Re: Starting to build a tank [TANKS]

[Steve Edwards <sedwards-at-awger.net>]

Marmfam3-at-aol.com wrote:

> About the Lusatania, that wasn't the reason we went to war.  Think 
> about it, a ship loaded with civilians, mostly women and children, 
> sail strait into a zone of unrestricted submarine warfare (don't even 
> go into the rumors/facts of it carrying munitions or it was a mine or 
> anything like that).  What kind of people would allow that to happen?  
> It was not an accident that the Lusitania was in those waters.  
>  
> Also the sinking of the Lusitania occurred May 7, 1915, while we 
> declared war on April 16.1917.  In those two years we pressured and 
> persuaded Berlin to restrict submarine warfare, attempted to negotiate 
> "Peace without victory", Berlin resuming unrestricted sub warfare (Jan 
> 31, 1917).


I'm ignorant of the dates... and, of course, there was much more to it 
than just the Lusitania (which was mostly another one of those 
convenient reasons). WWI has always been a bit of a mystery to me, from 
an American perspective anyway. I can understand all of Europe getting 
embroiled in it (old monarchies and alliances being what they are) but, 
at that point in time, I'd be hard pressed to put my finger on a 
national interest worthy of our involvement.

Lusitania = USS Maine = USS Maddox

Aside: the most recent theories surrrounding the "mysterious" sinking of 
the Lusitania suggest that the first explosion was the German torpedo 
(knocked a hole in her side, brought her to a halt, and gave her a list) 
and the second explosion (suggested by the Americans as being a second 
torpedo, and the Germans as being smuggled munitions) was caused by the 
ignition of coal dust in the mostly-empty bunkers kicked up by the first 
explosion (similar to a grain silo explosion).

> As to WWI Part II...it was the consequences of a harsh Treaty of 
> Versailles imposed upon the Central Powers (mainly Germany) that 
> helped fuel Hitler's madness and his campaign of world domination.  In 
> a way we are to blame for WWII.


Agree with you on that first part, disagree with the second. Versailles 
was an insult (and then some), and it may have made war inevitable, but 
Hitler is still to blame for WWII.

"The fundamental falsehood on which the Versailles Treaty is built is 
the theory that Germany was solely and entirely responsible for the war. 
No fair-minded student of the war and its causes can accept this 
contention; but the propaganda story of Germany's sole guilt has been 
preached so persistently from pulpit, Press and Parliament that the bulk 
of our people have come to regard it as an axiomatic truth which 
justifies the provisions of the most brutal and unjust Treaty in the 
world's history."

**********************Captain E. N. Bennett, speech at a Union of 
Democratic Control <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWudc.htm> 
(11th November, 1920)
**********************
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWversailles.htm

    - Steve "gotta luv the internet" Edwards