re: #242 Hecuba’s daughter

The big difference between the 30’s and now is that, unlike Germany, Russia is not an economic powerhouse nor a real military powerhouse, outside of its nuclear arsenal. It is not a potential conventional war that is the source of true concern; it is the terror that a conflict could escalate out of control and lead to a potential nuclear exchange. We also don’t know what type of damage Trump inflicted on our military capabilities because of his deference to Putin and what information he may have provided to the Russians. We do know that the GOP is a fifth column, waiting to impair any actions we might take to stop Putin’s invasion or attempts to overthrow the Ukraine government.

The country with the most powerful fighting force in 1938? France.
The country with the most tanks of any type in-service in 1938? Soviet Union.
The country with the largest naval forces in 1938? United Kingdom.

The country with the most successful bullshit artist as its Minister of Propaganda? Nazi Germany.

So much of what we “know” about German military prowess is pre and early war bullshit, much of it generated by people who were looking for reasons to play up war with Germany as a mistake. The Germans lied about their prowess in order to give their demands greater weight, warhawks played about their strength to justify increased defense spending, while doves presented it as reason to acquiesce to Germany’s demands. Britain and France played up the might of “Blitzkrieg” to excuse their withdrawal from the continent and the routing of their forces in under a month respectively. And even the Soviets loved to portray Germany as an unstoppable juggernaut to handwave away all the damage that Stalin’s purges had done to the Red Army’s leadership.

What turned the tide on all of this? When Germany began losing in North Africa, largely to save Mussolini’s ass after his efforts to “rebuild” the Roman Empire had failed, thus putting their military in a position where they could not count upon superior numbers or control of the engagement to overwhelm enemy forces.