The cost of war

[PTH]

Skilly said:

The question you do not answer is why Hitler wanted war. In the end, when he saw how powerful he made Germany it was for world domination, the preservation of his "elite race". But at its grassroots, he was just a poor kid ticked off at hard times and the way Germany was treated after WWI.

But you have disgruntled people all over the place - in Hitler's case he was fundamentally instable.

[franko]

Skilly said:

The question you do not answer is why Hitler wanted war. he was just a poor kid ticked off at hard times and the way Germany was treated after WWI.

You give Hitler too much credit. He was an opportunist who took the opportunity that was available to him in the vacuum that was a lack of other credible leadership.

Reparations had a bigger influence than you would think .... you don't see them being enforced today because kicking a country when its down is not the way to keep them down.

Reparations after WWI were tempered with (1) the fact that the way a country can pay reparations is to have an economy that is alive and (2) the fact that a country can benefit from the reparations by both receiving the reps andby providing materials/goods to the "offending" country when the economy is stimulated. The western countries should have benefited two ways from German reparations. However, it seems that France's hardline tactics came around to bite them on the butt.

[Habs_fan_in_LA]

Great speech by Schwarzenegger on the cost of not going to war!

[M. Beaux-Eaux]