Article

2014-01-24 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Murphy's Law: Top Ten Bad Decisions of the 20th Century

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Posted by Uncle Phester 2014-01-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 #5 German declares war on the United States is only because of an even greater bad decision made a priori by the Japanese to attack the United States. The military government in Tokyo assumed wrongly that the United States would go to war if they invaded the resource areas of the European colonies in the south like Indonesia. They believed they had to neutralize the American forces in the territory of the Philippines in that act. After the Japanese had occupied French Indochina, the Roosevelt administration had invoked a trade embargo cutting off oil and other resources from Japan. However, Congress and the population were not in a war hawk mode. The extension of the first time non-wartime draft had just barely passed Congress a couple of months before. The American population was not interested in going to war to protect European colonies in the Pacific. In fact, the Philippines were already schedule for independence by '46 as the concept of 'colonies' had become an anathema to the American public.

Posted by Procopius2k 2014-01-24 09:23|| 2014-01-24 09:23|| Front Page Top

#2 Eleven, putting Obama on the Ballot.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2014-01-24 09:47|| 2014-01-24 09:47|| Front Page Top

#3 The article did restrict it to the 20th century. I would look for "Obama on the ballot" in the 21st century's list of bad decisions.

Posted by JohnQC 2014-01-24 10:43|| 2014-01-24 10:43|| Front Page Top

#4 4-Stalin signs a non-aggression treaty with Germany in August 1939. Stalin thought this would keep Germany at bay until Russia could launch its own mighty offensive in 1943. Germany attacked first, in June of 1941. The Russians weren't ready and took a major beating (30-million dead). Russia almost lost the war.

I don't get this one. Russia bought themselves time. Not enough because Hitler was more treacherous then they were but any time had to be helpful. So how is that a huge blunder?

Posted by rjschwarz 2014-01-24 14:49|| 2014-01-24 14:49|| Front Page Top

#5 Also it isn't mentioned in the article but a commentor mentions it. The unrestricted immigration of South Asians into West Europe which has drastically changed the demographics there is a bigger blunder than most of the ones listed.

I would also say treating Communism as anything less than equal to National Socialism may have been a suicidal blunder for the West.

Posted by rjschwarz 2014-01-24 14:53|| 2014-01-24 14:53|| Front Page Top

#6 ...in that line, substituting Marxism and its sects for Christianity. The latter has had some historical short comings, but the former is a cultural killer beyond 'biblical' plagues.

Posted by Procopius2k 2014-01-24 15:14|| 2014-01-24 15:14|| Front Page Top

#7 As for 4, they chroniclers left out Stalin's butchery of his own officer corps on the eve of the invasion.

Posted by Procopius2k 2014-01-24 15:16|| 2014-01-24 15:16|| Front Page Top

#8 I think one of the more smarter things the US ever did was not declaring on Finland, which it had every right to do, and they not on the US, weird.

Posted by Shipman 2014-01-24 16:53|| 2014-01-24 16:53|| Front Page Top

#9 I believe the tiny nation of Finland was the only country to fully repay it's WWII debt.

Posted by Besoeker 2014-01-24 17:04|| 2014-01-24 17:04|| Front Page Top

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