The Second World War — 70 Years Later

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDA3NmExZDYzZTBiMGJmOTY5ODAwZmUzZDU1ZmFmNWY= ^ | Victor Davis Hanson

[norton]

"It seems to me that MOST of the combatants is WW I were Queen Vic's relatives. “Great Britain” the “gift” that keeps on giving. "

Yeah.
Helluva shame we got this Anglo/common law thing foisted on us.
Think how great it'd be if we had been Portuguese or Spanish colonies back in 1776.

Just imagine if Pizarro had whipped the Cheyenne, Huron, and Nez Perce after finishing off those wimpy Aztecs.
Heck, if our ancestors had played their cards right we'd have french civil law all across the western states instead of only in Louisiana.

Shucks!
If only the Czar had held out for more time and money, Sara Palin would be a Russian and Glorious Leader wouldn't have a worry in the world.

PS: You guys are ignoring one of the most pivotal moments in the twentieth century; when the Japanese destroyed the Russian fleet about ten years before WW1.

[crazydad]

Ok my fingers were working faster then my brain... HAHA

[The Pack Knight]

You could stretch that back to the 1870s and the Franco-Prussian War, if not earlier. What was World War I, after all, but the result of the disruption of the European balance of power caused by the unification of Germany?

[BroJoeK]

from VDH: "But Versailles was far more lenient than what the Germans had planned for Britain and France should they have won in 1918. And it was not nearly as harsh as the terms the Germans imposed on a defeated Russia under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918, before they lost the larger conflict."

Add to this list German theft of Belgium wealth, described by one author sympathetic to Germany as:

"In a one month period of 1915, the Germans took 74,000 tons of coal, 6,100 tons of phosphates, 1,350 tons of ore, over 10,000 tons of other minerals like lead and pyrites, and over half the total production capacity of Belgian textile mills...

"In a proclamation issued in Brussels on December 13, 1916, the Germans required citizens to turn over any household item made of brass, copper, tin, nickel, bronze, or tombac. Articles the proclamation listed as examples included kitchen utensils, bathtubs, and doorknobs, among other things...

"...A reasonable estimate of the data shows that somewhere between 12-15 percent of Belgium's pre-war national wealth or approximately 22 billion francs, left the country or was destroyed by the Germans during the war"

So, only 12 to 15 percent of Belgium wealth was stolen or destroyed by Germans in WWI? How much is that? Well, in terms of today's US national wealth, it would be circa $10 trillion -- an amount surely no less than the reparations burden imposed on Germany at 1919 Versailles Peace Conference.

[Tenacious 1]

Ok the “Second World War” was nothing more than a continuation of the “First World War”. The 20th Century was embroiled in war from 1914 to 1991. Anyone have any other thought please ping me.

I guess if you give a loose definition of war and generally accept all combat as "war" then I would argue there has never been complete peace on earth.

World Peace? Has there ever been a time when there was not a violent conflict going on somewhere in the world? Back to David and Goliath, the Roman Empire, Crusades and all battles and national skirmishes in between.

I could see a case being made that from 1914 to 1991 the causes were related and part of a common ideological conflict was at the root. WWI, WWII, Cold War, Korea, Vietnam,....