What If..?

I am posting this blog on my nearly lifeless site mainly for a special friend who continues to be one of the best thinkers I know.  I am a reader and writer of alternative science fiction -- the kind that imagine current events if something changed, like, say Lincoln surviving an assassination attempt, or the Moors not being driven out of Spain.

But this alternative fiction is one that I wish had happened.  I think the world would be a better place if the US had joined the Central Powers -- or even threatened to -- in WWI.  That war actually never ended, and has continued to drone on as the embers flared up to be WWII, then developed into the Cold War that included Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba, and now is in the Middle East.

The ones who actually wanted to fight for England and France lived mainly in what we call "New England."  The Celtic people of the South felt more sympathy for the Germans.  Our excuse for entering the war was German U-boat "aggression," but although we were not involved in the war at the time, we were busy carrying war materiel and support to Great Britain.  The Germans did what anyone would do to a neutral power:  stopped boats and seized armaments and military support, and when that was not enough, decided to make the North Atlantic unsafe for American intervention.  Had we honestly entered the war and fought it in the open, these things would not have happened.  Using cruise ships to arm England and France was a bad idea.

Let's talk about those two "allies."  First, there's England, who had fought three wars with us in the last century and a half.  Then, there was France, who no longer knew how to engage in warfare.  We had no real reason to side with them, and they represented no interests of ours.  By identifying with them, the whole world learned what type of nation we now wanted to be.  England, especially was hated for their vicious colonialism that could claim huge profits in occupied lands that, today, are profitless, such as current day Pakistan and Bangladesh.  They ruled a huge portion of the earth, and maintained it with a rod of iron.  France was doing the same in West Africa and Southeast Asia.  The people that hated them now hated us.

Germany had a good relationship with the Middle East; Britain (read British Petroleum) did not.  In the 20th century the US would help Britain topple the elected ruler of Persia, and install the Pahlavi family to power, whose last ruler was the infamous Shah.  The Shah's people were much more friendly to British Petroleum.  I have to ask myself, If we had been with the Germans, would we have the strife in the Middle East?  Sure, they point at our support of Israel as their point of hatred, but before the initiation of that state, they already hated us because we were Great Britain's right hand.  What would the Middle East look like today if the Central Powers had won?

When the US entered the war, we tipped the balance of power, and England and France, tired of Germany, not only demanded their surrender -- they demanded their humiliation.  The "armistice" that was signed was nothing like the gentlemen's agreement of Appomattox Court House a half century earlier.  It made Reconstruction look like a Sunday school picnic.  England and France -- and New England -- wanted Germany's back broken.  As a result, the nation was instantly forced into poverty.  We all know what happened to the German mark -- a move that gave great profit to a group of American and European bankers who had colluded to organize a banking cartel that included the US Federal Reserve, only a few years earlier.

Humiliated and smoldering, the Germans sought to restore their former glory.  This need for restoration, for a return to hope, for anyone who could get them back to where they belonged, made them ripe to receive an eloquent young speaker named Adolf Hitler, in spite of their misgivings about his character.

My contention is, if we had joined the Central Powers, there never would have been a Fuehrer, an attempt at a third Reich, or concentration camps.  If we had joined the Central Powers, there never would have been the tension in the Middle East, mainly for two reasons.  First, the Jews would not have had to leave Germany, and secondly, Great Britain would not have forced the formation of Israel.  There were many ways to restore the ancient nation; Great Britain and the United Nations chose, possibly, the worst way of all.  Imagine a world without Middle East extremism, without September 11.  If we had joined the Central Powers, Germany would not have slipped an exiled Lenin back into Russia to ease their pressure on the eastern front.  Russia was ripe for revolution against an evil royalty, but Lenin would not have been the one to topple them.  And Stalin would not have been there to take his place, and since, in my scenario, WWII never happens, there would have been no divisions of Eastern Europe, no East and West Germany, no division of Berlin, no domination of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania, et. al.   No Cold War.  No Red threat. No McCarthy trials.  No Korean War.  No Vietnamese War.  And no Gulf War.

Oh, sure, I believe mankind has evil at his roots, especially when it comes to politics, and something wicked would have arisen to fill the vacuum, but something in me says it would not have been as bad.

So why did we leave our neutrality and jump into a World War?  As I said before, part of it was the sympathy of the New England region of the US.  I'm sure Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Texas, and other states with their rich German heritage would not have insisted on the war.  But the biggest part would have to be the strings that were being controlled by the banking cartels who controlled Western Europe and the United States.  In 1913, everything had changed:  the Federal Reserve took over our treasury, the Senate was selected by popular vote instead of state legislatures, and somehow, Americans "voted" for an amendment to allow the income tax.  WWI was a huge boon for banking, oil, and those controlling it.  Millions were to be made, and the debts after the war enriched bankers even more.

What a different world it would be today if the US had sided with the Central Powers.  I don't think we would have had to fire a shot.  Britain and France, seeing their great potential Sugar Daddy join the other side, would have laid down arms and negotiated a peaceful settlement.

And Adolph Hitler would have died in obscurity in Germany, a non-person.  That would have been worth it, right there.