Isn't that rather a repeat of the WWI strategy, which lead to an overcrowded battlespace in Belgium and hampered German operations. Also given the Third Reich had already demonstrated a complete disregard for neutrality in Denmark I can't imagine why they would baulk at invading the Netherlands.
Its possible for the Entente to lose, but the burden of that defeat will fall on the Belgians and the French. Germany just has no power to impose terms on the British and indeed if the Germans want a lasting peace and access to foreign markets they probably need to get out off Belgium or at the...
You understand that repeating that doesn't make it any more accurate? USW was what outraged the US government, being a direct threat to their shipping and something they had already forced the Germans to stop once. The Germans resumed it gambling that it would achieve results before the...
Its amazing how even the titles of your selected sources makes their biases clear. The reasons why this sort of idea won't work have been explained across multiple threads. You seem to be taking what were nothing more than idle specualations on the Entente side as carved in stone and at the...
At the end of the day it made for a fascinating idea in a science fiction novel, but as the basis for a real world political system? i suspect it winds up more like Sparta than Athens.
But that still bring serious issues. What if there is a major war and the draft is necessary? Will the draftees get citizenship? if they do how will those who previously served feel when they see their voting power diluted by all these lightweights who had to be forced to serve?
That and his Stark books, which are less well known as they came out before he hit it big with the Lost Fleet. For David Weber, has to be March to the Stars.
And this is the essential flaw in Heinlein's idea, those who've earned their citizenship by going and fighting insurgents in some godforsaken corner of the world or other hazardous duty are not going to be happy that someone else gets it for staying in some leafy military housing facility and...
Because they probably didn't realize the full extent of what was going to be offered, or intended to renege at the first opportunity, or indeed just change their minds because they had a couple of days to think about it. You only have to look at Ludendorff's conduct in 1918, seeking an armistice...
You're POD doesn't really work, as long as USW is in play, and as has been pointed out a great many people in the USA didn't believe the telegram was real. The USA had forced the Germans to back down from USW by threatening action the last time Germany tried it, so yes it would lead to war with...
And has been pointed out once the German leadership understood just how much Kühlmann was willing to give away they would have repudiated his offer, assuming it was more than just mischief making. Strikes me such an outrageous capitulation is only being offered in the certainty that it won't be...
Problem is that might actually be worse than OTL owing to the blockade still being in place and in 1917 they still think there's a chance they could win. Even a more realistic leadership in 1917, and that's a stretch, is still probably going to go for one last roll of the dice on the battlefield...
There's no such thing as just a ceasefire, such things are complicated beasts since no one wants to hand the enemy a potential advantage and the idea that after a couple of days of stopping the fighting people will be desperate for peace at any price remains more than a little ridiculous...
Which is just typical 'lions led by donkeys' mythology. Even at the height of the French mutiny in 1917 the French army was able and willing to fight on the defensive. Continuing the fighting wasn't about some concept of honour it was about the security of France, Britain and Belgium. Having the...