Why did Germany go to war ?

Hitler promised prosperity, and the people were willing to live with all of the other baggage that went with his agenda, although I doubt the average joe could foresee all that Hitler intended.

Read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, it will be one of the best reads you'll ever have.

the level to which the german's were brain washed into thinking that what they were doing was right is startling. i guess its much the same as what half of america thinks about their position in iraq. or how JFK,LBJ or Nixon are actually perceived to be good presidents despite their involvement in vietnam. Maybe on the german lets run in 45 years there will be an ignorant German asking why America got involved in iraq and caused the death of many thousands of civilians.

Although I don't agree with the Iraqi war, it's quite a stretch to analogize this war with what Hitler did/what german people believed. Good try though, next comment please...

So you're comparing the U.S. to the Nazis? Typical liberal prick.

Dude, I've been against the Iraq war from the start, but to compare what the USA has done under GWB, JFK, etc... to what Germany did under Hitler is nuts. Have a little historical perspective.

well perhaps not as bad as Hitler. just venting a bit. But It really doesn't matter who your next president is because they will not be any different to bush. As i recall Nixon was elected in 1968 on the terms of "peace with honour". It was not until the second last year of Ford's 4 year preidency that they did finally withdraw... but not before setting the developement of Cambodia and Laos back another 40 years. And no i'm not a conservative liberal.. in fact truth be known i'm not old enough to vote.

Say what? wrote:

Dude, I've been against the Iraq war from the start, but to compare what the USA has done under GWB, JFK, etc... to what Germany did under Hitler is nuts. Have a little historical perspective.

i dunno.... do we have a tally on the number of innocent casualties since GWB took office? it's got to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not more. it would seem to me that commitment to ideology is the fundamental comparison here. clearly, GWB believes with all his heart that the christian-american hegemony is one which needs to be protected and propogated at all costs, regardless of international law or consensus. how different is that than hitler's? are the methods different? clearly. hitler's up-front brutality was almost unthinkable.... but if we're comparing evil, how do you argue that the gas chamber is worse than getting a smart bomb dropped on your house just because you happen to live a few blocks away from a "suspected target." from the perspective of someone who has suffered under recent american foreign policy, you'd be hard-pressed to convince them of the moral sanctity or either individuals. it is a common trait amongst dictators.... the megalomania that creates an agenda where personal convictions override objectivity, consensus, law, or reason. there is considerable evidence that both used pretext events to sell an agenda to a citizenry not entirely sold on the *mission* (reichstag/9-11).

i realize that we'll always do what we can to demonize hitler and distance ourselves as far away as possible from him or his legacy... and we SHOULD... he's one of the most evil dictators in recorded history.... however, bear in mind that the u.s. didn't get involved in WW2 until over 1.5 million jews had already been gassed. the notion that we got involved to "stop facism" is absurd. we never do that, regardless of the administration's selling point. we sold oil to mussolini for a reason, fdr allowed the japanese to bomb pearl harbor for a reason, lusitania, gulf of tonkin, 9/11.......

ugh. now i'm depressed. and to think that hillary is the best the dems can come up with. good lord.

Say what? wrote:

Dude, I've been against the Iraq war from the start, but to compare what the USA has done under GWB, JFK, etc... to what Germany did under Hitler is nuts. Have a little historical perspective.

i dunno.... do we have a tally on the number of innocent casualties since GWB took office? it's got to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not more. it would seem to me that commitment to ideology is the fundamental comparison here. clearly, GWB believes with all his heart that the christian-american hegemony is one which needs to be protected and propogated at all costs, regardless of international law or consensus. how different is that than hitler's? are the methods different? clearly. hitler's up-front brutality was almost unthinkable.... but if we're comparing evil, how do you argue that the gas chamber is worse than getting a smart bomb dropped on your house just because you happen to live a few blocks away from a "suspected target." from the perspective of someone who has suffered under recent american foreign policy, you'd be hard-pressed to convince them of the moral sanctity or either individuals. it is a common trait amongst dictators.... the megalomania that creates an agenda where personal convictions override objectivity, consensus, law, or reason. there is considerable evidence that both used pretext events to sell an agenda to a citizenry not entirely sold on the *mission* (reichstag/9-11).

i realize that we'll always do what we can to demonize hitler and distance ourselves as far away as possible from him or his legacy... and we SHOULD... he's one of the most evil dictators in recorded history.... however, bear in mind that the u.s. didn't get involved in WW2 until over 1.5 million jews had already been gassed. the notion that we got involved to "stop facism" is absurd. we never do that, regardless of the administration's selling point. we sold oil to mussolini for a reason, fdr allowed the japanese to bomb pearl harbor for a reason, lusitania, gulf of tonkin, 9/11.......

ugh. now i'm depressed. and to think that hillary is the best the dems can come up with. good lord.

I've already given one good response today. I'm done.

One word. Babes.

Anybody who knows what the plight of Germany was after WWI knows why Germany went to war. Read some books on the Versailles Treaty. Try "The Versailles Treaty: Was it Foredoomed to Failure" by Ivo J. Lederer. Hitler coming to power was all to easy to see. Britain and France basically ensured another World War and Hitler after Versailles.

pretty good wrote:

As i recall Nixon was elected in 1968 on the terms of "peace with honour". It was not until the second last year of Ford's 4 year preidency that they did finally withdraw

One, Ford never served 4-years in office. He took over the vice presidency near the end of '73 when Spiro Agnew resigned and took over the presidency in August of 74. 2 years, 3 months later he lost the election to Carter. He was only president for less than 2-1/2 years.

Two, US forces were out of Vietnam morfe than a year BEFORE Ford ever became president. The cease-fire was signed in January 1973 and all offensive action against North Vietnam ended at this time. We did, however, continue to bomb in Cambodia. All US forces were out and all US prisoners of war were returned by the end of March '73. All bombing ended before the end of the year '73. If I'm not mistaken, when we abandoned the embassy on April 30, 1975, there were only 50 US Marines in Vietnam, whose job was defense of the embassy. This is and always has been a job of Marines; they were not there for combat against the NVA.

The seeds of WWII were sown at Versailles in 1919.

once3runner wrote:

Although I don't agree with the Iraqi war, it's quite a stretch to analogize this war with what Hitler did/what german people believed. Good try though, next comment please...

dude he didnt compare the US to nazis you tool, he stated the level of brainwashing and support for the war by the public is similar, so if anything he would call the US media nazis

Konrad,

You provided a reference... but you need to add more for the people that do not have time to read those books.

Basically... Britain and France were very pissed at the Germans because of World War One. They wanted to punish the Germans by putting in place several hard restrictions. Taking land away and etc. The average German was suffering so much as a result of these restrictions that Hitler was able to turn their frustration into the fuel that rebuilt Germany and their national pride. Once they took over one country and no one stops them.. they kept going....

The Allies seem to have realized their mistake from WW1 and at the end of WW2 focused more on rebuilding Germany than just punishing them.

Does it all really matter? One day there will be a world wide nuclear war and civilization as we know it will go down the shitt@r. Imagine life with no Internet, no phone service, no TV, and yes, no shitt@r. (Actually that all sounds pretty good, except the part about the shitt@r. Me likes me throne!). Let's say 2030 or so the earth will become one huge wasteland. Or maybe the ice shelf will fall into the ocean and just flood us all. Ort maybe a huge meteor will strike earth and burn every living thing alive. And if none of that happens, in a couple thousand years, no one will know of or care who Nixon, Bush, Hitler or Zsa Zsa Gabor was. PEACE!

Does it all really matter? One day there will be a world wide nuclear war and civilization as we know it will go down the shitt@r. Imagine life with no Internet, no phone service, no TV, and yes, no shitt@r. (Actually that all sounds pretty good, except the part about the shitt@r. Me likes me throne!). Let's say 2030 or so the earth will become one huge wasteland. Or maybe the ice shelf will fall into the ocean and just flood us all. Ort maybe a huge meteor will strike earth and burn every living thing alive. And if none of that happens, in a couple thousand years, no one will know of or care who Nixon, Bush, Hitler or Zsa Zsa Gabor was. PEACE!

DCBasedVigilante wrote:

Konrad,

You provided a reference... but you need to add more for the people that do not have time to read those books.

Basically... Britain and France were very pissed at the Germans because of World War One. They wanted to punish the Germans by putting in place several hard restrictions. Taking land away and etc. The average German was suffering so much as a result of these restrictions that Hitler was able to turn their frustration into the fuel that rebuilt Germany and their national pride. Once they took over one country and no one stops them.. they kept going....

The Allies seem to have realized their mistake from WW1 and at the end of WW2 focused more on rebuilding Germany than just punishing them.

The book is like a 100 pages long.

On another note, this person should know why Germany went to war.

Years ago when I was a schoolboy I went to a "German dinner night" put on by the German Club at my school. Now I grew up eating good Italian food regularly and also often ate Spanish, and French food and really enjoyed it, but that night was my first ever taste of German Cuisine (I use the word Cuisine very loosely). The point being that its no wonder folks who eat food like that want to fight all the time.

And this is a true story.