If I were President (did I just feel a shudder go through the entire board?), I'd probably now be seeking a way to avoid war.

Fine. Having said that, I'll admit to a voice in the back of my head which keeps saying "If the US, Great Britain and France had more forcefully opposed Hitler's Germany in the mid-30s, perhaps the 50 million people who died because of WW2 would have lived instead."

Saddam is one mean MF, but I dunno if he's another Hitler (though not for lack of trying). And the Iraqi military sure ain't no Wehrmacht.

So anyway, my questions: is such a comparison between the mid-30s and now in any way instructive or enlightening?

And is the lesson of WW2 that we need to confront and defeat our enemies before they become dangerously powerful?

Or is it that Nazism arose from the mistreatment of Germany after WW1, and had the nations victorious in that conflict extended a helping hand to Germany instead of forcing debilitating punishment on it, extremism never would have gained a foothold there?