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To: Colonel Kangaroo

GW...George Washington... wasn’t crazy when he warned about “entangling alliances.” They led to WW I.


2 posted on 12/13/2013 6:22:02 AM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Pearls Before Swine
I've got mixed feelings about this. I believe we need to militarily pull back considerably in some regions, but in others if we do not get involved early and convincingly things will surely get out of hand to the point we do get involved and the eventual cost to us will be significantly higher.

That said I do not think this president is capable of doing anything convincingly.

3 posted on 12/13/2013 6:28:46 AM PST by skeeter
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To: Pearls Before Swine

The issue in WWI was inherently conflicting interests and Great Power competition. The “entangling alliances” merely formalized those factors.

The only Power for which I’m aware that the existence of an alliance played a possibly definitive factor in its entering the War was UK and its guarantee of Belgium.

Yet even this claim falls apart on examination. Would UK really have been willing to stand by and watch as Germany took over Belgium and France, the likely result of a war with UK neutral? When this violated UK standard foreign policy going back many centuries of opposing any power that seemed likely to gain unchallenged hegemony on the Continent?

IMO, the definitive factor in the outbreak of general war was Germany’s belief (probably accurate) that their relative position vs. France and Russia was at its peak, and would only decline in future years as Russia’s political and economic reforms bore fruit. If Germany was to dominate Europe and the world, it needed to strike NOW.

This was a classic example of a pre-emptive war, just as Japan’s attack on the US was, and for very much the same reason. As such, they were example of offensive tactics used in what was perceived as a defensive strategy.

It should be noted that several countries, such as Italy, ignored their “entangling alliances” and acted in what they saw as their own interests.


11 posted on 12/13/2013 6:47:49 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Pearls Before Swine

If we revisit the treaty with Japan, we also have to revisit the parts that limit their own military. That was the trade-off we made.


21 posted on 12/13/2013 7:39:52 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There's no salvation in politics.)
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