Re: [GZG] [OT] The myth of inevitable victory. (Was: [OT] Books (Weber/White/Meier) )

I find it hysterical that I have to argue both for the ability to beat
an insurgency AND that having a big economy doesn't guarantee victory
ON THE SAME EMAIL LIST, with some of the SAME PARTICIPANTS.

Am I the only one that doesn't find that to be just a little bit ironic?

John

On 7/22/08, Robert N Bryett <rbryett@gmail.com> wrote:
> An excellent book on the hindsight-based myth of inevitable Allied
> victory in WW2 is the oddly-titled "Why The Allies Won" by Richard
> Overy.
>
> I have never been a soldier, and I don't even play one on TV, so I'm
> in a poor position to comment on generalship on the battlefield. When
> it comes to the military and civil management of all the human and
> material resources needed to fight a modern war, I don't think
> there's much doubt that the Axis powers were comprehensively "out-
> generalled". There's a huge difference between potential resources
> and effective ones, and had the Allied powers used their resources as
> inefficiently as the Axis ones did theirs, the result could have been
> very different.
>
> Just take a look at a map showing the territory (with its associated
> potential resources), controlled by the Axis powers at the end of
> 1942. And ask yourself if any rational observer *at* *the* *time*
> would have regarded total Allied victory in less than three years as
> inevitable.
>
> I'm with Atkinson on this. Resources don't guarantee victory; you
> have to fight effectively too.
>
> Best regards, Robert Bryett
>
> On 21/07/2008, at 14:46 , John Atkinson wrote:
>
>> On 7/21/08, Richard Bell <rlbell.nsuid@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In many ways the issue was never in doubt for WWII.  Once the USA
was
>>> involved, it was merely a matter of expending the resources.
>>
>> That is some serious 20/20 hindsight.
>
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-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani

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