History Forum / General / General Topics / January 2006

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Germany and the world before WWI

From its earliest days the US had tried to avoid involvement in European
squabbles. This rule was broken in WWI and in WWII, two wars that can be
considered part of a single conflict. France, Germany, England, and Russia
had been competing for resources and colonial territory for decades, each
intensely envious and fearful of the others. This is known as "balance of
power politics" where small countries allied with big countries and major
powers tried to impose limits on other major powers, even at the risk of
going to war. Germany in particular felt locked out and targeted by the
other powers. Millions of lost lives later, many people questioned the
judgement of this policy, which led to an insane and paranoid fear that the
other countries might gain an advantage over them. Germany simply didn't see
the potential for extreme political meltdown that lay ahead when it began
attacking countries after Sarajevo. Germany felt it was completely justified
in acting out aggressively, and generations later it still hasn't recovered.

Humans apparently have a short memory. Today the United States insists on
imposing conditions on countries in order to maintain its strategic
advantage. The World Wars have taught us that balance of power politics ends
up costing millions of lives. Some would claim that a united Germany was
simply going through a natural growth phase prior to WWI. But Britain in
particular was loathe to see a stronger Germany, as was France and Russia,
however natural that growth may have been. That is the ugly truth that was
so difficult to see at the time, but not that difficult to see in hindsight.

Iran, being a former regional power determined to rise again, does not like
the United States imposing limits on its growth or defense capability. Like
Germany, Iran considers these limits to be an act of war. The US is
demonstrating a cavalier disregard for the obvious truth that the Middle
East is already a powder keg waiting to blow, with just one more major
provocation. Like Germany and the other European powers of WWI, the US has
chosen a course that opens the door to world conflagration, the likes of
which hasn't been seen for generations. Far better would be for the US to
difuse the anger it has generated toward itself by staying out of the
affairs of other countries. Far more likely to bring on world prosperity and
advancement is the respecting of the rights and sovereignty of other
nations, not imposing conditions.

Iran is acting with a bravado that is almost certain to bring on an American
or Israeli attack. All three nations appear totally ignorant of the lessons
learned in the Great Wars. Each feels within its right to attack, each
stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that a major Middle East conflagration is
imminently possible, would drag in many countries, and cost millions of
lives. Each one is acting with a sense that it must act the way is acting to
fulfill some sort of destiny. In other words they have little choice in the
matter. This, my friends, is the kind of inflexibility that has preceded
each of the major world disasters in history. I'm afraid we are in for a
very bumpy ride in 2006.

John Bollingbrook
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