| I never said, nor implied, that the French were pansies. Nor did I suggest that fighting to the death was particularly smart. Nor did I, at least, suggest that Americans were remarkable for valor. The fact is, in warfare, playing defense requires fewer troops than playing offense, so your population observations mean little. The willingness to fight is, of course, measurable in the willingness to concede that one has to prepare for some battle, sooner or later. Since I said that Verdun alone was insufficient to account for it, you seem once more to miss the point. However, the leaders in the run up to WWII were the very men who had suffered in the trenches of WWI, and seen so many of their friends killed. As I said, France suffered, proportionately, more than any other country. If you do not believe this had anything to do with how they approached the prospect of another war, so much the worse for you....... |
