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Originally Posted by tw
Forget Rommel. That's like saying Patton alone conquered Germany. Rommel was only one piece of a very crowded gameboard. To cite Rommel as significant is to be manipulated by both historical myths and propaganda of that time.
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I cite Rommel because he managed to take quite a bit of territory in northern Africa - places where there is this little thing called oil. Had Germany gained control over the oil producing countries of the region, the US would eventually have been brought to its knees. Not right away, of course, but ultimately. I was not saying that Rommel could have invaded the US or anything like that. Actually, Rommel WAS a very good general and tactician, however. He tried to kill Hitler at the end, if you'll recall. I was always sort of fond of him - for a Nazi General, that is.
I think Germany would have beaten Russia if it hadn't had to worry about the British and American forces. Germany's problem was that it was fighting a war on two fronts. If the US had stayed out of the conflict, Britain would have gone under. The Germans were quite efficient at disposing of those who disagreed with them. A significant portion of those killed in the death camps were Russian prisoners of war. The US would have been isolated in a world where two enemies - Germany and Japan - controlled all the rest.
Neither country may have had any interest in invading this one - it would have been a formidable task, I agree. But the resulting geopolitick would have meant that the US would have become a seriously weakened nation and not the world power it is today. IMO.