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Another part of this I saw posted on alt.fan.heinlein on USENET...

Why We Must Avoid War with Mordor

Grima Wormtongue

New Gondor Times Opinion Editorial

There are many in Gondor who would counsel war with Mordor, pickers of bones, meddlers in other men's sorrows, carrion-fowl that grow fat on war. While wizards and enchanters like that Stormcrow Gandalf and the Sorceress of the Golden Wood conspire to stage a power struggle with the rightfull Lord of the Rings, they intend to use us as cannon fodder in their schemes to gain control of the One Ring of Power for themselves.

While none would deny that Sauron has committed evil acts, there was a time when Numenor took counsel with Morgoth. One must ask why was it acceptable for the wise to listen to the counsel of Morgoth who it seems was not a threat, yet they claim that Sauron must be eradicated. There are other dark forces in the Middle Earth today. Are we to pursue each and every dark power which wishes to rule Middle Earth and enslave all men and elves? If we did, we would be constantly enmeshed in fighting such wars. Furthermore Sauron's greatest atrocities are long behind him and he is even a force for stability in the region.

If Sauron is to be toppled, the result would be chaos as armies of Orcs, Wargs and Trolls would wage war on each other. Even now there have been reported clashes between Orc groups and this situation would only deteriorate further without Sauron to maintain order. If Sauron is gone, we would be obligated to keep that order ourselves, an enterprise which would tie up tens of thousands of troops and deplete our treasuries.

Even if we were to undertake such rash actions, we must also consider the Easterling and Haradrim street which would undoubtedly be outraged by the slaughter of tens of thousands of Orcs and might well choose to believe that this is a war against all those who allied themselves with Mordor. Thus a conflict with Mordor could spill over until we find ourselves fighting numerous wars on numerous fronts. Gondor is a great power but even Gondor cannot defeat all of Middle Earth.

It thus becomes quite clear that we cannot allow the schemes of Wizards contending for power to pull us into a conflict which can be avoided if we instead choose the way of peace. But where wise men like Saruman counsel peace, Gandalf Stormcrow calls for war bringing ill wherever he goes. It is hoped that Denethor and my lord Theoden will listen to the voices of the vast majority of the Men of Gondor and avoid a war that will bring untold horrors with it.

: Grima Wormtongue was a key adviser to Theoden son of Thengel and is currently residing in Orthanc.

WW2 Alternate History: All that is required for the triumph of evil

As the war on the Pacific and European fronts grows more intense costing hundreds of thousands of American lives and faced with the prospect of being forced to fight a surging Soviet army should an occupation of Nazi Germany take place; Allied leaders ponder the offer of a negotiated armistice with Nazi Germany.

On December 12, 1943, representatives of Great Britain, France the United States and Germany sign an armistice treaty under which all German troops are to leave any captured territory on the Western front and withdraw to the French border, cease developing any nuclear technologies and destroy their reserves of chemical weapons while allowing inspectors to monitor compliance.

This accord is initially controversial, especially to those who argue that within the territory Nazi Germany still controls, Hitler is carrying out ethnic cleansing of minorities and torturing and executing political opponents. But supporters of the accord point out that Nazi Germany is not the only country in the world that massacres ethnic minorities and that the Allies could not possibly intervene in every country that does. Should those Hitler is massacring really want their freedom, they need to rise up and overthrow him.

Furthermore they argue that a conquest of Nazi Germany would be costly and incite enmity of the United States among Germans and Aryans around the world which would in the long run only lead to more racial intolerance and ethnic cleansing around the world as outrage over the deaths of Germans and war on Germany would lead to increased Neo-Nazi recruitment. It would also destabilize the region by allowing the USSR to make serious gains in Eastern Europe and in the vacuum created by the fall of Hitler, possibly even within Germany and Western Europe itself.

The policy of containing Hitler however begins to show serious flaws very soon after. In the strip of Eastern European territories that Germany still controls come reports of growing massacres and death camps. The Allies pledge their support to those in Eastern Europe and those Germans within Germany itself prepared to rise against Hitler. On June 24 1946 a series of uprisings are begun on the expectation of Allied help, but no such help is forthcoming. The resistance movements are brutally and methodically crushed by Nazi troops. Some surviving refugees straggle across the border to find shelter in the West carrying tales of atrocities.

In May of 1948, Germany troops begin firing on Allied planes patrolling the German border. An SS Squad attempts to assassinate former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The embargo placed on Nazi Germany comes to look threadbare as weapons are smuggled past Allied patrols by Turkish freighters and reports continue to come in that Hitler has rebuilt his atomic program. The revived League of Nations sends in inspectors to investigate the program but the inspectors are thwarted at every step, prevented from gaining access to key areas and then forced to leave as evidence mounts that Germany is simply moving around its weapons program and staying one step ahead of the inspectors.

Despite these events, nations friendly to Nazi Germany such as Spain, Argentina, Italy and Japan call for an end to the embargo on Germany. They point to the mass starvation that has resulted from Hitler diverting resources to his military and his construction projects as proof that the embargo is evil and must stop. Other countries such as France and Belgium that see potential profits in being able to do business with Nazi Germany again and being able to collect pre-war debts, despite themselves being formerly victimized by Nazi Germany, also join the call for the removal of the embargo.

The isolation of the American and British position on Nazi Germany becomes more evident when Stalin and Hitler sign a second treaty vowing to focus their efforts on resisting the Anglo-American alliance. This rapprochement places the US and British position which supports military action to bring Hitler into compliance with the obligations of the WW2 Armistice in the minority in the League of Nations.

Within the United States, Democrats fail to support Republican President Eisenhower's call for War on Germany in his 1953 inagural address, even though Democratic President Truman had presented much the same agenda. The Democratic party however has taken the position that such a war would boost Eisenhower's ratings and translate into electoral defeat for them. While most Democrats do not dare openly oppose War on Germany, they call for giving more time for the League of Nations inspectors to do their work and the need for more proof that Nazi Germany really has a nuclear program.

Amid the growing debate over Germany, the anti-war movement fueled by the reapporachment of the USSR and Nazi Germany unites left and right in opposition to War on Germany. Protesters chant 'Eisenhower is Worse than Hitler', 'No War for Ike's Imperialism' and 'Give Peace a Chance.' "At least Hitler was actually elected while Eisenhower wasn't" a major Hollywood movie star quips referencing Eisenhower's win in the electoral college. Prominent American and European intellectuals argue that the US has no right to criticize Nazi Germany for its nuclear program since the United States has more nuclear weapons than Nazi Germany does, unlike Nazi Germany has actually used them, that America only want war with Germany in order to gain more territory and that Eisenhower has been seized with war fever.

As President Eisenhower announces that the United States and a coalition of allies will be prepared to go into Nazi Germany, regardless of whether they receive approval from the League of Nations or not and that such approval or lack thereof will not pass judgement on the Allies but on the League of Nations itself; criticism comes from Europe indicting the US for its unilaterialism and military adventurism. A petition is circulated demanding that "the United States respect the sovereignty of the German people to choose their own leaders."

While no one can actually make an argument in defense of Hitler, the anti-war forces compensate for this by going on the attack against Eisenhower deriding him as a fool and a warmonger who hopes to personally profit from the war against Nazi Germany. Most anti-war arguments begin with "Yes I know Hitler is a bad man but that doesn't mean I have to support Eisenhower's war."

By August 1955 as war nears Hitler makes a desperate political ploy to play for time by allowing League of Nations inspectors back in while continuing the work on his weapons program. 108 inspectors prove to be no match for the entire SS and Wermacht's ability to conceal the weapons they've been sent to find. The inspections process threatens to drag on endlessly as the League of Nations bureaucracy sees a chance to emphasize their own importance. Nevertheless polls show that convinced by a massive newspaper, radio and television campaign carried on by left leaning media most of the public demands League of Nations approval before any military action is carried out. Regardless of the fact that such approval is inconceivable as nations friendly to Hitler including Italy and Argentina and those who have something to gain financially including France and Belgium have veto power over any such resolution.

Meanwhile Hitler sits in his bunker commanding a vast army and secret police force that stretches from the French border to deep inside Eastern Europe its earth filled with the millions of corpses of his victims and the cries of those still to come and laughs at the inability of the West to resist him and the way that much of the West has even come to champion his cause...as he prepares for war. Edmund Burke had once said that, “All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Both in this reality and in our own, his words were more prophetic than he knew.