Sic Semper Tyrannis

Neil Richardson on World War II

 
Walrus: "'We won because we learned the discipline of 20th Century warfare the fastest.' With the greatest respect, the Germans taught you, and you were good students. " I think this is quite a bit of oversimplification. We learned not only from the Germans (mainly the earlier "heavy" version of armored division which proved inflexible as both armies discovered), but also the French (Contrary to popular opinion regarding the efficacy of the French army, they were the US artillery doctrine's early inspiration for TOT and other techniques. Artillery was our strongest branch in the Army during the war. The Heer was at least a generation behind us), and the Brits (USAAF fighter section tactics and early convoy tactics although the USN came up with the Thach Weave on its own).

Neil Richardson - commenting on the National Journal Blog item.

"History indicates that coalitions arise against hegemonic powers, or powers with hegemonic ("fullspectrum dominance" pretensions. Thus, given the fixed hegemonic ambitions of the US foreign policy elite, various combinations balancing the US (albeit declining) might be expected. China plus Japan, China plus Japan and Russia with the EU taking a pass, or whatever. On the other hand, there are those hoping for something like: India plus Japan (and Australia) with the US against China."

Dear Prof. Kiracofe: I think we have to be cautious in using historical analogies relating to coalition-building against hegemonic powers.