Hitler had not been Anti-Semitic at all? What if he had somehow engaged the German Jewish population in his war effort. They fought for their country in World War I; I presume as valiantly as the rest of the German Population.<br /><br />What if instead wasting tremendous energy and resources in trying to wipe out what could have been one of his greatest resources, the German Jewish Community, he had enlisted them in his campaign for world domination?tomcalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14832644088020680313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-54902348681586168452006-12-16T11:22:00.000-05:002006-12-16T11:22:00.000-05:00We should have had a "League of Nations" and given...We should have had a "League of Nations" and given Hitler twelve years of resolutions to be nice. Then, in the unlikely event of war, flooded the news with U.S. casualties and exaggerated reports of civilian deaths on a daily basis to undermine public support and bring the war to a premature end and hope for the best, all in the name of patriotism. We could throw in some reports, false but accurate, that our troops were raping women and killing babies. Then, we could say that the holocaust never happened. Oh, wait. I'm confusing this with the Iraqi war. My bad.Woodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14769952940899625670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-10499694178226708312006-12-16T10:50:00.000-05:002006-12-16T10:50:00.000-05:00For those who favor the 1936 intervention, what do...For those who favor the 1936 intervention, what do you speculate that Japan would have done after?Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-42539736957555859802006-12-15T22:23:00.000-05:002006-12-15T22:23:00.000-05:00As gm roper said, the best time to pre-empt WWII w...As gm roper said, the best time to pre-empt WWII would have been during the Rhineland crisis of 1936. The balance of forces against Germany was stronger then than it would be at the time of Munich. One reason for France's failure to act was lack of support from Britain. (The climate of opinion is indicated by one newspaper editorial which said a newspaper editorial: "There is no more reason why German territory should be demilitarized than French, Belgian, or British.")<br /><br />Another reason is that France had only one mobilization plan, and pulling the trigger on that would greatly disrupt the country and the economy--something the politicians were not willing to do. There was no alternative plan for partial mobilization, which probably would have been sufficient to defeat the fairly small German force involved.<br /><br />Andre Beaurfe, who was a young Captain on the French staff in 1936, and later became a general, describes the whole sad affair in his important book "1940: The Fall of France."David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-23515364325898813872006-12-15T17:57:00.000-05:002006-12-15T17:57:00.000-05:00Darn AVI, I was hoping to get through the day with...Darn AVI, I was hoping to get through the day without any humility at all. <br /><br />GM <---Walking away, head hanging humbly--->Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-88607747257709633432006-12-14T18:27:00.000-05:002006-12-14T18:27:00.000-05:00jaed - absolutely. Which is why the farther back ...jaed - absolutely. Which is why the farther back in history you go, the less confidence you have that a positive change would turn out to be positive a hundred years later.<br /><br />If we really had the power, I'm not sure any of us should dare to go back and change something even a year ago.<br /><br />I set it up because it's entertaining, and hopefully gives us a proper humility.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1166132565271548092006-12-14T16:42:00.000-05:002006-12-14T16:42:00.000-05:00We also have to take into account that in this alt...We also have to take into account that in this alternate universe, we wouldn't have the benefit of knowing what the alternative was.<BR/><BR/>Example: Britain declares war on Germany over Czechoslovakia. German military officers overthrow Hitler, accompanied by political confusion and resulting violence. Army becomes a single faction, eventually resulting in takeover by dictator.<BR/><BR/>Historians: "It is widely agreed that Britain's disastrously aggressive declaration of war set the stage for the tragedies that followed: civil war in Germany, the deaths of up to ten thousand Germans in the unrest, and the loss of Germany's vital democratic tradition to dictatorship. If only we could go back in history and show the British the horror that their foolish declaration created!"<BR/><BR/>You see the problem. If you don't see the carnage that was avoided, you tend to assume the alternative to the carnage you did see would have been perfect peace.jaedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03328666344764784829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1166111151003881122006-12-14T10:45:00.000-05:002006-12-14T10:45:00.000-05:00Terri's suggestion put me in mind of Stephen Fry's...Terri's suggestion put me in mind of Stephen Fry's book "Making History," in which a young grad student is able to prevent the birth of Hitler.<BR/><BR/>The outcome is not exactly what he hoped for...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1166065437778563562006-12-13T22:03:00.000-05:002006-12-13T22:03:00.000-05:00I have to agree with gm roper, citing the same Ger...I have to agree with gm roper, citing the same German officers. Second choice, France & GB back up Czechs in 1938. It would have deprived Hitler of Czech munitions and they would have got going with one less year of German reamament.Cappyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06296544117356338654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1166054280686942042006-12-13T18:58:00.000-05:002006-12-13T18:58:00.000-05:00here's one...how about Eva Braun catches Hitler in...here's one...how about Eva Braun catches Hitler in a torrid affair and murders him in a jealous rage?<BR/>:-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1166045562540892352006-12-13T16:32:00.000-05:002006-12-13T16:32:00.000-05:00There are multiple "alternative histories that cou...There are multiple "alternative histories that could have changed the world. My favorite one in WWII would have been for a French Armored Division to meet the German's at the bridges and byways when Germany re-occupied the Ruhr district in 1936. German Wehrmacht Officers have said that Germany might have folded at that point and the Wehrmacht overthrown the dictator for making bad guesses.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com