Apparently while I was busy not writing blog posts over the last few weeks, World War I finally ended. I know, I know, you probably already heard this somewhere else. But screw it, it’s such a bit of wonderful news, I had to weigh in on the subject.
Think about it. No longer must we live in fear of the Hun menace! Kaiser Bill has been vanquished! No longer will he threaten the peace of the entire world with his… bad… Shit, I can’t even remember what Kaiser Wilhelm did that pissed everybody off so much. I know it had something to do with Serbia. And… oh, skip it. The important thing is, it’s all over!
Here’s the thing I really find weird about this story. The fact that Germany was still even bothering to pay on those ridiculous debts. Somehow I thought part of the settling of affairs after the SECOND World War was to clear up all that mess left over from the FIRST World War. I mean, the harshness of the reparations Germany was forced to pay by the Treaty of Versailles was one of the main causes of WWII. If the allies had been just slightly less vindictive with their punishments, it’s unclear if Hitler would have found such a receptive audience for his rhetoric in the 30s.
I guess if you’re going to “make reparations”, a 92 year repayment schedule is the way to go. That way, you inflate away so much of the value of the original cost, it ends up being no big deal.
Kaiser Bill sank the Lusitania, I think. I mean, personally. That’s what Woodrow Wilson told me, anyhow, and I believe him. That good and noble stalwart champion of the Good of Society would never lie to me!