Replying to a message of Richard Webb to Dave Drum:

 RW> HI Dave,

 RW> On Sun 2038-Jul-04 06:34, Dave Drum (1:261/1381) wrote to Earl
 RW> Croasmun:

 RW>  ~> Uuuuuhhhhh, didn't they try that back in 1861? I'm pretty sure it
 RW> was in
 >> ll
 RW>  ~> the media of the time.

 EC>> No.  The Constitution was left intact at the time, and the attempted
 EC>> dissolution was resisted by some of the states, leading to the War
 EC>> of Northern Aggression.  Or was it the War for Southern
 EC>> Independence?

 DD>> The "recent unpleasantness" or "The Civil
War" ... although I fail to
 DD>> understand how a war can be "civil".

 RW> Yah, sorto f olike that heavy rock song, the man says
 RW> "what's so civil about war anyway?"

 DD>> The state's rights factions just wanted to skip the convention part
 DD>> and go off on their own. Which they tried. Even formed their own
 DD>> alliance - "The Confederate States of America" whose
industrial base
 DD>> was sadly lacking ... and which ultimately caused them to lose the
 DD>> debate on state's rights. 

 RW> YEp, I'm awaiting a book from the library entitled "how the
 RW> south could have won .... " don't have full and complete
 RW> from the catalogue in front of me, but the author's argument is
 RW> similar to one I"ve made, that the south could have won if they'd
 RW> attacked the north's industrial base.    According to the writer one
 RW> confederate general wanted to do just that.

Decades ago I had a Civil War board game - similar to the old Avalon-Hill
military board games.  I actually won the game (once) as the South - by
doing exactly what you suggested.  I.E. attacking the North's industricl and
population bases, in this case west of Appalachia.

I managed to prevent the North side from using its industries and population
centers west of Appalachia ('course, I couldn't use them either) and that gave
enough of an edge to allow me to win.

Had Lee managed to do effectively the same thing - confine the North to its
Atlantic Coast states - the South might have prevailed.  But remember, the
South was defending itself against an attack by the North, it did not have designs
on conquering territory outside of its borders;  of course, the North did...

Were I running the Axis during WW II I'd've made it a whole lot more expensive and
made it last a lot longer - and maybe even forced the US to a truce.  
(1) I'd've given Rommel what he asked for when he asked for it, not long after Africa
was a lost cause.  If Rommel had the required resources he'd've taken Egypt and'
Palestine (Lebanon/Syria/Jordan/Israel) and gone on across Iraq to soutthern Iran,
where he'd've cut that US supply line to Russia.
(2) I'd've had the Japanese attack the Russians in Siberia, which would
have prevented
Stalin from using Siberian troops to prevent the conquest of Moscow.  Since Moscow
was the central hub of the whole Russian transportation system, its capture
would have
paralyzed the Soviet war effort, plus with a second front in the east the
Soviets could 
not have prevailed, the SU would have been out of the war by late 1944.
(3) I'd've invaded and taken Malta, depriving the Brits of their last Mediterranean 
stronghold east of Gibraltar, and eventually I'd've attacked and taken
that.  I'd also
have moved troops into Tunisia and Morocco, all the way to Casablanca
.  All of
that would have severely hampered the British war effort as their supplies
for India and
Australia would have to travel around the Cape of Good Hope instead of
through the Suez
short cut.
(4) I'd've ordered series production of the ME-262 jet fighter in 1941, when it was
first tested and presented.  That would have neutralized the allied air
forces until the
US could get a jet fighter up and into production - and that wasn't until about 1945.
(5) I'd've also ordered production of the 'Ural' bomber - a long range 4
engined bomber
that Goering didn't think he'd ever need.
(6) I'd've pushed development of the Walther propulsion system for the
U-boat fleet - a
little known factoid is that Germany had submerines just coming into
production in 1945
that were virtually undetectable with the then current technology and could
stay submerged
for days.  Had those boats been available in 1943 the damage to allied
shipping and navy
ships would have been termendous.

One weapon and tactic that the Germans did have and used very little was a
20mm cannon
mounted behind the pilot and pointed up at an angle.  The fighter pilot
just got into position
below and slightly behind his target and let fly, very few rounds required
and an explosive
20mm shell in the bomb bay usually destroyed the bomber.  Of course the
German fighter
remained outside the range of the bombers' defensive guns..

--- FleetStreet 1.19+