Posted on 11/18/2017 5:48:48 AM PST by Kaslin
World War I was the greatest folly by far to befall Western civilization. The second greatest folly was America entering the catastrophe. The totalitarian rebounds that followed were consequences that could have been avoided.
I am not excusing German militarism, which indeed played a major part. The kaiser was arguably mentally ill, with dreams of martial glory and building an empire.
He had ignored the advice of Bismarck, who, though militarist himself, had enough sense to limit his territorial ambitions. Bismarck knew that Germany was surrounded on all sides and that it is not good to provoke rivals. So the kaiser pressured Bismarck to resign. The kaiser wanted Germany to have her "Place in the Sun."
The problem was that the sun was already owned by the British, and it never set on their empire.
Now, to be sure, British complaints about German militarism rang hollow when Britain sought a navy as big as her next two competitors combined, and when the British Empire owned a quarter of the planet, against the wishes of most of its inhabitants. The French Empire was similarly culpable, though not quite as large. Nor can the French be excused of the charge of militarism. After her defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, France went on an arms-building binge. Her policy toward Germany was "revanchism" – revenge.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Mr. Konrad should stick to Spanish and small computers. His history leaves a bit to be desired.
......World War I was the greatest folly by far to befall Western civilization. The second greatest folly was America entering the catastrophe.....
RIGHT!!!!
WW2 was merely an extension of WW1. WW1 has cast it’s long shadow on the issues before us today.
Totally agree. The commonwealth nations were used by England as pure cannon fodder. Thank God that Pershing essentially told the Brits to go pound sand when it was proposed that American troops be only used as replacements in British and french units. FTK....now FTQ
Between 1914-1945 Europe lost forever its best genetic stock. Much of the remnant is pathetic. The best image of the decadence that remains was a picture in 2015 of a German male clad in a dress smiling broadly and waving a hearty welcome to the Muslim migrants walking unopposed into what had been Germany. Never again should brave young Americans die on their behalf.
I have never been able to read much about the mindless slaughter called World War I. Even Hitler and Stalin, as almost totally evil as they were, would not allow the use of poison gas. And the British general who ordered the attack across no-man’s land and 20,000 soldiers killed in one morning.
Konrad’s predictions as to the results of the U.S. staying out of WWI are filled with guess work and wishful thinking.
The anonymous author assumes that the British and French would have won the war without the US, not a good assumption. Germany defeated Russia decisively, put their ally Lenin in power, and could transfer their army to France. Unrestricted submarine warfare could have easily starved Britain out of the war.
The US had to choose between entering the war or allowing a probable German victory. Did the US make the correct choice? We will never know, because we will never know what would have happened otherwise.
I agree with you and his take on it is rambling nonsense.
Regardless, I have long felt that American involvement in World War I was a grave mistake.
A somewhat cynical reprise of post Civil War history looks like this:
I trace American involvement in World War I to the Civil War. Slavery was a relic barbarism, and needed to be eradicated. To deny that the Civil War was about slavery is naked sophistry. But the ascendence of self-righteous glory hounds in the aftermath was not healthy for American political order.
The immediate after effect was the Spanish-American War, which got America entwined in East Asia and saddled us with Cuba and Puerto Rico, two dysfunctional polities on our borders.
Fresh off victory over the remnants of the Mighty Spanish Empire, a yearning nation’s blue-eyed pride looked for further fields of glory. Or went looking for trouble and found it in Flanders fields.
The demons unleashed came to roost (to mix a metaphor) in 1941. They were demons, they deserved to defeated, and at great cost in blood and treasure. Yet somehow, I feel the worst of this could have been avoided.
My grandfather, Edward P Smith came out of the trenches to serve the Army of Occupation. He survived the gas, the awful trench warfare. He hardly mentioned it to my dad. After all he went through he must have been brokenhearted to see the beginning of WW2 and his son have to go. We still have his helmet.
Agreed.
From what little I have read about the politics surrounding the start of the war, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was the most idiotic single act of all.
It seems that the Archduke was in favor of many of the reforms that the people of the Austro-Hungarian empire desired. That included more autonomy for the Serbs.
If the assassin had failed and the Archduke ascended to the throne the history of Europe might be much different.
Maybe.
WW I proved the end of the 19th Century and started the bloody 20th that took the lives of Millions via, conquest, war, communism and fascism. Only one winner of this folly—the USA. As top dog on the planet, we replaced the British Empire and, sadly, I don’t think we have done as well running things as the Victorians of old. To rule the world a dominate nation-state must become right bast*rds, heartless as the Ancient Romans in the Ancient World. Its not in our nature to be the murdering, feared, masters of the world. The Islamic people see we have no heart for it and use our humanity in a bid to take the crown from us (Yes, they can be cruel masters—just look at ISIS). America must step up or hand the crown to another nation—China? Russia?
-tipped over into insanity when my uncle enlisted after Pearl Harbor-- Granddad spent the rest of his life iin aVA hospital---
Mr. Konrad should know that the British cut the trans Atlantic cable from the continent to America at the very start of WWI.
This insured that only the British version of events got much play in the United States.
Imagine a terrorist organization that killed 3,000 Americans in one day, and the leader of the terrorists getting free harbor in a country that refused to give up this terrorist. Would America invade and take him?
Yup. We call the place Afghanistan.
But for sake of argument, imagine this terrorist, rather than killing all those people, personally assassinated the President Elect of the Unite States, and then fled to Afghanistan who then refused to give him up to justice? Would we still invade? I think so.
The same thing started WWI.
A Bosnian Serb killed the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian (AH) throne, and then fled to Serbia, who refused to give him up. Finally, AH invade Serbia. Russia mobilized against AH, Imperial Germany mobilized against Russia, France mobilized against Imperial Germany, and the British did the same due to a treaty with France.
And then it was on.
Stupidest reason to have a global war, ever.
Serbia should have been destroyed for not giving up the murderer. And nothing else. Russia had a treaty with Serbia, BUT Serbia did a very bad thing, and the Russians should not have stood by their treaty because the Serbian government was MAD.
“Its not in our nature to be the murdering, feared, masters of the world.“
I’m not so sure about that. If you’d put it to a vote in 1943 Americans would have quite happily exterminated every Japanese on the planet. We’d have made what the Romans did to Carthage look like a Sunday school picnic.
L
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.