Exclusive: Moving "we were not occupiers" letter from @TomTugendhat to @jeremycorbyn: https://t.co/5GeY0vA0H1 pic.twitter.com/249QbDdkV3
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 12, 2015
RT “we were not occupiers” letter of @TomTugendhat 2 @jeremycorbyn
13 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, Marxist economics, war and peace
Watching people fighting, watching people fighting on Armistice Day
11 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Armistice Day, game theory, Treaty of Versailles, World War I
The Midnight Oil song was true. Generals launched attacks on Armistice Day in full knowledge that the 11 a.m. truce had been agreed unofficially up to two days before. The Germans finally signed the armistice at 5:10 a.m. on the morning of the 11th November.
- The records of Commonwealth War Graves Commission shows that 863 Commonwealth soldiers died on 11 November 1918 – this figure includes those who died of wounds received prior to November 11.
- The Americans took 3,300 casualties on the last day of the war.
The last American soldier killed was Private Henry Gunter who was killed at 10.59 a.m. – the last man to die in World War One. His divisional record stated:
Almost as he fell, the gunfire died away and an appalling silence prevailed.
General Pershing supported commanders who wanted to be pro-active in attacking German positions on the last day of the war. Pershing stated at 1919 Congressional hearings that although he knew about the timing of the Armistice, he simply did not trust the Germans to carry out their obligations. Pershing also pointed out that his orders of the Allies Supreme Commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, to
pursue the field greys (Germans) until the last minute
Pershing found the idea of an armistice repugnant. He maintained:
Germany’s desire is only to regain time to restore order among her forces, but she must be given no opportunity to recuperate and we must strike harder than ever.
As for terms, Pershing had one response:
There can be no conclusion to this war until Germany is brought to her knees.
Pershing said that conciliation now would lead only to a future war. He wanted Germany’s unconditional surrender. He insisted that Germany must know that it was fully defeated in the field of battle rather than betrayed from within.
When presented with the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, several German governments resigned. France started to remobilise before Germany finally accepted the Treaty. The Treaty was somewhat harsher than the German Foreign Office anticipated.
A blow by blow account of the six-months of treaty negotiations is in Margaret MacMillan Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World 2002 who showed that:
- real defeat was not brought home to the German people,
- the power of the peacemakers was limited,
- they were not responsible for the fragmentation of Europe which was already happening,
- the blockade did not starve Germany,
- neither the Versailles treaty nor France was vindictive,
- reparations were not crushing,
- the treaty was not enforced with any consistency, and it did not seriously restrict German power, and
- The Versailles treaty was not primarily responsible for either the next twenty years or for World War II.
The high-minded efforts of the Paris negotiators were doomed as some of them realised. Lloyd George wrote:
It fills me with despair the way in which I have seen small nations, before they have hardly leapt into the light of freedom, beginning to oppress other races than their own.
European alliances in 1914 set the stage for the first world war
11 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: economics of alliances, game theory, World War I
European alliances in 1914 set the stage for the first world war. bit.ly/VoxMapsWWI (via @WestPoint_USMA) http://t.co/NVTZ5dtymJ—
Vox Maps (@VoxMaps) October 03, 2015
Mises on Nazi socialism
31 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, labour economics, Ludwig von Mises, Public Choice, survivor principle Tags: Nazi Germany
#TBT Ludwig von Mises' 1942 Letter to the Editor in the @nytimes on Nazi socialism. http://t.co/kv7TFekY8J—
Mises Institute (@mises) October 15, 2015
Hold my beer while I throw a grenade
02 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of media and culture Tags: Darwin awards, military training
How many colonies did each European country have?
20 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: age of empires, British empire, British imperialism, colonialism
A map of Europe based on how many colonies each country had i100.io/SpgD1re http://t.co/Atj5Td1dHN—
i100 (@thei100) July 04, 2015
Who controls what in Syria and Iraq
31 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Iraq, ISIS, Syria, war on terror
The Kurds are helping fight #ISIS. Why is Turkey bombing them?
16 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: ISIS, Kurds, Turkey
Squeamishness kills alert: were the atomic bombings unnecessary? Would have Japan surrendered anyway?
06 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: atomic bombings, Hiroshima, Japan
https://twitter.com/makingdayscount/status/629162313879154688
8.15 am, 6 August 1945 bit.ly/1IrpJoA
#Hiroshima http://t.co/rtP26Q3qHm—
The Conversation (@ConversationUK) August 06, 2015#ThisDayInHistory 1945 – Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima killing at least 129,000 people. http://t.co/4LmdcoJ034—
Paul Henry (@PaulHenryShow) August 06, 2015https://twitter.com/historyfacts247/status/629304405024763904
The atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima on this day 70 years ago. nyti.ms/1MPqwTn http://t.co/GAiWFzQcvV—
NYT Archives (@NYTArchives) August 06, 2015How The Japan Times reported the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki jtim.es/QvTPC http://t.co/xYwL62C16Z—
The Japan Times (@japantimes) August 06, 2015
Those that argue that Japan surrendered for reasons other than the atomic bomb put forward contradictory arguments.
The first is the Japan was already seeking terms for surrender. That is true, but among those terms was avoiding occupation.
The Japanese leadership had already interpreted the terms of the Potsdam declaration was a sign of weakness. They hoped that by making the invasion of Japan as bloody as possible, they could extract even better terms in light of this sign of weakness at Potsdam. Kyushu, the obvious initial invasion site in southern Japan, was being heavily reinforced by the middle of 1945.
Japan no longer had a realistic prospect of winning the war by the end of 1994 and they knew it.
Japan’s leaders believed they could make the cost of conquering Japan too high for the Allies to accept, leading to some sort of armistice rather than total defeat. The Japanese…
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Modern European borders superimposed over Europe in 1914
06 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: France, Germany, Russia, UK politics, World War I
Modern European borders superimposed over Europe in 1914 immediately before World War ! – bit.ly/1BCI17c http://t.co/0vADDCvp2l—
Brilliant Maps (@BrilliantMaps) December 12, 2014
What a great fort!
04 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history Tags: EU
Bourtange, Netherlands. Built in 1593 (during the Eighty Years' War), this is a great example of a Star Fort. http://t.co/10NnjhaJVf—
History (@HistoryTime_) July 01, 2015
This week in the Syrian civil war
02 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Iran, ISIS, Kurds, Middle-East politics, Syria, Turkey, war against terror
https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/625742628450115587/photo/1
The worrying spread of terrorism in Africa http://t.co/C16YJy3szT—
ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 20, 2015
Arab Gulf states vastly outspend Iran on military
01 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: arms races, Gulf States, Iran, Middle-East politics, Saudi Arabia
Arab Gulf states vastly outspend Iran on military http://t.co/9Aq2RBpSJm—
ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 29, 2015
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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