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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 3, 2025

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why were the axis consistently unable to prevail against the western allied forces post '43 even in sotuations where they had a siginifigant local superiority in terms of men and equipment?

Because, and like the last time the Americans went to war against Germany (you say "allies" and "axis", but let's be real here) and won single-handedly, the Germans were completely exhausted while the Americans were mostly fresh. It turns out that a campaign of island hopping doesn't really require a massive army to wage, and highly mechanized forces like navies and air forces don't exhaust a population's will or ability to fight in the same way.

Remember that Germany, America, and Japan were three of the four newest nations on the planet at the time, and with youth brings vigor and innovation.
(They all began three generations- 70 years- before going to war with each other: Germans would defeat France and transition from a confederacy to a federation in 1871, America would conclusively defeat its confederacy faction in 1865, and Japan would unify its confederate states in 1868. The Soviet Union is the other one, formed in 1917, where House Romanov was defeated by House Stalin. It's not so much the age of the country so much as it is the age of that country's elite- when a large amount of it is defeated it creates living space for newer special interests- and while that won't protect you from going to war and losing, which the French [a 70 year old country themselves at the time] did in 1871, it does put you in a position to be reasonably able to contest with weaker, more sclerotic countries for dominance.)