F-you, Woodrow Wilson, and the horse you rode in on.

 

If there is one person who is most responsible for the Second World War, it may be Woodrow Wilson.

RMS Lusitania was sunk in May 1915 by a German u-boat after being warned via ads placed in the New York papers that it was a target.  Everyone shrugged off the threat by the German ambassador, assuming they would not dare torpedo a peaceful passenger liner.  Germany claimed Lusitania was transporting war materiel.  In April 1917, in the wake of 'The Zimmermann Telegram', Congress, spurred on by Wilson, declared war on Germany.  Wilson was hot for 'regime change' in Europe, and had his own ideas, the 14 Points, about how he would reorganize the continent.  The sinking of the Lusitania two years prior also played heavily into the declaration of war, and the Zimmermann Telegram has since been proven to be disinformation planted by British counter-intelligence.

When WW-I broke out on July 28, 1914, it was, initially, 'a pissing contest among cousins'.  Virtually all the countries originally involved were monarchies, and virtually all of their rulers were related, most of them via Queen Victoria.  Kaiser Wilhelm and Czar Alexander are both in this category.  Various cousins took various sides in the dispute.  Through 1917, it was carnage on a Biblical scale, largely wiping out an entire generation of European men.  By 1917, the war was a stalemate, both sides running out of steam, when the U.S. entered the fray and tipped the scales.

By 1918, the industrial might of the U.S. had finally worn the Axis powers down to the point of surrender.  Wilson had what he wanted all along: Germany destroyed as a viable competitor.

The sinking of the Lusitania is an interesting study in the light of what we now know.

In the 1980s, the technology became available for divers to study the wreck in detail.  What they discovered was enlightening.  First, the British government tried to prevent the operation because they feared there might still be unexploded ordnance on board.  This came as a surprise to everyone involved since the British had claimed for 65 years that Lusitania carried only passengers, and that Germany was wrong about it having war materiel on board.  Now they were saying that Germany was justified in sinking the ship.  Further, it was the U.S. government that was 'the shipper' of that material.  When Wilson swore Lusitania was a peaceful passenger ship, he was lying, and he knew it.

When divers finally did reach the wreck of Lusitania, they discovered two holes in the hull.  One had the earmarks of a torpedo hit: the hull was bent inward.  The other hole was different.  The metal was bent outward.  Lusitania sank as fast as it did because it blew up from the inside.  It blew up from the explosives Wilson swore to the American people were not aboard that ship.  The people who died that day were killed by Wilson's lies.

The entry of the U.S. into WW-I, a conflict in which we had no cause to intervene, was engineered by the Executive Branch because Wilson wanted a piece of the action, and he didn't care how many Americans had to die to get it.

The result: Germany was reduced to third-world status generating intense hatred of those who brought them low, and made it possible for a demagogue with a glib tongue to convince the beaten-down Germans that they should exact revenge on those who did this to them.

Had it not been for Wilson, the U.S. would have steered clear of that shitstorm, WW-I likely would have been a draw, and everyone would have been anxious for it not to happen again.  One would today have to be a doctoral-level researcher of German history to be able to correctly identify Adolph Hitler — if he even rated a mention.  The Holocaust might not have happened.  Nuclear weapons might not exist.

I hope Woodrow Wilson is burning in Hell.