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| American Troops marching in Vladivostok, Siberia near the end of WWI |
I bring this up today as it is about a century since our entering World War I against Germany. In the end, we had sent several million troops just about everywhere including Siberia for crying out loud. We even had a crew operating the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
If you know your history at all, you know that we got into WWI with all the speed of a dripping faucet. Indeed, the entire episode that led to 2 million of our folks sent overseas was at least partially the constant sinking of American merchant and passenger ships. Here is a synopsis from History.com:
"In 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced the resumption of unrestricted warfare in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. On February 22, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war. In late March, Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships, and on April 2 President Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. Four days later, his request was granted."
This drip drip drip of buildup that sent the world into war of course started with an assassination and ended with millions and millions dead including 300,000 Americans killed or wounded.....that total coming in about 17 months of combat.
My point is that we are going through a similar drip drip drip and we have a governmental team in place that basically couldn't find the north pole on a globe. Keeping the lid on things is The Donald and his daughter's husband and some weird hedge fund guy; none of whom have a red cents worth of experience and all they have to do is keep lids on North Korea, Iraq, Iran, ISIS, Syria and North Korea - not to mention Mr. Putin who is up to all kinds of fun and games. Each day there is something new from these hotspots. Gas, missles, car bombings, beheadings - well you name it. Drip drip drip.
I'm just a little bit worried.