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- #501
You did not confuse me one bit Joe.Well, no, again, we didn't offer Hitler negotiation AFTER the fighting started.
So let's look at what Hilter was allowed to get away with.
He remilitarized the Rhineland. That was sovereign German territory, kind of hard to argue with that one.
He unified with Austria (Anschluss). Except most Austrians wanted that union. Austria wasn't really economically viable on its own. (It also wasn't a democracy, having its own form of fascism.)
Then there was Munich. Problem there was two-fold. The Allies didn't want a war. They didn't want Stalin playing a bigger role in Eastern Europe.
I would argue that where the Western Allies screwed up was telling the Polish Colonels to act tough. (Poland also wasn't a democracy at that point, go figure). Instead, Hitler cut a deal with Stalin. But the Allies didn't declare war on the USSR, for some reason. Did you ever wonder why?
I'm not sure if your Hitler Analogy even stands. The better Analogy would be Korea.
North Korea invades South Korea, the US and ROK beat them back, China intervenes, and by the end of a year or so, it locks down into a stalemate.
But it still took another two years to negotiate a ceasefire (Technically, it's still an active war zone).
Obviously, the US could have escalated in an attempt to drive back the Chinese and North Koreans. Reinstitute full conscription, start rationing, and send over thousands of troops instead of the mere Nine divisions we sent. Start strategically bombing China and encourage Chiang Kai-Shek to invade the mainland.
This probably would have brought the USSR into the war and possibly expanded it into Europe, but hey, sometimes those are the breaks. Oh, yeah, and exchanging nukes.
Instead, cooler heads prevailed, and we got a peace treaty that not everyone was happy with, but everyone could live with. The emphasis being on "LIVING".
Putin invaded. Why do you defend him?