----- Original Message ----- From: "Gautam Mukunda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 10:33 PM Subject: Re: Fascist Censorship Spreads: Vichy Style
> --- Warren Ockrassa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Aug 25, 2004, at 6:33 PM, Dan Minette wrote: > > > Further, to zeroth order, it was Stalin's USSR > > that defeated the Nazis. > > > > In Russia, on land, sure. But it was US and UK > > efforts that won the air > > and sea battles. > > As one Soviet general said to the other in Paris, "By > the way, who won the air war?" (old, and bitter, army > joke). The "sea battle" was relevant only to the > extent that it allowed the US to supply Great Britain. > Had the Germans won the battles on the land, this > would have meant, nothing. The war in the air was of > debatable importance in the outcome of the war (I > think most historians give the impact of the strategic > bombing campaigns too little credit for reasons that > are not worth going into here) but for all that, it > seems to me that the purpose of the air war was to > allow the war on land to be won. I'm not sure I'd go > as far as Dan's "Zeroth order" comment - given how > closely balanced the Eastern Front was, it's my belief > that without British and American support of the USSR > it would have collapsed in either 1940 or 1941 - but > certainly to first order it seems correct. Actually, my zeroth order comment was meant to be weaker than a first order comment. Think about perturbation theory. If a solution can be expressed in terms of a convergent series; a first order approximation is one that includes all first order terms, a second order approximation includes all first and second order terms, etc. A zeroth order approximation, thus, is a metaphor for an approximation that is rougher than a first order approximation. I've stated earlier that, to first order; the war in Europe was won by the US and the USSR. To zeroth order it was won by the USSR. I hope that clarifies my meaning. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
