4/6/1917

[Gary Symonds]

Well history fans, today is the 103 anniversery of the US declaration of war against Imperial Germany, April 6, 1917.

One of this nation's biggest mistakes.

By putting the US thumb on the Europeon scale, all we did was make WW2 possible.

Had we stayed out of a war, where we had no real stake, the warring powers would have come to some kind of peace, and the second war would have been averted, in my opinion.

[VtwinVince]

I agree with your synopsis, but of course the bankers always want their pound of flesh, so to speak.

[Don D.]

Perhaps had we followed Pershing's advice and finished the job WW2 would never have happened. An unfinished war is never a good thing.

[PaulChep]

I can debate the necessity of the US get into WWI. However the job was finished. The world leaders had not control over Hitler coming to power in 1933. However they did have control when he took over the Rhineland in 1936. He should have been squashed at that point, but European leader lacked the balls to do it.

[blind pew]

Well history fans, today is the 103 anniversery of the US declaration of war against Imperial Germany, April 6, 1917.

One of this nation's biggest mistakes.

By putting the US thumb on the Europeon scale, all we did was make WW2 possible.

Had we stayed out of a war, where we had no real stake, the warring powers would have come to some kind of peace, and the second war would have been averted, in my opinion.

WW1 was THE sentinel moment in European history that has affected the world ever since. We kind of "owed" France for helping to create us as a nation.

The US would not have achieved its world domination had it not been for WW1; however, there were already cracks forming in the British Empire and new powers were rising in Asia. There still would have been some continental "showdown" in Europe to establish a definitive power on the continent, WW1 or not.

Who knows what the world would look like today in the absence of WW1. It is difficult to speculate on the specifics, but certainly it would be a different world.

[blind pew]

WW1 was THE sentinel moment in European history that has affected the world ever since. We kind of "owed" France for helping to create us as a nation.

The US would not have achieved its world domination had it not been for WW1; however, there were already cracks forming in the British Empire and new powers were rising in Asia. There still would have been some continental "showdown" in Europe to establish a definitive power on the continent, WW1 or not.

Who knows what the world would look like today in the absence of WW1. It is difficult to speculate on the specifics, but certainly it would be a different world.

The last time I went to the history museum at the Smithsonian, WW1 was given a little booth type area, while the Tuskeegee airmen, The Japenese Nissei unit, and the civil rights movement had massive areas devoted to them. I stopped in to bitch at the curator about being a PC history revisionist; he was, as expected, a smug lib who was not concerned with factual history. I have not been back since (that was 25 years ago).

[VtwinVince]

The original conflict a.k.a. WW1 and the continuation war a.k.a. WW2 were simply exercises in imperialism by European powers, soon to be overshadowed by the 'new Imperialists', ie. the USA and the Soviet Union.

[Gary Symonds]

I can debate the necessity of the US get into WWI. However the job was finished. The world leaders had not control over Hitler coming to power in 1933. However they did have control when he took over the Rhineland in 1936. He should have been squashed at that point, but European leader lacked the balls to do it.

Hitler was a product of the Verseilles Treaty.

No "stab in the back."

No Treaty, no Hitler.

No WW2.

[Don D.]

I can debate the necessity of the US get into WWI. However the job was finished. The world leaders had not control over Hitler coming to power in 1933. However they did have control when he took over the Rhineland in 1936. He should have been squashed at that point, but European leader lacked the balls to do it.

I disagree. Had we defeated and occupied Germany like Pershing wanted too then there would have been no "stab in the back" bull****. Hitler would probably been killed in the war along with a good portion of his boys. We could have stayed until there was a stable government.

FWIW we did the same mistake with the 1st Gulf War.