Posted on 05/18/2006 11:52:13 AM PDT by George W. Bush
I totally agree, luckily for us race politics took precedence over military and other political considerations.
Exactly. In addition, they are among the best and the brightest. They should have the honor of being recognized as such, as well as many others should ...but, oh well..not in France.
So France will once again "bleed" and loose many of it's best. Who cares, right? They are not from the government./s
France is not losing its doctors.
There is no medical exodus from France.
French doctors are respected in French society for what they do, and they make a good living.
All people in all professions everywhere grouse, and French doctors grouse, but they do not emigrate en masse the way that Canadian doctors do.
You're suggesting they do because of some fundamental flaw of the French system. France has had this system for a century. The doctors haven't left yet, and aren't starting to either. You need to tinker with your template.
"At the beginning of 20th century France and Russia were dominant powers of Europe (read world) second only to British Empire."
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the most powerful economy in the world was that of the United States.
The second most powerful economy was Germany.
The most powerful navy was that of Britain, and the most powerful army was that of Germany.
At the end of World War I, the Americans stepped onto the world stage and the full measure of American economic might was revealed in contrast to Europe. Before the war, America was far away and disregarded, and Europe was considered the "cockpit", but all European economies were small compared to America (which became the world's first economic power in the late 1870s). America was not the first military power only because the Americans did not convert economic power into military power as the Europeans did. Instead, the Americans reinvested everything into further developing the internal American economy.
The British Empire was a ramshackle affair linking a bunch of militarily weak natives together by a technologically superior British Army (which was not, however, competitive in European terms until general conscription made it large during the Great War). The British invested a lot of money building railroads and infrastructure abroad, and reaped economic advantage from it for awhile, but they also had to guard it: not much of the colonial world WANTED to be colonies, and as soon as the British grip was weakened by the grinding wars against an economically superior and militarily dangerous Germany, the British were unable to hold onto their key colonies, especially India. With the loss of India, the remainder of the Empire barely broke even, and was a very heavy political burden. The French Empire was little different in that regard, although it was more closely stitched into France proper.
France was traditionally recognized as the great power of Europe, thanks to centuries upon centuries of history. But it was not objectively true. The French population didn't grow much at all in the 19th Century, with the result that the British and the Germans both outnumbered the French by World War I. The French economy was modern, but it could not compete with Germany both because of sheer German numbers and because of relatively ruthless German organization.
So, yes, there certainly was the image of power and prestige reposing with Britain and France and Russia, but the REAL economic powerhouse of the world had been located in North America for 4 decades before the world realized it in World War I, and the real economic and military powerhouse was Europe, not Britain or France. Russia had always been powerful because of sheer size and population. But the Russian economy was always weak, and Russia had shown that she was vulnerable to Western armies as early as the Crimea, never mind Napoleon.
France, Britain and Russia allied against the Germans because they say how aggressive and confident the Germans were, and the German willingness to make war to aggrandize Germany. And they were right.
You mentioned German demands in World War I. Sure, there were economic demands. But the real key point is that they were willing to fling armies at their neighbors and murder tens of millions of people to extract trade concessions. That was what made them lawless, and dangerous, and why they provoked nearly universal alliances against them. If my neighbor says that he wants me to take down my fence, and starts walking around the yard with a high powered rifle to make the point that he's serious, it's time for me and the other neighbors to call the police.
The basic truth remains: World Wars I and II both were started because the Germans chose to precipitously attack their neighbors. They had their reasons, but they did not HAVE to do it. They CHOSE to do it. They started both wars, and they lost both wars. A good military strategist was able to look at the correlation of forces, look what Germany had versus what her enemies had, and calculate odds, and realize that Germany was intentionally starting two wars she didn't have to start, and which would take amazing luck to win.
So, why did they start either war?
Pride.
German pride drove them to commit national suicide.
Twice.
That is not military competence. It is grand strategic ineptitude of an apocalyptic level. With small prospects of victory and no necessity to fight, Germany launched two disastrous wars. This makes German strategic thinking on a par with the Mexican Santa Ana. He did the same thing. It was just as stupid on either continent.
If you can't win, you should not start wars.
Germany couldn't win either war without tremendous luck.
Rolling the dice with the life of a nation is dumb when you don't have to.
Best to keep it that way and keep a healthy respect for all professions.
"There is no medical exodus from France."
"Best to keep it that way and keep a healthy respect for all professions."
We agree.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.