Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Id who wrote (128324)	4/3/2004 11:40:01 AM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Here's how a pacifist U.S. could have avoided WW2: 1. WW2 was really the second stage of a war that lasted from 1914 to 1945 (with a long truce in the middle). The reason why WW2 happened, is because the conflicts of WW1 were not settled. 2. I agree with you, that once Hitler was in power, war was inevitable. So, the question becomes: What could the U.S. have done, without a resort to force, using only economic/diplomatic means, to keep Hitler out of power? Several viable alternatives, roads not chosen: 3. We could have stayed out of WW1. In 1917, the British, French, and Russian Empires were ruling most of the world, and ruling it by force, without any democracy or freedom. From Ireland (where Irish patriots were being executed), to S. Africa, to India, the Brits used oppression and violence to maintain their dominance. They were no better than the Germans. We could simply have decided they weren't worth fighting for. WW1 would then have ended, in an exhausted truce, or a German victory on the Continent. And WW2 would not have happened. 4. Or, we could have insisted, as the price of our entry into WW1, that the Allies accept Wilson's plan for the post-war settlement. What happened is, we won the war for them, and then they ignored Wilson when writing the Versailles Treaty. That punitive settlement was a direct cause of WW2. In every speech Hitler made, during his rise to power, he attacked the Versailles Treaty. 5. Another direct cause of Hitler's election (yes, he was democratically elected by the Germans), was the Great Depression. The Nazi Party in Germany was tiny, until the Depression. The U.S. could have avoided the Depression, or shortened it. I could discuss all day, the economic policy mistakes made in the 1920s and 1930s. Our counter-productive response to the market crash, was to initiate a tariff war, which led to the collapse of world trade for a decade. Less dysfunctional economic policies could have avoided Hitler's election.