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by einpoklum 1296 days ago
> I agree with this, but I also think this is such a “peace time” opinion.

So, if the government decides to go to war, this opinion becomes irrelevant then?

And if the US can't convince people to enlist when they're under threat of invasion, I guess people just don't support the regime as much. I'm sure North Koreans are telling people "But what if the Americans invade? We must have the draft".
1 comments
kelnos 1296 days ago
I think the point of that argument is that citizens generally can't predict what will happen well enough. Before the US entered WWII, I expect most Americans thought of it as "that far away European war that won't hurt us". Leaders in the US may have understood that the stakes were much higher, and allowing Nazism to take over Europe would be devastating for the US, but I figure regular Americans may not have gotten that, at least not in large enough numbers.

But I think it's fair to say that the US really did need to enter WWII. What if the US military needed more recruits, but no one wanted to enlist?

At least, I think that's what the argument is. I'm still not sure I buy it though, because, still, it's up to government leaders to convince people that there's actually a huge threat to the country, that war is necessary, and that people should put their lives on the line. If they can't do that, then maybe they don't deserve to be able to go to war. And if that does end up being disastrous for the country (or even the world) and its people, maybe that's just how things have to go down.

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einpoklum 1296 days ago
> But I think it's fair to say that the US really did need to enter WWII.

Sure it needed to enter the war - it wanted to put down Japan and take control of the pacific. Plus, the war allowed it to gain massive influence over Europe and better containment of the USSR.

But that doesn't mean the people of the world needed the US to enter the war. Just like they didn't need the other imperial states to engage in their world wars.

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concordDance 1296 days ago
> Leaders in the US may have understood that the stakes were much higher, and allowing Nazism to take over Europe would be devastating for the US, but I figure regular Americans may not have gotten that, at least not in large enough numbers.

So they may have claimed. In reality it would have been pretty fine for the USA, Nazi Germany was fundamentally unstable and would be struggling with suppressing dissent in its conquered population for at least a century if it didn't collapse outright.

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