Actually mostly it was just an observation I had while arguing other stuff. WWII was an incredible war and it occured to me that it could easily have been prevented, and which point nobody would believe that it could have actually happened.

I do think this relates to cold war era events, possibly very well. I don't know in regards to more modern stuff. Which is part of the problem.

What is surprising in this thread is the number of people who seem to blame the allies for WWII. I really don't think they could be blamed for the treaty. It wasn't out of the ordinary in comparison to similar treaties up until then. In fact the reparations were based off the formula Germany came up with in past wars it had won.

This idea of winning a war against a country that attacked you and then isntead of taking their land shoveling money onto them to help in their reconstruction is a pretty newfangled one. Go back over 100 years with that and they'd probably think you needed to be institutionalized.