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To: Nachum
40 THOUSAND controlled a nation of 80 MILLION.

Not exactly. Behind those 40k stood all the police (presumably some hundreds of thousands), the various paramilitary forces of the Party (numbering some millions at their peak, if I remember correctly), and a highly efficient military numbering millions, though not at the same time as the peak numbers of the paramilitary forces.

And if it had come to actual civil war, it appears that a very considerable majority of that 80M would have chosen to fight on the Nazi side.

None of which should be taken to mean I oppose armed resistance to evil when necessary. Wise men count the cost of a battle before charging into it. Sometimes they charge into a battle they can't win. But at least they're aware that's what they're doing.

3 posted on 12/19/2013 5:50:25 PM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan
Wise men count the cost of a battle before charging into it. Sometimes they charge into a battle they can't win. But at least they're aware that's what they're doing.

One of the Just War criteria is that there must be a reasonable chance of victory, before one can choose to go to war. However, even in their otherwise pacifist encyclical on nuclear war, issued about 30 years ago, the Catholic Bishops stated that a hopeless fight against evil can still be a "proportionate witness." Sometimes standing up against evil is justified even if the odds are badly against you.

4 posted on 12/19/2013 6:04:33 PM PST by JoeFromSidney ( book, RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY, available from Amazon.)
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To: Sherman Logan

In addition, IIRC, the ratio of civilian informants to Gestapo agents was about five to one. This was true under Stasi as well, except most in the Reich were voluntary, but under communism were made up of compromised persons forced to rat on their fellow citizens.


7 posted on 12/19/2013 6:26:25 PM PST by elcid1970 ("In the modern world, Muslims are living fossils.")
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

10 posted on 12/20/2013 4:56:54 AM PST by SJackson (the Democrats take back control, we donÂ’t make (this) kind of naked power grab, J Biden)
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