Re: 20/7/03:IRAQ THE HISTORY OF RESISTANCE

http://www.scottmanning.com/archives/000445.php

Book Review: How Hitler Could Have Won World War II

Scott Manning
January 22, 2002 | Comments (210)



Author: Bevin Alexander

See it on Amazon

Most Americans and British would like to think that Hitler was defeated by
the tenacity and determination of the United States and the British Empire.
Some may even concede that the Russians had something to do with it as well.
But the fact of the matter is no one really defeated Hitler - Hitler
defeated himself.

Throughout the war, Hitler had opportunities of sealing his victory. He
really could have conquered the entire world. So what happened? That's what
this book is about. And this book does a great job of pointing out where
Hitler messed up and what could have happened if he had chosen a different
path.

Find out what would have happened if Hitler had: Finished off England from
the start.
- Given Rommel the troops he requested in North Africa.
- Waited to attack Russia.
- Conquered the Middle East.
- And many other unnerving possibilities.

Bevin Alexander has done a fine job of providing a detailed look at the
paths that Hitler refused to take and what would have happened had he gone
down them. Starting from the very beginning of the war, Alexander takes you
through all of WWII in the European theater to see Hitler come closer than
anyone ever has to world conquest and then throw it all away. Hitler's own
stubbornness, pride, and just plain stupidity kept him from listening to his
most trusted and closest commanders and it cost him the war.

Some of you reading this review may wonder why you would ever want to read a
war book, especially one about Hitler. There are many reasons for reading
this book, like learning history, etc. You ask, "But isn't the main reason
for reading this book to learn about Hitler? Why would I want to learn
anything about that madman?" Well, you just answered your own question.
Hitler is the prime example of leadership at its worst. As you will learn
from the book, Hitler had to work hard at losing this war.

With that said, we can see some of Hitler's traits in leaders today:
stubbornness, not listening to advice, making moves out of personal
vendetta, etc. We can also see some of these very traits in ourselves.
Looking at how these traits were detrimental to Hitler's conquest, we can
see how these traits could also hold us back.

So if you read this book, don't just think about Hitler, or the war, or
history. Take a look at yourself. How similar are your actions to Hitler's?


------------------


"Rose Melinis" <rosemelinis@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:N%Oif.188081$zb5.63404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> The problem lies with the fact that the British had the means and
> opportunity to liquidate all of the people living in that area. Had they
> done so all of your twisted view of history would be moot. Possibly it can
> be done in the near future - a clean slate, so to speak, what say?
>
>
> <uneoo@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:438ba996@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> >
> > FWD-29-11-2005
> > [A good collection of reports on Iraq conflict can be found on
> > www.globalpolicy.org. Fair use policy applied. --U Ne Oo]
> >
> >
> > BRITAIN TRIED FIRST. IRAQ WAS NO PICNIC THEN.
> >
> > By John Kifner
> >
> > New York Times
> > July 20, 2003
> >
> >
> > The public, the distinguished military analyst wrote from Baghdad, had
> > been led "into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with
> > dignity and honor."
> >
> >
> > "They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of
> > information," he said. "The Baghdad communique are belated, insincere,
> > incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our
> > administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows."
> >
> >
> > He added: "We are today not far from a disaster." Sound familiar? That
> > was T. E. Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia writing in The Sunday Times of
> > London on Aug. 22, 1920, about the British occupation of what was then
> > called Mesopotamia. And he knew. For it was Lieutenant Colonel
> > Lawrence and the intrepid British adventuress Gertrude Bell who, more
> > than anyone else, were responsible for the creation of what was to
> > become Iraq. A fine mess they made of it, too.
> >
> >
> > During the First World War, Lawrence had been present at the birth of
> > modern Arab nationalism and fought alongside its guerrillas to victory
> > against the Ottoman Empire, only to see the same guerrilla tactics
> > turned against the British in a rebellion in Iraq.
> >
> >
> > It is perhaps instructive to look back on that earlier effort by the
> > leading Western power to remake the Middle East as the American
> > occupation of Iraq appears increasingly beset.
> >
> >
> > It has not been going well, especially in Sunni-controlled central
> > Iraq. Rather than being hailed as liberators, the American troops face
> > "a classical guerrilla-type campaign" there that is increasingly
> > organized, their new regional commander, Gen. John P. Abizaid, said
> > last week. A Pentagon-approved independent body of experts criticized
> > the lack of postwar planning. Soldiers of the Army's Third Infantry
> > Division, have been told they are not going home as planned. The cost,
> > Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld now says, is running about
> > $3.9 billion a month, nearly twice earlier estimates, and tens of
> > thousands of troops may have to remain for years to come.
> >
> >
> > At the same time, the rationale for war is increasingly
> > questioned. Terror weapons have not yet been found in Iraq, nor have
> > links to Al Qaeda. The Bush administration is scrambling to explain
> > how allegations based on forged documents purporting to show Iraqi
> > uranium purchases from Niger found their way into the State of the
> > Union address. All this has not helped build global support: last
> > week, India rejected an American request to send some 17,000
> > peacekeeping troops. Meanwhile, clashes and increasingly sophisticated
> > ambushes have been running at a rate of a dozen a day; by week's end,
> > at least 33 American soldiers had been killed in hostilities since May
> > 1, the date when President Bush declared that major combat was over.
> >
> >
> > Ominously, Iraqi crowds have emerged to dance and cheer around
> > burned-out American Humvees. Many American officers had sensed trouble
> > ahead. As their armor clanked north to Baghdad, officers in the First
> > Marine Division said over and over that the war was no problem; the
> > difficulties would come with the rebuilding of Iraq. Indeed, in the
> > face of American might and technology, the enemy, for the most part,
> > simply did not show up for the big battles.
> >
> >
> > The British had a tougher time of it in World War I; they lost
> > thousands of troops most of them Indian in a five-month Turkish siege
> > of Kut. But they regrouped and captured Baghdad on March 11,
> > 1917. Maj. Gen. Stanley Maude greeted the populace with a speech that
> > could have been written today: "Our armies do not come into your
> > cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators." Well,
> > not quite, General.
> >
> >
> > When World War I began in 1914, most Arab lands were under the
> > decaying Ottoman Empire, whose ruler, the caliph, was also Islam's
> > supreme authority. The Ottomans were Germany's allies, and Britain saw
> > a chance to seize the Middle East; its interests were to command the
> > trade routes to India and, as it would develop, to control the
> > emerging resource of oil. Lord Kitchener, the war minister, wanted to
> > set up his own caliph Britain Tried First. Iraq Was No Picnic Then.
> >
> >
> > Enter the Arab Bureau, a special intelligence unit set up in Cairo. It
> > had little expertise, and its early efforts to inspire an Arab revolt
> > failed. Then Lawrence, a young captain at the time, volunteered to
> > take a look on his vacation time. He recruited Hussein's second son,
> > Feisal, as the charismatic leader of what became known as the Great
> > Arab Revolt. His raiders crossed the desert to capture the port of
> > Aqaba from the rear, repeatedly blew up the Turks' railroad tracks and
> > harassed their troops, and finally entered Damascus in triumph
> > (although this had to be staged because the Australian cavalry got
> > there first).
> >
> >
> > The British had promised Feisal that he would be king of the Arabs in
> > Damascus and he arrived at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference as the
> > chief Arab spokesman. But Britain and France had secretly agreed to
> > divide up the Middle East, and Feisal's reign in Damascus lasted just
> > months until the French came over the mountains from
> > Lebanon. Meanwhile, things were not going well for the British in
> > Mesopotamia. Bell was arbitrarily drawing lines on the map to make a
> > new country out of three former Ottoman provinces Mosul in the north,
> > Baghdad in the center and Basra in the south. The districts were
> > composed, respectively, of Kurds, Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims,
> > all of whom hated each other and the British even more. For one thing,
> > the British were more efficient than the Turks in collecting taxes. By
> > 1920, the country was in full rebellion, from Shiite tribesmen in the
> > south to Kurds in the north. There were some 425 deaths on the British
> > side and an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 among the Iraqis.
> >
> >
> > Hoping to restore order, the British, at the urging of Bell and
> > Lawrence, switched Feisal's franchise to Iraq in 1921, although he had
> > never set foot there. In a rigged plebiscite, the new king got 96 per
> > cent of the votes. King Feisal and his strongman prime minister, Nuri
> > as-Said, managed to solidify Sunni minority control over the rest of
> > the country. But there was frequent turmoil.
> >
> >
> > IN response, the British turned to technology, with their air force
> > commander, Arthur (Bomber) Harris, boasting that his biplanes had
> > taught Iraqis that "within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be
> > practically wiped out and a third of its inhabitants killed or
> > wounded." Winston Churchill, who, as colonial secretary, presided over
> > the creation of Iraq, Trans-Jordan and Palestine, called Iraq an
> > "ungrateful volcano." Still, it took 35 years for the disaster that
> > Lawrence predicted to become total. Iraq gained independence in 1931,
> > but the British-sponsored monarchy hung on and guarded British
> > interests until 1958, when the royal family was murdered and dragged
> > through the streets. That ushered in a period of successive military
> > and Baath Party coups, all brutal, and by 1979 Saddam Hussein had
> > assumed total control.
> >
> >
> > Like the Arab Bureau, neoconservative policy makers in the Defense
> > Department, who have long been the most prominent advocates of
> > removing Mr. Hussein, have a vision of the Middle East and a
> > candidate. The vision is of a democratic Iraq that would be an example
> > of change to other, undemocratic, Arab nations the kind of change they
> > believe would remake the region and make easier an Arab-Israeli
> > peace. They have promoted as a leader Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite
> > from a wealthy family that had been close to the old monarchy, even
> > though some Middle East specialists in the State Department distrust
> > him and consider him ineffectual. As the head of the Iraqi National
> > Council, Mr. Chalabi recently returned to Iraq after living in exile
> > for decades. The American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III,
> > has appointed a 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, with Mr. Chalabi
> > among them.
> >
> >
> > One other thing about Colonel Lawrence. While some of his exploits are
> > doubtless exaggerated, his guerrilla tactics are still much
> > studied. He came to realize that when a small band faced more powerful
> > conventional forces, its strength lay in avoiding direct battles and
> > instead conducting stealthy raids. His own guerrilla force, he wrote
> > in his memoir, "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," had "a sophisticated alien
> > enemy, disposed as an army of occupation in an area greater than could
> > be dominated effectively from fortified posts. It had a friendly
> > population, in which some 2 in the 100 were active, and the rest
> > quietly sympathetic to the point of not betraying the movements of the
> > minority."
> >
> >
> > That larger army could be demoralized and worn down, its patrols and
> > sentries made nervous and drawn, waiting for the next attack and never
> > sure from where it would come. It is a feeling the weary soldiers of
> > the Third Infantry Division are coming to know well.
> >
> >
> >
>
>


.

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