re: The 20th Century...WTF Happened?

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They still would have won WWI if not for the sinking of the Lusitania. The Communist Revolution in Russia had already taken them out and the French were holding on for dear life on the Western Front. If the Americans stay out, the Germans fighting the Ruskies joining their comrades on the Western Front likely would have finally broken the French and either allowed the Germans to finally capture Paris or at least force the Brits and Frenchmen to the negotiation table.

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I think we would've gotten involved in WWI inevitably because we had so much money and so many resources tied up in GB that we needed to ensure that they won. The old saying "If you owe the bank a little bit of money, they own you. But if you owe the bank a lot of money, you own the bank." is a good saying for that situation. If the Entente doesn't win that war, I don't think we ever get our money back.

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As for WWII, we can say that had they just not made the decision to invade Russia, everything would have been hunky-dory, but considering the incompatibility of Nazism and Communism, conflict between Germany and the Soviet Union was inevitable. If something needs to be done eventually, it's best done immediately.

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I agree with this, but Hitler saw the Slavs as just a step above Jews and they were always who he wanted to go after in the first place.

I don't know if Germany would've been able to take on both GB and the USA even without Russia's involvement. Considering the fact that the USA was virtually untouchable and our Navy dominated the seas over there. Germany couldn't have kept up with our manpower either. It would've taken much longer and caused the deaths of many many more people but I don't think that Germany would've won in time. Especially once we took care of Japan.

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I do wonder how things would have been different if the U.S. stayed out of the European Theater (continued lend/lease and cash and carry but remained neutral militarily). Would Rommel have been victorious in North Africa and taken Egypt and the Suez Canal from Britain? Would such a victory have forced Britain to the negotiating table resulting in a peace that leaves the Nazis in control of North Africa and France? Would the resources otherwise lost in North Africa and countering allied invasions in Italy and France be enough to allow them to defeat the Soviets?

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Without the US involvement in Europe, I don't think there's any reason to believe that Germany wouldn't have taken North Africa and the Suez Canal. I can't speak to what would've happened in Russia because Germany had Hitler as their commander of their forces in the war. No telling what he would've done. Hell, he could've taken Moscow but he decided "nah, frick that" and turned and went to the south.

I mean shite, they encircled entire Soviet armies multiple times.

1500s were pretty rough. Pretty much everyone living in the Western Hemisphere was killed by a Spaniard.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, "Rock Around the Clock"
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Zhou Enlai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say?

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on...
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning

Well, where the frick is the video, Dave? I've checked back to this thread four times looking for your post.

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WE LANDED ON THE MOON

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Or did we?...

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Well, where the frick is the video, Dave? I've checked back to this thread four times looking for your post.

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I'm still waiting too.

I assure you this one will be crazier. Obviously 9/11, the smart phone, the refugee crisis, and a reality tv show host getting elected President is insane, but here are some of my predictions for the upcoming century:

Technological Singularity (which will be the biggest thing since humanity itself)
Landing on Mars and manned trip to orbit Saturn
Moon and Mars base
Send probes to Alpha Centauri
Confirm life on another world
Space elevator and the ability to be almost anywhere on the planet within an hour
Mass refugee crisis in the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia
Obesity eliminated entirely
Universal Basic Income
Sharing a world with a species we have created
Fusion Power
Near immortality for humans. The first person to live a thousand years will be born within the next 50 years.

I'm excited about the prospects of this century, and I hope I live to see the end of it.

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1500s were pretty rough. Pretty much everyone living in the Western Hemisphere was killed by a Spaniard.

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Scratches off time travel list..

20th century >>> 21st

21st Century we had the Duck Dynasty...