Sorry, left out a bit of information: the shoulder patch of the British MAG to the northwest territory indians was that of a buffalo skull over the crosses of Sts George and Andrew, surmounted by the Taj Mahal, flanked by Kaffirs with assegis. Did I violate any rules of heraldy?

"The vindictiveness of the treaty also greatly contributed to the sense of unfair punishment that made so many willing to listen to someone who promised to make Germany "Respected" again." Versailles treaty was not more unfair than peace treaty of French German 1870 war were we lost Alscace and paid huge reparations while its was our territory which was the battlefield. Moreover it was Germany which did attack France in 1914, violated Belgium neutrality, did some massacre in Belgium on civilian as soon in 1914, use combat gaz and unrestricted warfare and so on.. "the US blocked attempts to enforce the versille treaty and force the cenastion of German rearmerment." That is true but UK was complice.ANd it is the combined opposition of both which prevented France to enforce it unfortunately.

>Versailles treaty was not more unfair than peace treaty of French German >1870 war were we lost Alscace and paid huge reparations while its was >our territory which was the battlefield. >Moreover it was Germany which did attack France in 1914, violated >Belgium neutrality, did some massacre in Belgium on civilian as soon >in 1914, use combat gaz and unrestricted warfare and so on.. >"the US blocked attempts to enforce the versille treaty and force >the cenastion of German rearmerment." >That is true but UK was complice.ANd it is the combined opposition >of both which prevented France to enforce it unfortunately. So by your logic, we should have treated Germany far harsher after WWII, because their behavior in WWII was far worse than it was in WWI. After all the situation in Europe was so much better after WWI than it was after WWII. Is your grasp of history feeble enough to believe this? Or in otherwords since Germany stupidly imposed a harsh and vindictive treaty on France that led directly to WWI, that it was smart for France to stupidly impose a harsh and vindictive treaty on Germany, that led directly to WWII. I don't think so. After WWII, instead of imposing a harsh punative treaty like after WWI, the US helped rebuild Germany. We made sure it became a stable prosperous nation and there hasn't been a war in western Europe since then. I think that shows that the vindictiveness France showed after WWI was a major mistake, probably one of the worst ones in history. What ever the US may have done to interfere with the Treaty of Versille being implemented, the only real mistake was in letting it be imposed in the first place. If a sane end to WWI had been put in place then maybe Hitler would only ever have been known as an obscure painter of no real talent.

"That is true but UK was complice.ANd it is the combined opposition of both which prevented France to enforce it unfortunately." --France invaded the Saar in 1923 to enforce reparations...up until around 1935-1936, France was quite capable, with or without her E European allies, of going it alone against Germany to enforce Versailles. They opted not to. "Versailles treaty was not more unfair than peace treaty of French German 1870 war were we lost Alscace and paid huge reparations while its was our territory which was the battlefield." --France recovered from 1870 much faster than the Germans anticipated they would. But the swift recovery in terms of paying reparations and rebuilding their military shows that while the treaty was certainly unfair, it did not cripple France to the point of never rising as a world power again. Germany, on the other hand, had to outright break the treaty in order to recover economically. Also, Germany did not disarm France after 1870.

"If a sane end to WWI had been put in place then maybe Hitler would only ever have been known as an obscure painter of no real talent." Which is why the United States WILL NEVER FOLLOW EUROPE TO A MAJOR WAR. We try to finish it, they try to return the Status Quo.

Why dont you play a war game to find out! If you like to game, I have a ner round of The last World War starting some time soon. There are openings foe as many as 13 players. You pick a Nation/State/Geopol/Religious groupe and equip it as you like with technology that was/might have been available on May 3 1945! It is a hoot to play by E-Mail any one is wellcome!

This is pretty far fetched kinda stuff. A "german / french bashing campain" ??? We know Bush can be dim witted at times but I sincerely doubt he is that stupid or that his advisors would allow him to try. Relations with countries in Europe is crucial to US foriegn policy and Bush knows this (give him just a little credit). The whole EU would never give away such hardware to the Iranians. Iranians back terrorist and terrorists attacked Europe (Spain 2004 and London 2005). The French might do arms deals with Iran but that would put it at odds with other members of the EU. Incase you haven't read recent news....the Shiites actually don't mind the Americans at all...its just the Sunni minority. So I don't see how a "heavy shiite uprising breaks out in eastern Iraq" can occur. Shiite are Iran friendly but anti-Americanism in Iraq is something that is blown widely out of proportion in the mass media. "Iranis had satellite info on the American positions"??? Mate, if the Iranians had the capacity to crack the codes of the CIA and the NSA to use US satilites, America would have been big trouble a long time ago. Iran niether has the technologial edge, expertise nor the funding to accomplish this. "A massive American airstrike takes out a lot of Irans ammunition producing facilites. Several EU cititzens are killed during the attack." There is such a thing called precision munitions. There are also something called concrete munitions which greatly collateral damage and civilian casualties. see this link for details ==> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2919249.stm "Due to a misprinted order, a imprisoned European instructor is sent to Guantanamo because he shares the name of a terrorist." Mugshot photos and DNA identification would correct this issue. So all in all, an imaginative senario for a unstable world in the near future but thats the only place it will exsist.......someone's imagination.

Has anyone mentioned anything at all about the fact that EU find it incredibly hard to agree on anything at all.

When i made my response I didn't see the whole thread but i agree with Braddock as well on his views

Well didnt this happen you coulda made it a bit more intuitive us attack germans wow Giving that germany has no nuclear weapons and this is Darth usa i say usa wins because dark america nukes the bajesus outta them you make invading iran Read so easy thats what they said about iraq hmm thats was almost four years ago you do not need to run for a goverment position thank you