if we beat germany in WWI, then how were they able to be ready for another WW in under 20 years?
137767
Germany was a major ally of Great Britain and the US after the war.  We extended huge credits to the Reichsbank for them to build up their industries and infrastructure so they could pay the massive war compensations (reparations) that we demanded of them.  The German economy flourished but it took a major hit along with the US in the 1929 stock market crash.  When Hitler came to power in 1933, he used the revived German economy to make arms and build up the armed forces, again using credit from the west, negotiated by his finance minister, Schacht.  By this point, we were appeasing the Germans, keeping them happy to avoid another war.  By the mid 1930's, the new German military was ready.  The air force was tested in the Spanish civil war and then Hitler started taking back German lands.  Poland was last and we all know what happened after that...
468404
Of course we would have. President Roosevelt had started the Nation's first peacetime draft in history, starting in 1939, before the war began. Before the draft, the US had around 100,000 active duty soldiers. A year after the draft, we had over a million. By the end of the war we had over twelve million soldiers. \n   Roosevelt's massive pre-war military expansion was a precautionary measure; he could smell a storm coming, and we needed to be ready\n   Consider how world war one played out. We stayed on the sidelines and watched the Europeans kick the snot out of each other for three years. But we were not neutral. From the beginning of the war, we wanted Great Britain to win, because we knew our seas would not protect us from the world's turmoil much longer, and we needed good friends on the other side of the ocean. So even though we didn't fight until 1917, we kept sending food and war material to the Allies, which kept them in the game against Germany.  Germany realised that as long as we kept supplying their enemy, they could not win. So the Germans, out of necessity, started sinking our ships, and then, finally, we went to war, after the Germans were exhausted from endless trench warfare.  This strategy was preffered by the US, as it made winning much eaisier and less painful.\n   Back to WWII....\n   By the autumn of 1941, history was repeating itself, as we had hoped. The Germans were locked into an ugly, brutal stalemate (in USSR), that was taking a heavy toll on their military (and the USSR). We would have been content to let that play out another year or two, but inevitably, when Germany was on the ropes, we would have mobilized our Armed Forces to deliver the coup de gras.\n   When Japan launched a major strike on US soil, that did not change our ultimate decision, it just brought us into the war earlier than we had planned on. Winston Churchill cheered when we got hit, because he knew we'd have to start helping then.
504324
~The only way that Germany could have won would have been with the support of the US and by tapping into US industrial might, just as was the case  with Britain and France.  The good thing about sitting on the sidelines until the fight is almost over is that the Johnny-(Sammy)-come-lately gets to pick the winner.  \n\nThus, the occupation of Moscow would have been shared by the US and Germany and the cold war would have been unnecessary.  Britain would have retained some semblance of its present self, but we wouldn't have had to suffer the Lady Di crap. Most likely, Britain would have pulled an Italy and switched sides.   The rest of Europe would be the non-entity it is and was, with US and German troops ever present to keep it that way.  Lech Walesa and Solidarity would never have happened.  The Berlin Wall would not have come down because it would have never been built.\n\nThe trip to the moon  would have happened sooner and much more efficiently.  Synthetic fuels would be the norm rather than the exception.  The Euro would have come into being 5 decades sooner.  The Common Market  would have come into being much sooner, under a different name.  Italy would still by a nice place to visit, but not much else.  The Soviet Union would have been an Anglo-American-German colonial protectorate.  Israel would not exist, Algeria would have gained independence much sooner and Nasser would not have had to, wanted to or needed to nationalize the Suez Canal.  Qaddafi and Idi Amin would have been tending camels rather than running puppet-governments for super powers.  Korea would have been left to the Koreans.\n\nIn exchange for a US alliance, or peace with the US, Germany would have terminated its treaties with Japan.  The Japanese markets and materials would have been replaced and exceeded by the products and profits from the west, with  whom the Germans were much more kindred.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki would still have the distinction of being the only places on earth to have been nuked, but Uncle will have his day.  Chiang may have stayed on the mainland, but, if not, Mao would have been even less significant than he was.  Nam would have been unnecessary.\n\nThe Middle East would have been subjugated and Sadam and the Shah would be meaningless footnotes in history.  We would still have pillaged Middle Eastern oil, but Opec wouldn't have been able to stop us.\n\nThere is a reason that one of the US's strongest allies today is Germany.  Hitler was an anomaly.  The US and Germany are as tight today as they were when Von Steuben trained the Troops at Valley Forge, and Britain and Germany share more history and monarchical families than any other two nations in European history.\n\nHitler would have been talked away from his racial policies, but not too quickly.  The rest of the world was never really too upset with the camps and the death of 6 million Jews and 9 million others who died in them anyways.  Certainly not the US, who had exercised similar policies with Native Americans and who was pondering what could be done to quash the  Afro-Americans, Eastern and Southern Europeans  and Asians who were making foolish noises about equality and justice and  whose backs were no longer needed in the mills,  in the fields, in the factories and on the railroads.\n\nIn short, not much would be different today.  The names and places of history might be different, but your life would be pretty much what it is.\n\nSo why do you ask?
1036451
Definitely not.  Germany's kinda invincible in their home turf :).
385303
THE FACT THAT THEY QUALIFIED FOR THE WORLD CUP IS A ACHIEVEMENT IN IT'S SELF, PLAY IN THE FINAL NOT FOR ANOTHER 20YRS AT LEAST.
251139
An extract from President Wilson’s speech to Congress requesting US entry into WW1:\n\n…Peace cannot be had without concession and sacrifice. There can be no sense of safety and equality among the nations if great preponderating armaments are henceforth to continue here and there to be built up and maintained…\n\nAnd in holding out the expectation that the people and government of the United States will join the other civilized nations of the world in guaranteeing the permanence of peace upon such terms as I have named I speak with the greater boldness and confidence because it is clear to every man who can think that there is in this promise no breach in either our traditions or our policy as a nation, but a fulfillment, rather, of all that we have professed or striven for.\n\nThe world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them. \n\n\nThe entire text of the speech can be found at: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ww18.htm
380163
They definitely can.  But that is only because in 76 years Germany will once again host the World Cup and by then Korea will be a powerhouse team. But, of course, if you can't foresee the future like I can and are merely talking about this summer's games, then ..........no.
276497
cgalloway1973 is right, I'm British, and believe that we are just as capable as the Americans. BTW, to the guy who mentioned that we were (supposedly) kicked out of every country we conquered, you're wrong! It's true that we were kicked out of a few of the Nations, but we decided to give most of them back by free will alone! This inter-nation rivalry has to stop, WE'RE ON THE SAME BL**DY SIDE!!! That saying, "all the gear, but no Idea" is just a bit of friendly banter, but there are a few people here who take it too far.
690302
This is always kind of a tricky question, because the implication is that the US did not do enough by trying to win the war as soon as possible. And remember, the final solution did not begin until 1943, so pre-war relaxation of immigration standards would not count. I don't accept that premise but try this out.\n\nThe American and British bomber air forces could have shifted their attacks from economic targets to the transportation network supplying the camps with victims. This might have slowed the number of murders, but would also have allowed the German military to defend Germany (and thus the camp network) better and longer ending with more American casualties and a considerably later end to the war with therefor very little difference in the total number of murders.\n\nThe United States could have made a point of broadcasting the unconfirmed reports of attrocities in German occupied Poland with a propaganda effort to strengthen recruiting of people in the occupied territories for underground resistance. The result would probably have been lukewarm at best. The only successful underground movements in occupied Europe were the Communists; this was not because they were more patriotic, but before the war they were already made criminals and were the only ones used to acting clandestinely. Besides, in 1943 at the Katyn Forest in eastern Poland, the Germans discovered a pit with the bodies of 10,000 Polish officers murdered by the Red Army when they occupied in 1939; because of this, when the Russians began liberating death camps in Byelorussia in 1944 no one believed the reports.\n\nThe USA could have exchanged German prisoners for concentration inmates. This might have had some limited success. Early in the war (about 1940-41) some labor camp prisoners were allowed to go to Switzerland in exchange for the repatriation from Uruguay of the crew of the pocket battleship Graff Spee. By late 1943, the Western allies had captured some U-boat crews and the Afrika Korps in Tunisia. The end result, because these were highly trained (U-boat) and highly motivated (Afrika Korps) soldiers, they could have been returned to very successful active duty instead of using younger and less trained replacements. If the West Wall had been manned with the Afrikan veterans instead of so many Ukrainian and Silesian slave soldiers, there could have been a great difference in the end of the war.\n\nAnyways, try those on for size.
1077645
Q is like this Do U realy think Germany can do it?
571704
I would think that the team goes and plays the games it was scheduled to play and if they won the World Cup, it probably could create the amazing feat of reuniting the two sides into one country, maybe even go back to the old Yugoslavia days. We are all humans, there are no "country lines" anywhere I looked so we are all in the same team. Hope one day we can leave our pitty differences and join as one race.
350086
In the first World War, which began in 1914 America didn't join until 1917. It joined right at the end, when France was getting beaten on by the Germans and helped win though it's expected because America's troops were fresh and new.French troops had been fighting endlessly in their territory for 3 years already. \nIn WWII, America joined since the beginning in the fight against the fascism of Germany,Italy,& Japan which later included the Soviet Union as well until it was betrayed by Germany.It didn't really take a great part in it itself until Pearl Harbor, where Japan attacked us.
1140373
I've never heard that question posed so succinctly and eloquently before, but yes, that's exactly right.  Europeans knew we would defend them against attack, so they were free to act irresponsibly.  They didn't have to be realistic.\n\nThis article is only peripherally related to your question, but you'll love it:  \n\nhttp://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,343378,00.html
707240
yes you better beleive it.some body said above russia will be the next 3rd reiche,untrue our governments are all run by the global elite ,world banks and such most of the figure heads in so called civilised countrys are compramised this goes back a century but the point is the 4th reiche is on its way and all the countrys involved in thse world banks are part of it.in the next 5-10 years we will be living in a world wide version of nazi germany t,the people will be drafted and used as cannon foder to invade contrys that are not under control of the NEW WORLD ORDER like .....................the middle east ,there are and have been millitary bases all over iraq ,this will be the base in which to invade the middle east .this is kind of a generaliseation and off target to your question ,but all this is in plain view .history is repeating itself.
443967
As you know, WW1 started with the assassination of an Austrian leader. At the end of WW1, Germany was still in a depressed state (like economic depression), and the time was ripe for new radical leadership with the ousting of the old. This new radical leadership, along with the newly invented propaganda machine of television, and Germany's economic state of despair, were the reasons for WW2. Hitler believed expansion of his "kingdom" (third Reich) was essential for Germany's economic prosperity. And at the time, gold was a limited supply, same as today, except that all money was backed by gold. Today, money is not backed by gold. And a limited supply of money made war an economical advantage, they war, they win, they take your gold. Today war is an economical burdon, it is not for gold, but for power.
956180
That was over 90 years ago and then men who served must be well over 100 years of age. But since it was so long ago, I'm sure the Army's in Europe weren't very organized at the time. And there is little knowledge of who served. But there is less than 50 still living within the US. So I would say maybe around 100 (and that's pushing it!)\nProud Great Grand-Daughter of Cpl. Capo-WWI
1015335
We beat Germany 4:1 about three months ago.