Quote Originally Posted by Papewaio View Post
Myth Germany lost because it was arrogant, had a big mouth and didn't have the ability to back it up.

Amateurs fight shiny metal object vs shiny metal object. Professionals talk logistics.

Not just the wealth and industrial might to be at war and develop nuclear weapons, nor the industrial might to rebuild an air craft carrier faster than your enemy can conceive it (Midway), the ability to supply both USSR and UK with the materials to fight against an arrogant aggressor and build ships like the liberty.

Then add to it after the Allies defeated the Axis the industrial might to rebuild the economies from scratch. If you want an object lesson in the intent and capability of the US then compare and contrast what Japan and Germany did to their occupied nations and then compare how Western Germany did vs Eastern Germany.

Western Germany was so prosperous that unification for them was a scary thing as the debt to bring Eastern Germany up to scratch was massive.

So lets get real here. WWII Germany was a bunch of bully boy facists who lost most of their great scientists before the war even started. The only awards for logistics that won were best slave and concentration camps and mass graves awards. They started a war, they got trounced and lost all their colonial assets.
On the bright side, their fabs are mostly using machine tools with 1946 and later dates on them, for some reason....Harley Davidson was -- at least as of the mid 1990s from my own personal inspection -- still using machine lathes and such that were constructed in 1901.

On the other hand, I was never quite so dismissive of European success and approaches as were some posters. I have only asserted that the USA has, traditionally, been unwilling to shoulder the total tax burden typical of a Western European social democracy -- A level that I suspect is necessary to begin to cover the cost of the broader social services/safety net provided.

I am more than willing to acknowledge that the USA has a debt problem. I rather suspect that my preferred solution choices would meet with little support on this forum.