The object is to free capital...Look at your calender...Capital never took off until the black plague... Now, perhaps, the problem may be too much capital, and not enough cash, liquidity...Capital owns the world...It has it in its maw, but it just can't seem to choke it down...

No war benefits a contry then this country is among those to suffer greatly with it, even if you count only the higher classes.

Every single Russian except for Stalin knew that Barbarossa was coming. Stalin had been getting personal warnings for months from diplomats, leaders, spies, defectors, and his own military that Germany was about to launch an invasion.

Hitler had no need to secure his flank. The only reason other than procrastination that he invaded the Balkans was he was hoping to goad Stalin into attacking first.

They DID tell him. The invasion of Russia was opposed by Goehring, who at the time was the second most powerful person in Nazi Germany; and some prominent generals like Halder and Guderian also opposed it. The virtual entirety of the generals in the east opposed Hitler's plan to halt Army Group Center rather than taking Moscow. You don't need to look very far to see examples of where Hitler overrode his generals.

It was never a major objective of his until he was nearby, but it afforded him an opportunity to seize the Volga, knock out several entire Soviet armies, and get a symbolic victory. When they were approaching Stalingrad Goebbels' propaganda was teeming with stories about Germany's imminent victory over Stalingrad.

It's immaterial, because Hitler DID try to take Stalingrad, he DID divide Army Group South in order to do so, and he DID forbid any retreat even though the salient created by the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army was plainly vulnerable.

And as much as you say that Paulus sucked, he was the one who wisely wanted to break out of Stalingrad once he was encircled. Hitler fell into Zhukov's and Chuikov's trap by pouring soldiers into street fighting while their entire army got encircled.

I did not say that Kursk was late in the war. Kursk was fought in the summer of 1943. The war had 2 years left to be fought, over 1000 miles of territory, and millions of lives. What I said was that the ultimate outcome was a foregone conclusion. Hitler knowingly threw his army against the most heavily prepared and fortified defense in the history of warfare, just because he couldn't bear to order a strategic defensive, and despite the fact that Guderian implored him not to order an offensive after the debacle at Stalingrad.

That would be false by several millions of lives. The Germans lost a good 4 to 5 million soldiers in Russia. They probably didn't even deploy half a million to the Balkans.

Please don't give us this "those people" crap... in the end, most of the soldiers on every side were young kids who were forced to fight, not some automatons with some intrinsic national character. And by the way, it wasn't the people of the Balkans or Russia who had national policies of mass extermination during that conflict...

You're right about Stalin, you're wrong about Hitler. Hitler sent his generals on an idiotic suicide mission based on his erroneous calculus that Russia would collapse like a deck of cards once invaded. When that failed, Hitler blamed his generals, but Germany lost because of operational and strategic blunders, not tactical ones.

Hitler's generals DID tell him differently. Not that they were immune to pusilanimity and error themselves, but the catastrophic miscalculations of Barbarossa fall far more heavily on the shoulders of Hitler than on his generals. Of course Stalin's decimation of his own army made Hitler's generals look awfully good...

There are a lot of countries that go into war too lightly, and when this might take the sacrifice of all to win, or even survive, they do not seek consensus...I think they try to pass on the injustice in their own lands to others, and in this those who suffer injustice are the most in favor of, and it is because while revolution is thought a vice, war is considered a virtue...That we should dare to throw off the yoke of injustice and establish democracy is the highest calling of mankind, but it is also the key to world peace...As one guy said of the first world war: A gun is a machine with a working man on either end of it...The people we are killing for our enemies are our friends...

Goverments arent perfectly logical money gathering machines like many people think and I myself used to do. Though they tend to be that way, oftenly the culture of its people as a whole has an impact on its behavior, making it act unlike what is best for its objectives. For example during the mercantilism portugal was gaining a lot of money from its colonies, so it accepted to enter that wine-cloth deal with england even though it knew it was on the losing end... aka: They were so rich they decided to give in to some luxury. That is not how a totally logical money gathering machine acts.

True government, which is to say democracies are logical...The Iroquois confederacy had to consider their decisions in the light of the next seven generation...People are irrational... It is the task of government to be rational, to curb the irrationality of people, to know the facts, to inform the people, and to urge them to a rational dicision... The problem with this majority rule, rule, is that it does not inform, but plays upon the prejudice and bigoty of the people in order to have power over them...

Those who decide are also people and also bound to irrationality, they are merely somewhat more rational.

When the genius of the mind can be bought for a shilling; it can sell the results and the logic for a killing.

They are much more irrational if they believe that one mind is better than many...Even if one man were to command many, he is a fool if he does not follow them... It may seem that many leaders have the heads up their butts, but really, the successful ones lead from the rear... They find out where people want to go and help to take them there...

Try again please

I dont think so, otherwise they wouldnt be leaders

Have you ever read Moby Dick...There is a story within a story about a slave ship, and at the end of it a skeleton of the Captain is revealed tied to bow sprite with the legend, follow your leader attached to him...Considering how many have followed their leaders to their death, one must conclude that is the object...

the israelis were were/are outnumbered. from readings and documentaries, i would say that they are generally more intelligent, possibly through better education/university etc.

these people did not posses superior weaponry. they were just smart enough to do with what they had. for example, the arab forces had the lastest [then] superior russian tanks, while israel had outdated WWII sherman tanks. they supercharged the engines and extended the turrets. they infiltrated the arab armies years prior with people who held high positions in government and the military. the ouzi was inveted during this war, because they needed a small machine gun to run around tight corners when raiding syria's tunnels on the border. they played fake videos on their news of the military enjoying holidays the day before attacking. they struck when they knew the arab airforce were swapping shifts and eating breakfast. they flew dagerously low with the planes to avoid radar. they flew against the sun not to be noticed. they invented napalm for this war, mixing petroleum with a jelly-like substance. they attacked fake airfields, practising over and over for years. they were the ones who found the idea of flattening tyres on 4x4's in order to drive easily on sand. they mapped the deserts of the enemy so as to know where to drive and not get bogged in the deserts.

in other words, they outsmarted, outclassed and proved themselves to be dangerous targets. they fought out of necessity to survive, as all arab nations wanted them destroyed. too bad for the arabs that they picked a people who were smarter and more determined than they were.

I didnt understand the expression "tied to bow sprite".

The bowsprit is one of these:

I have been reading about the secret wars of Israel; and I will tell you they have always had the plan to take over that place and drive those people out... The Palestinians were poor, and they were poor too, but with far more money than the palestinians...They bought smuggled German and Italian weapons from Australian troops... They early on organized intelligence services, long before they were a state... And one of the recommendations coming out of the early period was to declare a rabies out break as a excuse to kill all the Arab dogs... To me this is one bit of proof positive that they were the aggressors, because dogs are good only for defense... They used the natural and long term personal or political divisions between the Arab people to gain an advantage over both sides... Clearly, after the first war, when many Palestians could have returned; they chose instead to live in refulgee camps because they were terrorized...I am not going to say it was not back and forth, or that outrages were not commited on both sides... Clearly, when the war was going on, the intelligence people were complaining that some of their informants, surrendering to the army, and asking to talk to their employers were instead liquidated... How many were liquidated simply for surrendering??? This is like torture, and a betrayal of honor; to kill a person within your control who is unarmed... Now; I know that Israel lost a large part of their population in that first war...I am not saying they deserved the holocaust...If Britain had not helped them, mostly by being incompetent; but some times, actively, out of prejudice against the Arabs, then Israel would not have had nearly the easy time of it....

as far as i understand, the israelis were the people of the area we call palestine from biblical times. they were thrown off their land back then. in more recent years, the israelis took back their land. i feel that the palestinians have been hard done by, because it was too long a gap since the israelis lost their land.

at the end of the day, the only way this problem can be solved is for both to share the land/country. this will never happen however. it is too unrealistic. also, both sides have populations that are stupid due to the fact that they believe in improbable and ridiculous religions.

the stupidity will continue however, as both sides continue to brainwash their own children with fairy tales of god blessing them as the chosen people :sarcastic: once these types of stupid beliefs are swept away, along with greed and power, then logic may prevail.