Re: Technical and Spiritual Development

wclodius_at_lanl.gov
Date: 01/27/05 

Date: 26 Jan 2005 17:33:34 -0800

Peter Stickney wrote:
> In article <n4bcv05deorh99otu1g82fs42qgu6ortpv@4ax.com>,
> OM <om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_research_facility.org>
writes:
> > On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 04:50:52 GMT, henry@spsystems.net (Henry
Spencer)
> > wrote:
> >
> >>In fairness, he did so largely in response to a German attempt to
bring
> >>Mexico into an alliance against the US -- to open an American
Front.
> >
> > ...Which essentially took the form of Pancho Villa :-)
>
> Not quite true, but pretty close.
> The Germans were incredibly contemptuous of USAnian military prowess,
> to the point where their planning on dealing with the United States
> was apparently framed by Brad Guth and detailed by Timothy Leary.
> (The German War Plan for the United States in 1914 consisted of using
a
> protectd harbor in Nova Scotia as a bas of operations for the
invasion
> of the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, which was to be conducted by one
> division of Infantry. Teutonif Handwaving and bizarre confidence in
> harebrined schemes wasn't just a Nazi trait.)

If this plan existed I suspect its contents reflect less the beliefs of
the German high command more the recognition of its author(s) that a
serious invasion could not be planned at that date. Occupying Nova
Scotia meant war with the British. Getting even a division across the
Atlantic and keeping it supplied, given the existence of the British
navy, could not be considered seriously in 1914.
>
> If you went by the "Book Numbers" for Order of Battle, quality of
> weapns, etc, Mexico was seen as a much more powerful military force.
> That Mexican society itself was hopelessly fractured, and teh quality
> of the line troopers was hopeless seems to have been missed by Moltke
> the Younger (Head of the German Imperial General Staff, and despite
> his father's genius, a fatuous dip)

Moltke the younger was dead well before the Zimmermann telegram. While
Moltke made some mistakes, the idiocy of thinking that Mexico, soon
after a devastating civil war, would consider attacking a neighbor that
was much larger in area, population, and economy to obtain a territory
that would be prone to rebellion, was not one of them.

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