There were even people who said so at the time (the Sleeping Giant speech) Sam Houston said something very similar warning his fellow Southern politicians about why secession was a really stupid idea
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Replying to @arthur_affect @perdricof and
Using the old metaphor of climate for temperament "Your Northern brothers may seem like they lack your fiery temper, for they were raised in colder climes But once their anger is aroused it will crush you with the full force of an avalanche"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @perdricof and
I mentioned earlier the South's various "Ranger" units just letting bandits and thugs run free robbing and killing people along the border Which was this conscious strategy going "Yankees are all soft clerks who will crumple instantly at their first bloody nose"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @perdricof and
This was also broadly the sense in Imperial Germany at the outbreak of World War I - France is soft, and they'll melt before our brave troops. Then everybody died.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @perdricof and
The French had, in fact, already absorbed a lot of "cheese-eating surrender monkey" mockery after the Franco-Prussian War and spent decades letting that old shame fester into overwhelming unreasoning fury It's where we get the term "revanchist"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @perdricof and
Yeah - and I guess the experience of 1871 was a pretty good sign of German superior military prowess...it was just 40 years out of date.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect and
TBF, Germany still basically punched out of their weight. Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans were basically dead weight after 1916 but it still took two years to defeat Germany.
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Replying to @nivenus @arthur_affect and
Yeah, they almost won the war on several occasions before eventually being exhausted in 1918. But it was all based not just on eventually winning, but being able to capture or surround Paris in a couple months.
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Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect and
Yeah, I think it's fair to say Germany still has the best army in the war while also acknowledging they *vastly* overestimated their own invincibility.
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Replying to @nivenus @mssilverstein and
My history teacher in high school liked to describe this as Germany being the biggest bully in the schoolyard and all of Germany's snotty little friends talking smack to everyone all the time Austria-Hungary all "You better not lay a finger on me or Germany will hear about it"
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This whole "Better not fuck with me or you'll have to fight Germany" thing can only go on so long before Germany actually does have to fight someone, and if it takes TOO long then suddenly he has to fight everyone
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mssilverstein and
Yeah that sounds about accurate. And is unfortunately very similar to Trump's stated foreign policy.
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