Posted on 03/13/2023 2:57:45 PM PDT by Az Joe
Despite the final horrific death toll, many believed war in Europe would be over in months, writes a leading historian.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Yet most of Europe's military chiefs did not, in fact, expect a short war.
The Chief of the German General Staff had predicted a struggle lasting between 18 months and two years. His French and Austrian opposite numbers took a similar view.
Itβs bad when the headline is off by 100 years.
Lots of Germans and French young men, signing up for the war, expected it to be short.
What are you talking about?
I think Britain’s war propaganda also promised “home by Christmas.” Perhaps every nations’ propaganda did so. At the very least, they encouraged that expectation among the recruits.
Attempts at making historical analogies/parallels between two sets of events in two time periods are most often wrong, because they leave out too many variables that are different and as much factors in the consequences as anything else.
The Civil War was supposed to be over in a month. A senator said all of he blood that would be spilled could be wiped up with a pocket hankie.
The main difference between 1914 and 2023 is that in 1914 there were two alliances at war with each other. In 2023 there’s Russia facing off mostly alone (does Belarus really count?) against Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, France, the UK, the USA, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovenia, and of course, Ukraine.
There is no grand alliance backing Russia. They stand alone.
Today, yes.
Back then, no.
http://www.gallup-international.bg/files/2015/05/images_Fight_0515_2.jpg
Western Europe is a weak old man waiting to be knocked down by some younger meaner guy. They have no will to fight. A few do, but they are the minority and in fact are seen as weird by the majority of appeasing, pacifist, socialist, homo, emasculated society. Being a real man damn near makes you a threat in that society, but that is happening here too just to a slightly lesser degree for now.
Look at the attack on the UFC, boxing, football... guns, hunting... Look at how men are being feminized and male communication, leadership and conflict resolution are all seen as bad.
While we talk about the patriarchy, the reality has a society majority women (men manage to eliminate themselves at a sooner age from society) and they vote more often and have jobs and money. So society today has become DEFINED by women in the West may that be in education (completely defined by women) or the law (example divorce which strongly favors women with alimony, child custody, or if domestic violence is alleged, etc).
+1 π
And they are winning. Lol. Some alliance ya got there.π
Political leaders always imagine that wars will be short and that they can control the course that wars will take.
But wars take on a life of their own. They go on for far longer than anyone predicts, and they are very expensive in lives and money.
It’s why we shouldn’t let fools drag us into wars that we can avoid. Bring back the draft. Watch how quickly the zeal for war evaporates when the dead and the damaged start coming back home.
Ukraine is indeed winning against the barbarians from Russia.
Yet Russia controls about 1/3 of Ukraine at this time. Winning???
I just asked my smart speakers how much Russia controls and it said about 18%, They are sputtering and they will not hold it much longer.
It wasn’t that the generals were stupid or oblivious to the challenges of trenches, quite the opposite. They kept hoping for a “quick knockout” to avoid the trenches, then one battle at a time got drawn into precisely the kind of warfare they wanted to avoid.
Crimea is more than 18%
Women simply do not wish to do the hard work of governing, so they elect mostly men to do it for them.
Look who has the money and the votes. Both are majority controlled by women.
I think we agree on this.
How many illegal alien invaders would follow orders from Putin, Xi, AMLO, of the mullahs to take up arms in these western nations? Especially unarmed Europe.
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