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And, bluntly, what could we have done about it anyway?  Particularly in Europe the heads of the governments really didn't pay a lot of attention to what we had to say, and we didn't have many more divisions than the pope.  France was still reeling from the loss of a generation, Germany surging with national pride wanted a place in the sun (colonies), Italy with its meglomaniac and the English still looking down their noses at the wogs.  None of them in power were likely to listen to us, they had doom to meet.

I've always thought that the absolute horror and folly of that war is what strengthened the European populations to get control of their governments to make sure that this didn't happen again and knocked the virulent forms of nationalism out of their political structures for 2 generations as a respectable public expression.

"I said, 'Wait a minute, Chester, You know I'm a peaceful man...'" Robbie Robertson

by NearlyNormal on Sat Sep 6th, 2008 at 01:29:13 AM EST
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Maybe joining the Society Of Nations would have been a start...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Sep 6th, 2008 at 07:01:51 AM EST
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It would have been helpful if we were in the League, but we were nowhere near as important a power then, and there is little reason to think that the league would have actually done anything had we been there.  But yes, we should have been in the League and trying.

"I said, 'Wait a minute, Chester, You know I'm a peaceful man...'" Robbie Robertson
by NearlyNormal on Sat Sep 6th, 2008 at 09:09:05 AM EST
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