Maybe the smarter thing would have been to a) kick back and b) allow Germany and Russia slug it out for 10,15 years while the rest of the world engaged in peaceful trade and economic development. Just a wild suggestion.
Hardly a wild suggestion. The concept has been kicked around since Stalingrad. Definitely would have changed history: possibilities include reduced Nazi/Communist influence, constant Eurasian land war culminating in nuclear war, Hitler & Stalin once more uniting..endless possibilities, but what happened, happened.
You could make equally wild and ludicrous claims about the Iraq War, BB; that if we hadn't taken out Saddam Hussein (who had far more blood on his hands in 2003 than Hitler did in 1939) there would have this and that and that and this, etc., etc.. War is dumb (with the possible exception of the Revolutionary War which actually had some noble aspects to it) and it creates far more problems than it solves. It's my story and I'm sticking to it.
IMO, if one is a Native American, the RevWar had some ugly aspects. Consider the Gnadenhutten massacre of peaceful Christianized Delaware; "The militia rounded up the Christian Lenape and accused them of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania. Although the Lenape denied the charges, the militia held a council and voted to kill them. Refusing to take part, some militiamen left the area. One of those who opposed the killing of the Moravian Lenape was Obadiah Holmes, Jr. He wrote, "one Nathan Rollins & brother [who] had had a father & uncle killed took the lead in murdering the Indians, ...& Nathan Rollins had tomahawked nineteen of the poor Moravians, & after it was over he sat down & cried, & said it was no satisfaction for the loss of his father & uncle after all". After the Lenape were told of the militia's vote, they requested time to prepare for death and spent the night praying and singing hymns. They were held in two buildings, one for men and one for women and children.
The next morning on 8 March, the militia brought the Lenape to one of two "killing houses", one for men and the other for women and children. The militia tied the Indians, stunned them with mallet blows to the head, and killed them with fatal scalping cuts. In all, the militia murdered and scalped 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children. They piled the bodies in the mission buildings and burned the village down. They also burned the other abandoned Moravian villages. Two Indian boys, one of whom had been scalped, survived to tell of the massacre." You find a war without ugly and criminal, let me know.
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Yup, a wild suggestion. Things are always clearer when viewed in the rear view mirror.
Hardly a wild suggestion. The concept has been kicked around
since Stalingrad. Definitely would have changed history: possibilities include reduced
Nazi/Communist influence, constant
Eurasian land war culminating in
nuclear war, Hitler & Stalin once more uniting..endless possibilities, but what happened,
happened.
You could make equally wild and ludicrous claims about the Iraq War, BB; that if we hadn't taken out Saddam Hussein (who had far more blood on his hands in 2003 than Hitler did in 1939) there would have this and that and that and this, etc., etc.. War is dumb (with the possible exception of the Revolutionary War which actually had some noble aspects to it) and it creates far more problems than it solves. It's my story and I'm sticking to it.
IMO, if one is a Native American,
the RevWar had some ugly aspects.
Consider the Gnadenhutten massacre of peaceful Christianized
Delaware;
"The militia rounded up the Christian Lenape and accused them of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania. Although the Lenape denied the charges, the militia held a council and voted to kill them. Refusing to take part, some militiamen left the area. One of those who opposed the killing of the Moravian Lenape was Obadiah Holmes, Jr. He wrote,
"one Nathan Rollins & brother [who] had had a father & uncle killed took the lead in murdering the Indians, ...& Nathan Rollins had tomahawked nineteen of the poor Moravians, & after it was over he sat down & cried, & said it was no satisfaction for the loss of his father & uncle after all".
After the Lenape were told of the militia's vote, they requested time to prepare for death and spent the night praying and singing hymns. They were held in two buildings, one for men and one for women and children.
The next morning on 8 March, the militia brought the Lenape to one of two "killing houses", one for men and the other for women and children. The militia tied the Indians, stunned them with mallet blows to the head, and killed them with fatal scalping cuts. In all, the militia murdered and scalped 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children. They piled the bodies in the mission buildings and burned the village down. They also burned the other abandoned Moravian villages. Two Indian boys, one of whom had been scalped, survived to tell of the massacre."
You find a war without ugly and criminal, let me know.
I said, SOME, noble aspects to that war (those men of English stock clearly should have emulated the Acadians to the North).
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