by
drmessimer
Erno: Those are interesting points and the use of relative similarities is a valuable historical tool. I suppose if one posited that had Germany defeated Britain in 1940-41, by any means, the current world society would be more similar to that of Germany. The vehicle for that supposition would be how the US culture was essentially forced on to the rest of postwar Western society and to some degree Asian society. I don't really buy it for several reasons, but it would make for an interesting discussion. But it still would not be historical in nature and would fall more into the category of Social Science, that dreamy discipline--if "discipline" is an accurate term to use--in which there is no correct or incorrect answer to anything. In my mind, the whole business of playing "what if" is entertaining and comes closer to having historical significance when the subjects are battles, technology, and industrial capacity. But when someone tries to create a scenario based on purely human and political issues, the discussion loses any use as a historical tool because the variables are so many, so unpredictable, and utterly subjective. I'll give you an example of a possible discussion. After my book Find and Destroy: Antisubmarine Warfare in WWI came out, I wrote an article for MHQ, The Quarterly Journal for Military History (Spring 2003) in which I suggested that Germany actually lost WWI in the first six weeks of the war when the U-boats failed to attack the cross-channel traffic carrying the BEF to France. That's a highly debatable subject that rests heavily on technological issues, notably the overwhelming tactical superiority the U-boat enjoyed over all forms of surface-borne counter-measures, which in a word were nonexistent in a practical sense. But the other side of the coin is the degree to which the discussion would have to include the impact that the massive loses of life among the troops who were torpedoed would have on the British population. And there the discussion becomes highly subjective, though none the less interesting. Those sorts of issues are what make war gaming fun, interesting, and enormously popular. Thanks for your post. Dwight
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