Politics

Somebody may correct me if I'm wrong here, but I seem to recall that Germany started the war on 1 Sept 1939 when they invaded Poland, then continued to invade EVERYWHERE else in Europe, whether they wanted to be ruled by the murderous, barbaric NAZIs or not.

Whatever nut-kicking the Wehrmacht took was a deserved nut-kicking. And here you sit, making Germany out to be the victim of all that outnumbered nut-kicking.
 
Somebody may correct me if I'm wrong here, but I seem to recall that Germany started the war on 1 Sept 1939 when they invaded Poland, then continued to invade EVERYWHERE else in Europe, whether they wanted to be ruled by the murderous, barbaric NAZIs or not.

Whatever nut-kicking the Wehrmacht took was a deserved nut-kicking. And here you sit, making Germany out to be the victim of all that outnumbered nut-kicking.
And the US didn’t even declare war on Germany until after it was declared on us after we declared war on Japan who attacked us first.
 
Somebody may correct me if I'm wrong here, but I seem to recall that Germany started the war on 1 Sept 1939 when they invaded Poland, then continued to invade EVERYWHERE else in Europe, whether they wanted to be ruled by the murderous, barbaric NAZIs or not.

Whatever nut-kicking the Wehrmacht took was a deserved nut-kicking. And here you sit, making Germany out to be the victim of all that outnumbered nut-kicking.

I don't discuss that. BTW Poland mobilized its troups before Germany did. France and UK declared war to Germany, not viceversa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill,_Hitler_and_the_Unnecessary_War
 
so Poland mobilized. BFD. They didn't cross the border headed west into Germany.

Russia also didn't invade Germany.

You remind me of the kind of person who'd take a whack at a hornet's nest, then cry like a little bitch in pure surprise when you got stung by 30 or 40 of them.

Recall, maybe if you can, Germany had been in violation of Versailles since what? 1932? England and France should have invaded Germany then.
 
A good friend of mine is Jewish. At the outbreak of the war he was a child in Tarnow, Poland. Against all odds he survived the Holocaust. You will excuse me if I have absolutely no sympathy for the ass kicking the Germans took in the war.

If you have any interest in what this looked like from the Jewish perspective, he wrote a book called ‘The Unwritten Diaries of Israel Unger’.
 
Russia was always! - even during the cold war - a reliable provider of gaz. This german-russian partnership is much older than many may think. Poland and other eastern countries had no $s to pay the gaz, so Poland has an other view on this point.
Look on the map: who is closer to us? Gaz from the USA or gaz from Russia ?
I would warm me up also with US-gaz. But i suppose, the US never can make prices like the closer russians can do.
I don't talk about history of WW2. History is written by the winner (Hollywood in the western hemisphere) and i read a lot of it in this threat. BTW it is over. If anybody wants some information about my german view, please feel free to contact me over an email.
The whole subject would be a nice theme after hunting in the evening sitting around a fire with an whisky or beer.

Yup the Russian....German partnership does go back a while.....

 
Working in the energy trading sector, when the topic of Nordstream 2 comes up, I feel somewhat obligated to weigh in. Nordstream 2 is being constructed for the most part not for Russia to sell more gas to Europe, but to have more alternative capacity that allows export of gas without having to go through Ukraine.

The main route for Russian gas has been via Ukraine, then going through Poland or arriving on the Baumgarten hub in Austria, then further distributing towards Germany, France and the rest of Europe. As you well know, for some time Russia and Ukraine do not see eye to eye. And each year the discussions on the tariffs Ukraine wishes to put for transporting the gas is a thorn in Russia's side. So they would rather export 'direct' by going around, directly to Germany. Ukraine transports between 60 and 90 BCM per year of Russian gas. The Nordstream 1 and 2 each have a capacity of 55BCM. This means that Russia could pretty much circumvent Ukraine for the most part.

As far as buying US gas versus Russian gas. You do not need to have a doctorate, that natural gas won by fracking in the US, liquefied by cooling it to minus 160°C, transporting it across an ocean and then re-gassified to put it in the transport network, is never going to be competitive on cost basis with natural gas pumped and then with high pressure delivered through an existing gas transport network until your doorstep almost. This alone makes the "buy US gas" a bit moot in my opinion.

Now concerning NATO, I would agree that this vehicle, for the purpose of being a front against Russia, has outlived its purpose a bit. I do not longer see Russia as the main threat. I would look a bit more eastward for the real threat... I see Russia rather as a big old bear in his cave next door, best left alone and not messed with its own private affairs. Communist they are definitely no longer, rather an extreme form of predatory capitalism is now in vogue there. In fact, in my mind US+EU should rather come closer in cooperation to Russia than having a bigger wedge between them.

NATO, however as a vehicle to promote military cooperation between UK, France and Germany (who have a long history of getting into each other's hair), together with the US is not such a bad thing in my opinion. It allows every EU country to save face in front of the others and keep their military sovereign and not under a EU general speaking another language perhaps, while still cooperating. It is also a great vehicle for US-EU (+Australia/New Zealand) military cooperation in my mind. Creating an effective military alliance of primordial liberal, free-market capitalist countries. That Germany, among all the others should therefore keep their promise of investing 2% of GDP into this alliance, if that is the letter of the agreement it should be upheld.

V.
 
Recall, maybe if you can, Germany had been in violation of Versailles since what? 1932? England and France should have invaded Germany then.

Without wanting to mitigate any of Germany's (=Hitler's) actions in the years leading up to 1939, for the most part this was the logical end result of the disastrous Treaty of Versailles where the proud Germany was humiliated before all. It only took one good public speaker with a nefarious mind to transform all this resentment into the next expansionist philosophy and then the persecution of those that were made out to have been the root of all the humiliation and reparations suffered after WWI.

In fact it just comes to my mind that the Americans took great lessons from this, where after they defeated Japan, the US immediately switched to reconciliation and mending the issues between countries, while they could have put a permanent knife on Japan's throat as well.
 
186491330_10158242541380914_7893062264122110697_n.jpg
 
Without wanting to mitigate any of Germany's (=Hitler's) actions in the years leading up to 1939, for the most part this was the logical end result of the disastrous Treaty of Versailles where the proud Germany was humiliated before all. It only took one good public speaker with a nefarious mind to transform all this resentment into the next expansionist philosophy and then the persecution of those that were made out to have been the root of all the humiliation and reparations suffered after WWI.

In fact it just comes to my mind that the Americans took great lessons from this, where after they defeated Japan, the US immediately switched to reconciliation and mending the issues between countries, while they could have put a permanent knife on Japan's throat as well.
I agree with your comment. Japan is (as far as i know) forced to be the main creditor for worthless US-treasury securities (regarding the dollar flood).
Major foreign holders of U.S. treasury securities as of December 2020

Russia and Japan is ready to end WW2 with a peace treaty. 4 islands of the Kurils is the only open point. When this is done: the stone begins to roll with Russia and Germany and the USA is sitting at the sideline with an Hollywood view how it is readable above.
 
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Without wanting to mitigate any of Germany's (=Hitler's) actions in the years leading up to 1939, for the most part this was the logical end result of the disastrous Treaty of Versailles where the proud Germany was humiliated before all. It only took one good public speaker with a nefarious mind to transform all this resentment into the next expansionist philosophy and then the persecution of those that were made out to have been the root of all the humiliation and reparations suffered after WWI.

In fact it just comes to my mind that the Americans took great lessons from this, where after they defeated Japan, the US immediately switched to reconciliation and mending the issues between countries, while they could have put a permanent knife on Japan's throat as well.
perhaps.

but perhaps if more Germans had shown some backbone, like this guy...
1620935582021.png


we are all either free moral agents, or we are not. if we are not, then we're incapable of "sinning" (however one may define that word)

we are all responsible for our own actions, or we are not. but if we are not, then we're no better than barnyard animals.
 
Gentleman, may I suggest we end this discussion. Let's allow history to be history, and let us focus on hunting and beautiful (or at least functional) rifles and shotguns.

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
 
perhaps.

but perhaps if more Germans had shown some backbone, like this guy...
View attachment 401821

we are all either free moral agents, or we are not. if we are not, then we're incapable of "sinning" (however one may define that word)

we are all responsible for our own actions, or we are not. but if we are not, then we're no better than barnyard animals.
This view of the issue is a bit limited in my mind. I'm not falling into the trap thinking that if I had grown up in interwar Germany, I would necessarily have transformed into a partisan and insurrectionist trying to fight the government at every turn. I would like to believe that I would not be seduced by the tenets of the Nazism, but rather just be willing to keep my head down to keep my family safe.

Many books have been written about how the German people was "tricked" into following the ever more insane path Hitler was writing about. Often from the perspective that they would never have complied, never have done those atrocious acts. I for one believe that inside the average Joe, from any nationality or background, there exists sufficient tinder to allow for the ignition of an an all consuming fire of hatred.

A nice novel that always left a great impression on me, describing these events is the rather unknown "Patriot Acts" by Jim Lies & Gene Frazer. You can download it on Kindle. Although it apparently did not have a great success, read the few reviews, they are all raving about it. Highly recommend it.
 
Gentleman, may I suggest we end this discussion. Let's allow history to be history, and let us focus on hunting and beautiful (or at least functional) rifles and shotguns.

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
Is this not the place for such discussion, in the Politics section?
If not, I apologise and will no longer add to the discussion on this matter. (I actually had not yet seen your reply, as I was writing my latest post about the topic)

V.
 
I agree, this discussion should end. Germany makes the best English double in the world today, the USA has wonderful hunters and Zimbabwe has the finest buffalo that ever roamed. What could be more important?
 

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