zuko..

I suggest you brush up on the history of WWl and what led to the rise of Hitler..
You wrote:
"I haven't done any extensive research on WW1, but from everything I've read, the US involvement, or any escalation of that war, was a monumentaly bad idea.

By the time the US got involved, both sides were literaly and figuratively stuck in the mud. In very short order there would have been a truce, of some kind, out of necessity.

The US role did turn the tide, but at a horrible cost, settting the table for Hitler and nationalism."

Spoken like a true isolationist whose scant knowledge of causes and effects can lead to the writing of bogus history books.

I suggest you read some good/real history books about WWl and then maybe..instead of using Melville's Ahab to Bush..Make a parallel between the exploitation of 9/11 by Bush & CO. to attack Iraq and exploit Saddam as the cause, and Hitler's use and exploitation of the Jews as scapegoats for Germany's economic problems..Hitler's use of an Aryan myth to 'cleanse' kill and conquer..And with Iraq, some Americans..including Generals in the field saw (and may still see) the Iraq war as a repeat Crusade..An opportunity to kill and put those dirty rag-head Muslims in their place.. for Jesus. This was very evident in the first few years of the war in Iraq. ..and is still very evident when there are and have been instances of wanton killing of Iraqi civilians by American soldiers or Bush's mercenaries in Iraq.

What IF is always a big question historically. What IF the Confederates had won the Civil War? What kind of America do you want zuko..Can you really think that Bush was just a fundamentalist zealot run amok with hubris? There goes your Texan Captain Ahab.
A