Knocking On War's Door

For a time, reset, concessions and appeasement work to delay wars. But finally, nations wake up, grasp their blunders, rearm and face down enemies. That gets dangerous. The shocked aggressors cannot quite believe that their targets are suddenly serious and willing to punch back. Usually, the bullies foolishly press aggression, and war breaks out.

It was insane of Nazi Germany and its Axis partners to even imagine that they could defeat the Allied trio of Imperial Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States.

Hitler figured that for a decade America had been unarmed and isolationist. Britain repeatedly had appeased the Third Reich. The Soviets initially collaborated with Hitler.

Hitler met no opposition after militarizing the Rhineland. He annexed Austria with impunity. He gobbled up Czechoslovakia without opposition.

Why shouldn't Hitler have been stunned in 1939 when exasperated Britain and France finally declared war over his invasion of distant Poland?

Six years of war and some 60 million dead followed, re-establishing what should have been the obvious fact that democracies would not quite commit suicide.

GLOBAL WAR ALERT: “Heavy fighting could flare up at any moment”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7y7ouUFxmo

NATO Forces practice Night Raid on “Russian” Communications
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXvwJTmlDHg

FBI Agent Slips Reveals True Purpose of JADE HELM 15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FXmORzbdVU

NEWS ALERT: NATO threatens Russia amidst LIVE Fire Military Exercises
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SldGaUMR_Wo

JADE HELM: HONOR OR DECEPTION?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkK_5j98HLo

So OK the withdrawal of US strength is already manifest.

Our partners in the western Pacific who have been protected under the US Taxpayer-funded defense umbrella are now threatened by China and seeing limp-wrist Obama looking away are now funding their defense forces. That's a little bit of a silver lining.

The Euro snots need to recognize that the only thing that is going to stop Vlad from rolling over them is their own spines - or whats left of them.

Given the shackled US economy there should be no fantasizing about the good old days when everyone could depend on Uncle Sam's cavalry. Japan, India, and Vietnam are waking up and that's a good thing.

It was insane of Nazi Germany and its Axis partners to even imagine that they could defeat the Allied trio of Imperial Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. But why not try?
Hitler figured that for a decade America had been unarmed and isolationist. Britain repeatedly had appeased the Third Reich. The Soviets initially collaborated with Hitler.

First, Hitler initially did not take on Britain, the USSR, and the USA. He called the bluff of Britain and France by invading Poland (in September, 19390) in conjunction with the USSR. Britain and France declared war of Germany - in accordance with their commitments - but did nothing. Germany also initially did nothing to France and Britain, resulting in what was called a "sitzkreig" in contrast with the "blitzkreig" - "lightning war" of German war doctrine.
The second shoe dropped when Hitler attacked France and the Low Countries, shattering the resistance in France - and forcing British evacuation from Dunkirk - in about a month. Then came the aerial Battle of Britain, intended as a prelude to a German invasion of Britain, which was a close-run thing, but failed to break down British defensive capability. At that point, Hitler was in the cat-bird seat in Europe.
The third act was Hitler's invasion of the USSR on the first day of summer, 1941. It was initially a smashing success as the invasion of Poland and France had been - but the vast distances of the USSR gave Stalin time to regroup. The invasion of the USSR overextended the German Army.
But failure was not guaranteed until Hitler's declaration of war on the US a week after Pearl Harbor. Although Japan was allied with Germany, Germany was not treaty-obligated to declare war on the US - but Hitler did it anyway, knowing that it was inviting strategic defeat. And initially, the U-boat war on US shipping to Britain was a smashing success. Hundreds of cargo ships were sunk in the first 9 months. The US government kept secret (from the Germans?) how many American ships had been sunk - and also how many U-boats it had sunk (which was zero.)
Having been in the War Department during WWI, FDR knew that American-produced war material never got to Europe before Armistice Day, and that such a debacle could not be afforded if America were embroiled in WWII. Accordingly, after the Fall of France FDR recruited Bill Knudsen, the most respected production manager of the time, to head up war mobilization. Asked how long mobilization would take, Knundsen (who had headed Chevrolet) said, 18 months to build factories and equip them with precision machine tools, and staff the factories. That was approximately 18 months before Pearl Harbor.
During that time FDR (facing 80% opposition to entry into WWII, just as Nevil Chamberlain had in Britain prior to the invasion of Poland) did everything he could to sustain the British war effort. Consequently, two seemingly contradictory things were true:

America's inventory of war materiel was pathetic and,

the real "sleeping giant" - Americas capability to produce war materiel - was actually wide awake and prepared to predominate over all the Axis powers put together.
Hitler's invasion of Russia was a mistake. His declaration of war against the US was folly.

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