(June 7, 2013 at 2:58 am)NoraBrimstone Wrote: If we're laying the blame solely on who made it a "World" War, then Britain has a lot to answer for. How much of the World did we drag into it? The fact is, there was so much going on in Europe at that time that War was inevitable with or without Germany.
I think that's going a bit far. Great Britain didn't enter the fray until Germany invaded Belgium and France.
It seems to me from the outside perspective that Britain had always played a pragmatic game of balance of power politics regarding mainland Europe. When Germany was disunited, that was when they were always helping the Germans against the French. When Germany united and the balance of power in Europe shifted, that was when they became friendly with France despite some colonial conflicts at that time.
The rationale isn't hard to comprehend. When Rome ruled Europe, they conquered Britain shortly after. The only times Britain has been seriously threatened is when Napoleon or Hitler had control of Europe. Britain places an understandable value on its independence from the mainland, especially since it had a better track record on individual rights and democracy at least until the last century. The mainland had its "absolutist" monarchs in the 17th-18th centuries and its reactionary politics in the 19th.
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"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist