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| [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, [8], 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: Lessons | |
Author: Dave (UK) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 20:16:18 11/15/04 Mon In reply to: A 's message, "Remembering, but learning?" on 18:25:16 11/15/04 Mon I share the sentiments of most of those here who recognise that the remembrance events are about respect, not analysis. However, as a side note, I would point out that a lot WAS learnt between the two world wars with regard to combat technique. There was a greater respect for the lives of the soldiers who were asked to fight in WW2. Thankfully, the futile slaughter and arrogant stupidity that characterised the efforts in the trenches of the Western Front and the Gallipoli campaign, were largely absent from WW2. The Second World War invented much of the military doctrine, techniques and technology that we use today. WW1 fighting was not so different to the campaigns of the Napoleonic wars, and the American war of Independence, with green tunics instead of red ones. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> [> [> Subject: Addendum | |
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Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 20:25:04 11/15/04 Mon If we want to debate political lessons, what would be the best one to learn from WW2? Personally, I think it would have been that appeasement does not save lives, and that we should have invaded Germany in 1933. I wonder how many people would agree with that statement, while being vehemently opposed to the Iraq war. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> Subject: Possibly | |
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Author: Ed Harris (venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 20:55:59 11/15/04 Mon But in 1933 Germany had no weapons and it would have been hard to second-guess how closely Nazi foreign policy would live upto Nazi rhetoric. If we are going to roll up our sleeves and play the hind-sight game, I would say that we should have declared war on Japan when WWII really started in 1936, with their invasion of Manchuria (our identification of Sept 1939 as the start of the war is as ignorant as the Americans' attempt to date the start of WWII as the bombing of Pearl Harbour). Had we done that, as opposed to letting them have their way, then Hitler would have thought twice about invading Czechoslovakia and Poland; without military expansion and the theft of raw materials and the acquisition of slave labour, Nazi Germany's economy would have been unsustainable, and his regime would eventually have crumbled under internal pressures, as in all dictatorships. Sic semper tyrannis. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> Subject: War in China | |
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Author: Nick (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 13:32:11 11/16/04 Tue But if we had declared war on Japan in 1936, how much of the world would have followed us? The British Empire only began to re-arm half-heartedly in 1936 having idealistically and under American pressure scrapped most of its military capability in the 1920s. We probably couldn't have won a war against Japan, and with the only obvious non-fascist superpower engaged in a futile war in China, there would have been nothing to stop Hitler invading eastern Europe. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> Subject: Yep | |
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Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 22:31:45 11/15/04 Mon "But in 1933 Germany had no weapons and it would have been hard to second-guess how closely Nazi foreign policy would live upto Nazi rhetoric." Exactly, this is why I drew the comparison with Iraq... [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I could easily apply a similar comparison to half the countries in the world. | |
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Author: Roberdin [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 22:46:21 11/15/04 Mon [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I'm sure you can... | |
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Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:23:59 11/15/04 Mon And we'll probably be at war with one of them in years to come... [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Probably several. | |
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Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 03:43:43 11/16/04 Tue [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> Subject: we learned that air power is crucial | |
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Author: Ian (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:42:56 11/15/04 Mon and that it is apparently acceptable to test new weapons on your enemies after they are defeated, as long as they have not formally surrendered. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> Subject: As always, the situations are different... | |
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Author: Roberdin [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 20:37:02 11/15/04 Mon [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |