RE DK CURRENT POST

"...The Germans might well have felt the same way about the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, which they made possible by defeating the Russian Army so thoroughly during the First World War.  Not until Hitler, however, did they make an all-out effort to undo that result, and the consequences turned out to be disastrous for Germany....."

Having read Kennan's (onto whom you put me several years ago) two volume account of 19th century diplomacy tending toward WW I, I am less persuaded, that it was mainly, or even primarily, only a German responsibility matter, in either war, than appears above. 

The rivalry between the Austrians and the Russians, as well as the British, for example, over the receding Ottoman Balkan lands was very much in play, and taken into account in all powers' machinations. 

There was, of course, the so called Fateful Alliance itself, also, gradually developing, as the German and Russian empires, erstwhile allies,  gradually parted ways.

Great passage at the end:

"I would suggest that the time has come for the United States to look inward before we are too critical of the Iraqis.  Our own government is just as divided between Republicans and Democrats as theirs is between religious factions. Indeed, religion plays an important part in our divide, too.  We, like the Iraqis, cannot agree on solutions to some truly fundamental problems, such as the status of millions of non-citizens within our nation and the control of our borders.  I strongly suspect that if a Democrat wins in 2016 we may be threatened with the break-up of the nation.  The image of a diverse nation in which the inhabitants regard themselves as citizens first, allowing them to rise above religious, regional and other differences, remains in inspiring one.  It is no longer, sadly, the kind of nation in which we now live."