that the lessons of WW I were instrumental in turning the US into the Arsenal of Democracy. The doughboys fought in French and British aircraft and tanks, but by 1940 it was the British being kept afloat by Lend-Lease. While the majority of America stayed isolationist till 70 years ago, WW I did create a hard nucleus of realists who were able to ramp up production and mobilization to unheard of levels in a very short time. Hitler declared war on the US on a whim in 1941 precisely because nobody in Europe thought anything like that was possible.

Well, I suppose the proper chain of causation is that you cannot have Pearl Harbor without Japanese estrangement from the West; you cannot have Japanese estrangement from the West without the Washington Naval Treaty; you cannot have the Washington Naval Treaty without Britain bankrupting itself to the point that it desperately wants to avoid a naval arms race with the United States; and you cannot have Britain bankrupting itself without the First World War.

More to the point: WW1 did the bulk of the work dynamiting the material and cultural foundations that undergird a world order dominated by Europe: While it took WW2 to sweep away the edifice, you could not get there without WW1. The conflicts are inextricably linked: Hence why I make the point that the most pivotal event was the one which sent the train-wreck into motion in the first place.

The seeds of WW II were sown in the fields and trenches of WW II. We can look back now, and understand how easily Hitler could have been stopped, early on, with a minimum of resolve, and a willingness to use force judiciously. Chamberlain, waving a piece of paper, and promising “peace in our time” is a near universal figure of ridicule, yet just about nobody today understands the mindset of Europe after WW I. An entire generation was decimated, the flower of England’s youth cut down, as incompetent generals threw away battallions in a single day, for naught.

We correctly revere the battlefields and gravesites of WW II…we have forgotten those of WW I. It is possible today to walk the WW I trenches, from the Swiss border all the way to Belgium, to see where hundreds of thousands of men died, over a few miles of ground..to see the monuments to incredible bravery and monumental stupidity.

See this, and you can understand why England and France wanted to do everything possible to avoid another war, until the decision was taken from them. And why fear of war can’t be allowed to paralyze us from taking decisive action, to have the courage of our beliefs and convictions, that we ARE in the right, and that we are willing to use our militay might to protect ourselves, and avoid the greater inevitable conflict.

Sadly, we still haven’t learned the lesson. We fight the war on Terror with at least one hand tied behind our backs, and allow ourselves to be paralyzed into inaction.

Only the Israelis have learned the lesson well..”Never again” is their watchword. They have done it twice before, taking out the nucleal sites in Iran and Syria, and no doubt will soon do it again, in Iran. And they will thus save the world froma far greater tragedy.

but I don’t see where he succeeded. The rejection of the League of Nations Treaty was really us declining to get involved with foreign nutters.

the contemporaneous record indicates that contrary to the various conspiracy theories, FDR was actually shocked when the Japanese did attack.

Because the Germans were attacking US merchant ships…..

Not because of a conspiracy to get us into the war…

of the state of historical research on the subject.

without a doubt as my step-father, just 18 years old, was in North Africa prior to December 7, 1941. Their orders were to hide out and not be detected by Axis forces.

They wanted to get troops over there before war was officially declared because of the U-boats and Luftwaffe.

Whenever you find yourself writing, “Pat Buchanan just wrote a good opinion piece on this subject”, whether the subject matter is Nazis or tourniquet…

1) Remind yourself that “Pat Buchanan wrote the following” is only appropriate as alternate spelling for “Warning: Stupidity Ahead”.

2) Find out what your BAC level is.

3) Release the hostages, if they are still alive.

4) In the future, refrain from mixing your uppers with your downers.

It’s just like a sneaky Jap to give all the credit for American glories to the Emperor.

No profanity. Says it in big bold letters. Or is calling someone a douche not considered profane here? sad. Fail #2 in 1 day.

Bri