[Skybird]

Every chain, even the longest one, is only as strong as its weakest link. I do not buy the idea of that weak members increase the strength of the community they join. They weaken it.

Hitler learned that the hard way with Italy. The German war was serioulsy hampered by the need to move resources from areas where German military was needed, to places where Mussolini had failed.

Diplomatic stage acts and supercomplex, superclever, super wellmeaning intentions only work as long as it is still the time of playing diplomacy. No treaty paper saves you from injury once they start sending bullets at where your heart is. That is what political appeasers refuse to understand: the very convincing power of naked, raw physical violence. One should never underestimate the forming power of violence in history. It already was the decisive factor that before they invented the wheel and started to type books. Becasue in the en, it comes down to this simple truth: its easier to bring down, than to build.