Stalingrad :Was the order given not to retreat correct?

[DeistPaladin]

Was Germany totally the guilty party in the first WW ? I don't think so.

A fair point. And actually, I agree to a large extent.

If a nation were to assassinate the vice president of the United States, there's no question what we as Americans would do. That said, the Kaiser W was, in my view, the German analog to George W Bush, a trigger happy idiot who's solution to every problem was unilateral and preemptive military action. Fortunately for us, the consequences were far less grave for America.

While I don't fault Germany for the first world war, there were steps they could have taken to mind their diplomatic relations so as to minimize their enemies. Bismark had a better understanding of how to promote Germany as a power not just through military might but through "softer" expressions of power that come through negotiations.

My point is that Germany lost the first world war not because they lacked a kick-ass war machine (they certainly did have that going for them) but because they took on too many enemies at once and their war machine eventually ran out of men and steam. Their justifications for being at war is beside that point.

Was Germany over reaching by trying to rectify the Versalles Treaty. ?

The Versailles Treaty was a rape, I will grant you that, one that I was horrified by when I read it. Even Churchill offered only a half-hearted defense of it, writing about how passions had run high over the terrible cost of the war.

It was also, in my opinion, the greatest tragedy of human history. We failed at a real opportunity to establish an equitable peace and a stable democracy in Germany. The war ended when the Kaiser was overthrown and the fledgling Wiemar Republic sued for peace. It would have been far better to not punish a people for what a dictator had done.

But once again, all this is beside my point. Germany didn't lose WWII for want of a kick-ass war machine. They lost because they took on too many countries at once.

No nation can take on the world.

Hopefully, we Americans won't have to learn that one the hard way.