View Full Version : What if...
mojaveman
02-09-2010, 01:29
Do you ever wonder how some historical events might have turned out differently if you had the power to change certian details or facts?
What if during the shootout at the OK Corral the Clantons and McLaureys would have been armed with Glocks and the Earps with only their Colt SA .45s? Would they have lived?
What if at the Battle of the Little Big Horn Custer and his 7th Cavalry would have been armed with M-4s and 210 rounds of M855? Would they have survived?
What if Annie Oakley would have missed when she shot that cigar out of Kaiser Wilhelm's mouth and shot him in the left temple instead? Would World history have been the same?
Anyone care to speculate?
Dozer523
02-09-2010, 08:43
The Earp's would have continued to "take your time in a hurry" and won with superior fire control.
Custer would have lost no matter what. There were 'plenty more Indians where those ones came from', the Sioux were fighting in front of and to defend their families -- they were fed up and didn't really care.
The Prince would still have been assassinated, the alliances would not have changed and the train schedules were set. Oakley would "never worked in this town again' and the eye protection would have a different name.
What if Napoleon had access to Predator drones (Hellfires) at Waterloo?
I suspect that in some areas, the time-line is robust. Eliminating the Kaiser would not have addressed the tensions in Europe, nor the hidden treaties.
But in other areas, perhaps events could fall either way. Perhaps a little nudge would change much. Suppose that Einstein had decided to study pastry instead of relativity...meaning that the equivalence of mass and energy would have been delayed...meaning no nuclear weapons for WWII...meaning large numbers of U.S. service members would have died in the invasion and occupation of Japan.
Or suppose the contamination that produced penicillin hadn't occurred - details HERE (http://www.essortment.com/all/alexanderflemin_rmkm.htm). Millions that have survived due to antibiotics might not have.
The Reaper
02-09-2010, 17:35
What if the Confederacy had AK47s, oh wait, that one has already been done....
TR
A broader question would be, what if diseases never took the numbers of human life as they have?
Plutarch
02-09-2010, 18:04
http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Foremost-Military-Historians/dp/0425176428/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265760085&sr=8-1
Good book.
Ok smart monkeys, what if the mutation which separates us from other primates did not occur
Ok smart monkeys, what if the mutation which separates us from other primates did not occur
We would certainly lead a more colorful life...:rolleyes: :p ;)
Richard
Definitely agree opposable thumbs good, blue balls bad. The what if question is also possible without anachronisms...
What if the Mongols hadn't left a wide open Europe to crown the Khan's successor, or burned the great library in Alexandria?
What if Longstreet persuaded Lee to disengage, and force the Federals to attack them on a hill between Gettysburg and DC?
What if the Luftwaffe wasn't baited into bombing cities instead of RAF installations, or Hitler heeded his generals and bypassed Stalingrad for the Caucus oil fields?
What if the Japanese at Pearl Harbor also hit the naval fuel depots they ignored?
What if we had spent some money building schools in Afghanistan, as per Charlie Wilson after the Soviets withdrew?
It can go on and on....
Definitely agree opposable thumbs good, blue balls bad. The what if question is also possible without anachronisms...
What if the Mongols hadn't left a wide open Europe to crown the Khan's successor, or burned the great library in Alexandria?
What if Longstreet persuaded Lee to disengage, and force the Federals to attack them on a hill between Gettysburg and DC?
What if the Luftwaffe wasn't baited into bombing cities instead of RAF installations, or Hitler heeded his generals and bypassed Stalingrad for the Caucus oil fields?
What if the Japanese at Pearl Harbor also hit the naval fuel depots they ignored?
What if we had spent some money building schools in Afghanistan, as per Charlie Wilson after the Soviets withdrew?
It can go on and on....
What if Obama hadn't won in 08?
swatsurgeon
02-09-2010, 22:18
What if Obama hadn't won in 08?
I would still have job security.......LOL
ss
I have always wondered what would have happened if America hadn't won independence from Britain. Would Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union have conquered the world?
If Democracy fails here, does it fail world wide?
All nations but 6, have adapted the US Constitution as a quide to building democracy and civil liberties. It's not perfect, but....