A Tale of Two Wars

I’d like to take a minute to look at the rise of the Nazis. I am going to try to look at what spawned their breeding ground in 1920s and ‘30s Germany. Please do not mistake that I like Nazism in the slightest. Visiting former concentration camps when I was young are among the more traumatic memories of my childhood.

By the end of World War One, Germany was completely ruined by their huge casualties, by shortages of everything and by the Treaty of Versailles which made Germany take full responsibility for the war and make huge repatriations to the Allies as well as a neutered military. In an attempt to get out of these payments the Germans tried to hyperinflate the Mark, making German money worthless so the victors would not want payments of worthless German Marks. This not only failed when the payments were demanded in other forms such as raw steel and other goods but also crushed what little was left of the German economy. Tales of the inflation are legendary, workers at factories were paid in the middle of the day and used small bags so they could throw it to their families to go buy bread before the money was worthless later in the day. German bills had their values crossed out and new ones written by the mint because buy the time they were done printing it the bill was worth less than toilet paper. Children made kites out of old bills rather than using them to buy paper. By the late 1920s the country was tearing itself apart. There was fighting and revolts in the streets, armed paramilitary gangs of unemployed veterans roamed the countryside and economic disaster.

Into this maelstrom stepped Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Workers Party. He had it all, a plan to rebuild the country by huge government projects such as the autobahn, a plan to rebuild the Army, an explanation for how they fell and it not being the fault of the German people by using the Jews as a scapegoat and most importantly, hope. Out of national crisis Hitler resurrected Germany and because of his message the German people voted to give him full control of the government in 1933. Hitler promised to take them down the path to becoming the greatest country on earth………well, we all know how that worked out.

After World War Two ended the victorious Allies did not make the same mistake twice. Under the Marshall Plan vast economic aid was sent to Europe to restore productive economies to war-torn nations. US troops were stationed in Germany to protect them from the Soviets and there are still US troops there. Because the US was able to win the peace Germany became a peaceful and prosperous country.

In 1990 Iraq invaded its southern neighbor Kuwait prompting international outrage. In February 1991 the US led coalition launched Operation Desert Storm, the ground invasion of Iraq. The ground war lasted 100 hours before the Iraqi Army, at the start of the war the 4th largest in the world, collapsed. After imposing aircraft no fly zones the US pulled out with Saddam still in power. One big reason was Iraqs neighbor Iran, a US hating country and state sponsor of terror. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard created Hezbollah the notorious terror group in Lebanon. Iraq and Iran had just bled each other white during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war. Taking out Saddam would leave a power vacuum and set Iran up to dominate the region. Also, taking out Saddam would force the US to stay in Iraq to form the new democratic government (a feat all its own in an Arab country), build a stable economy, train the new Army and keep an eye on Iran. It made much better sense to leave him there to balance out Iran and not get bogged down in another Vietnam-style quagmire. We also figured Saddam would soon be toppled by his own people as rebels uprose across the country to oust the Bath Party. During the peace treaty negations the terms of the no fly zones was being worked out General Schwarzkopf made the mistake of telling the Iraqis they could still fly armed helicopters. This unfortunate remark spelled doom for the large uprising taking place against Saddam and thousands of anti-Saddam Iraqis. As US forces helplessly watched from bases in Iraq Saddam's helicopter gunships crushed the rebellion. A rebel commander, after his request for support fighting the Republican Guard was turned down by the US 1st Cavalry Division shook hands and departed back to the fighting with “We are all dead men.” When the US invaded Iraq in 2003 all the anti-Saddam/pro-US Iraqis were long dead and buried in mass graves. Any survivors were understandably bitter and cynical, making occupation and reconstruction much more difficult.

Many Americans can’t understand why we are still in Iraq. Encouraged by politicians many think we can simply leave Iraq. After all, would leaving them pose an immediate threat to America? History is clear on the matter, gutting a nation and leaving them in ruin only leads to even worse enemies taking over and more, many more, Americans in black body bags.

A return to MAD?

During the Cold War MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction was how the US and USSR avoided destroying the planet and obliterating humanity. Basically it worked by having so many nuclear weapons scattered with different delivery systems (ie. bomber aircraft, ICBMs, missle subs) that the other side could not hope to deliver a first strike without massive retaliation. MAD used three "legs" to deliver nuclear weapons: Bombers, InterContinental Ballistic Missles, and Missle Submarines. Throughout the Cold War the US kept bomber aircraft flying just off the USSRs borders 24/7 awaiting orders to nuke the Soviets. The crews understood that most likely by the time they got the orders to strike large mushroom clouds would be appearing over the largest cities in the US. In remote parts of Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota large underground silos housed ICBM missles to be launched at the President's command. Finally, probably the best of the three legs of MAD was missle submarines. During their constant patrols not even their own naval command knew of their location. That was MAD, and at the end of the day neither the USSR or the US wanted to end the world.

After the fall of the USSR the US kept its MAD systems in place although they did stop the expensive 24/7 nuke armed flights off the now former USSR. While the US may have slain the Dragon they have found the jungle full of poisonous snakes. On September 11, 2001, a date that will live in infamy, 19 men with box cutters delivered a devistating bite on America. Now the question that must be asked is if determind terrorists can wreck so much devistation with box cutters what could they do with a nuclear bomb? In the post cold war era we now face the possibility of small states not being controled like they were in the past and going rouge, potentially with nuclear weapons. Terrorists can strike if they ever get the weapons and not fear nuclear retaliation because who would we target? Rouge states with little or no concern for even their own people might actually use nukes if they had them but could also just supply them to a terrorist group upsetting the MAD balance.

The latest invasion of Georgia by Russia and other minor military actions by the Russians are clearly aimed at restoring their place as a world player. By reigniting competion between Russia and the US they would regain the national pride they lost with the colapse of the USSR. The USSR took great care to protect and hide their nuclear arsenal so vital to their survival. But with the fall of the USSR many of those weapons are now being guarded by soldiers on low wages and who don't even get paid every month. As many of the former soviet republics flock to NATO, Russia will need new satalite countries. Russia has a long history of controling their smaller satalites with an iron fist; just look at Hungry in 1956, Czechoslovacia in 1968 or Georgia in 2008.

Russia has bought many of the untapped oil fields in Iran and it is possible that a deapening of tentions with the US could drive Iran to closer a allience with Russia. While this allience of two of America's worst threats is not good; Iran is ruled by an Islamic theocracy and has been throwing out a lot of serious threats of late. If Iran became a prominate satalite of Russia the Russians might be able to rein in Iran. If Iran was a satalite of Russia the Russians would not allow them to run amuck since that could easily lead to conflict with the US. If Iran ever went through with their threats to anhilate Israel the Iranians would drag Russia along into war with the US and NATO.

MAD is a very dangerous policy to live by, but it beats dying under a mushroom cloud by a long shot.

In the Beginning

Well I thought I'd try this blogging thing out. As to the title, Idumea was a region south of Israel in Biblical times and is also used in scripture to refer to the world in general. I plan on writing my thought on current affairs, our society and most of all, History.