The Sunday Telegraph in the UK says, "The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies."

QuoteGermany was forced to pay the reparations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 as compensation to the war-ravaged nations of Belgium and France and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging what was then the bloodiest conflict in history, leaving nearly ten million soldiers dead.

The initial sum agreed upon for war damages in 1919 was 226 billion Reichsmarks, a sum later reduced to 132 billion, £22 billion at the time.

The bill would have been settled much earlier had Adolf Hitler not reneged on reparations during his reign.

Hatred of the settlement agreed at Versailles, which crippled Germany as it tried to shape itself into a democracy following armistice, was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power.

"On Sunday the last bill is due and the First World War finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany," said Bild, the country's biggest selling newspaper.

Most of the money goes to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany was made to sign the 'war guilt' clause, accepting blame for the war.

France, which had been ravaged by the war, pushed hardest for the steepest possible fiscal punishment for Germany.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/8029948/First-World-War-officially-ends.html

Image at top was from the UK (and a lesson well worth ramming down the throats of liberals today).. Here was one of our less subtle posters....

WWI, begun and sustained by a ship of fools, including but, of course, not limited to the British, the French, the Russians, the Italians, the Austrians, the Germans and finally, not to be left out of the bloody party, the United States.  The war proved one thing: the peoples of the West were utter fools.

Quote from: bama_beau_redux on October 02, 2010, 07:03:13 PM
WWI?  Didn't Shooter's great great grandson fight in that one?

Sorry, Beau, but to the best of my knowledge I don't have any great great grandsons.

The only thing for certain was that damned war was none of our business.

Quote from: bama_beau_redux on October 02, 2010, 07:42:24 PM
Or the one thing for certain was that damned war was great for business.

Isn't that why we fight so many of them?

;D  ;D  ;D  What this "we" shit.  Just asking.........

Quote from: bama_beau_redux on October 02, 2010, 07:42:24 PM
Or the one thing for certain was that damned war was great for business.

Isn't that why we fight so many of them?

10 million families may think differently. Do you always talk with your foot in your mouth?

Quote from: bama_beau_redux on October 02, 2010, 07:03:13 PM
WWI?  Didn't Shooter's great great grandson fight in that one?

I had a great uncle and two uncles who fought in WWI.  The great uncle was wounded.  One of the other two uncles also fought in WWII and was wounded in North Africa.  He remained in a VA hospital from 1943 until his death in 1976.  In both wars, he served in the 3rd ID (Rock of the Marne)!

Quote from: bama_beau_redux on October 02, 2010, 07:42:24 PM
Or the one thing for certain was that damned war was great for business.

Isn't that why we fight so many of them?

Yep Beau, it's all about the "military-industrial complex", right?

Up until Vietnam, the USA was in the business of WINNING and ENDING wars, not starting them.  Be thankful that so many men and women sacrificed their peaceful existence and sacrificed their LIVES so that you could come in here and spew your warped, ignorant opinions.

I too had several Uncles who served in World War 2.  My Uncle Don served on a destroyer that was torpedoed by a German U-boat, and he was one of only a handful of men who survived.  All my Uncles survived WW2, and they all came home and were all great men.  My dad served during the Korean War and was a war hero.  To this day, I dont know the specifics of what he did to earn his medals.  He never spoke about it, and I only know very vague details.


Punks and idiots who criticize this country's military as being a bunch of baby killers and maniacal pillagers and conquerors are spitting on the graves of all the men and women who did their duty.

Quote from: walkstall on October 02, 2010, 07:45:56 PM

;D  ;D  ;D  What this "we" shit.  Just asking.........

I wondered as much, myself. Today's leftists are preconditioned to surrender, to relinquish self-autonomy they are unfit to exercise. They learned nothing from the attack on both Pearl Harbor and the TWO attacks on the World Trade Center. They learned nothing from ethnic cleansing by the Muslims in any country refusing to submit to Islam.

The left stupidly believes the hatred for America's success will go away as soon as we drive our manufacturing out. They want it even more difficult than following World War I, when America had to retool for WWII. The left wants us industry-free and technologically defenseless. Their communist masters demand nothing less.