If you could change only one event in history what would it be?

[CrazyDude]

If you change an event from the somewhat distant past, realistically predict what the results would be today. Replies can challenge your predictions.

You can play this game multiple times, but you can change only one thing each time.

Example: I wish Al Gore would have been elected President in 2000.

Realistic result: We would still have a Republican Congress and Joe Lieberman as the Democratic nominee in 2008. However, oil prices would still be low, there would be no large scale Iraq war, and our economy would be growing at a reasonable pace.

[patrice]

1. President Gore in 2000

[samdogmom]

6. I'm with you! Gore won! He should have been President!

I just know that if he were in office 9/11 and all of the other nonsense would NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!

[RedShoes]

60. and the skyline of NYC would look as it did 9-10-01. nt

[Apollo11]

80. Me too

If all the votes in Florida had been counted in line with the voters' intent, Gore would be President.

For example - if they had used a more voter-friendly ballot design in Palm Beach county.

Or if the US Senate had voted to impeach Bill Clinton in February 1999 (they were just 1 vote away), then potentially we would now be in the 10th year of Al Gore's Presidency! B-)

[MadMaddie]

2. I would have made sure that all of the Republicans who were

involved in Watergate were prosecuted and jailed. This would have stopped so much shit that has happened in the last 30 years.

[csziggy]

118. Yes! Watergate AND Iran-Contra Prosecutions with no pardons

These crooks would either have been in jail or seen their idols in jail and learned that this country would not put up with this shit.

[flvegan]

3. Patriots win the Super Bowl last year.

I really don't want to tinker with the passing of time, so that's my choice.

[babylonsister]

7. As a Giants fan, I'm verklempt, or however it's spelled! HahHa! I

wish I had remorse, and then I think, "why"? Would you?

The Giants won fair and square. Trust me, they astonished me, too! :D

[jobycom]

12. Stopping flvegan before he can make the Patriots win the Super Bowl.

Not a Giants fan. It's all about the Mannings.

[The Straight Story]

4. You joining DU

:rofl: Just kidding!

[RB TexLa]

5. Why wouldn't you wanted him elected in 1988?

[GardeningGal]

8. Bobby Kennedy would not have been assassinated.

Then he would have gone on to be president and would have altered history forever.

[dajoki]

85. I agree...

I believe if that would have never happened the world and the country would be better off to this day!!

[Jimbo S]

107. Third

No escalation if Vietnam.
No Nixon.
No Carter.
No Reagan. None of his so-called "Second American Revolution".

[roamer65]

9. November 22, 1963

[zeemike]

14. I agree with that

That is when the coup began.

[lpbk2713]

28. Delete

Wrong place.

[ChazII]

146. Agreed. n/t

[Warpy]

10. The election of Ronald Reagan

Think of how much better off we'd be if Carter had gotten his second term and Reagan had faded into Alzheimer's and obscurity.

We'd still have a progressive income tax and not be in crippling debt.

We'd be much farther along in independence from oil.

Iran Contra, the BCCI mess, the hostage scandal, the S&L mess, and all the other fallout from Reagan's disastrous policies would not have happened.

Quite possibly, Bin Laden would never have been armed.

Over 200 Marines would still be alive, never having been sent to Lebanon.

The slide this country has been on started in 1969 when liberals went out of power. The election of Reagan turned the slide into a dead drop.

[jobycom]

13. That was one of my top choices. nt

[dajoki]

86. The rise of all...

these right wing groups and think tanks started gaining strength back in the late 60s and early 70s with the end result being the mess we are in now. Raygun's election and his policies were the direct result of groups like the Heritage Foundation and their ilk.

[tuvor]

11. All world history to choose from, and all the replies so far are USA in the past 45 years.

I pick the snake forgetting how to get to the Garden of Eden.

[csziggy]

119. OK, if we are going to choose from all human history,

How about knock off whoever who first came up with the idea of gods & goddess, much less one all powerful deity? When I think of all the evil that has been done in the name of religion, I wish it had never been invented.

[Hugabear]

134. Amen to that.

n/t

[trudyco]

141. The invention of something nonpolluting rather than cars -nt

[flamingdem]

15. 9/11 .. the world would be in a better place

if only that never happened.

[Individualist]

31. Agree. That was the "new Pearl Harbor" that enabled the cabal to make their plans reality.

[Occulus]

16. I would have the head of the AMA present in the gallery

at the moment one Senator, I believe, baldfaced lied about their position on the prohibition of cannabis.

I would have him talk to reporters afterward.

[Hardrada]

17. Kaiser Frederick III of Germany would have survived his

throat cancer. An enlightened and more peaceful Germany would not have led the arms race that brought on WW1. No WW1 at all.

[nomorenomore08]

37. And no WWI means no WWII. Good thinking!

nt

[rockymountaindem]

38. That's a good one

Although moving back so far into the chain of events isn't a guarantee that the outcome you suggest would actually occur. Personally, I would settle for something like a Treaty of Versailles that was not as harsh on Germany, no Great Depression (which made a bad situation worse) or the formation of a solid collective security arrangement involving Britain, France, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and the USSR in 1938. Of course that last one is a pipe dream given what was going on at the time, but we're just playing a game here, eh?

[PurityOfEssence]

18. The Versailles Treaty would have been much more fair and magnanimous

Germany wouldn't have been blamed for the war that wasn't its sole fault. Yugoslavia wouldn't be cobbled together, nor would Iraq. The list goes on...

One of the worst things that happened in the 20th century...

[az chela]

19. MY BIRTH

[Tindalos]

20. It would take more than one change . . .

to save them all.


RIP

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

21. Eugene McCarthy would have been nominated and won the presidency in '68.

Of course, he was too much an intellectual elitist that nobody wanted to have a beer with, and couldn't have won.

[opihimoimoi]

22. America really lost out when Bushies stole it from Gore

We wouldn't be in a war

9/11 woulda been twarted

Dollar would be strong...

[shadowknows69]

23. The invention of atomic weapons

The human race is generations from being mature enough to have the power to destroy itself.

[TexasObserver]

32. I thought about that, but the carnage before it versus that after ...

... there's no comparison. A reasonable conclusion is that nuclear weapons have prevented much more costly wars and forced warfare to take on a controlled nature.

I hate living with that monster, but the death tolls of WWI and WWII suggest warfare without that terrible weapon in the wings would be much worse than it has been the past 60 years.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

99. Not an event, because if you stop it once it would happen a year later

It is there in nature to be discovered. Even if Fermi or Einstein were never born it would merely have delayed it a year or three.

[EC]

24. I wish Reagan would have lost

Result: Energy independence...

[saracat]

25. Lincoln should not be assassinated. Hokey but relevant.

The South would have healed more quickly and I believe Civil Rights would have come sooner but who is to really know?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

42. I was just about to write the same, Saracat.

I absolutely agree with you. Johnson was a disaster and the deal to get Hayes the presidency set back Civil Rights 100 years.

[tannybogus]

48. I agree!

Lincoln's assassination was a disaster for the nation,
and it had long-term ramifications.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

70. That's a REALLY important one and not at all hokey

The assassination of Lincoln leads to Reagan, Gingrich and Bush in almost a straight line.

The modern Republican party is, at heart, the confederate resentment party.

[lonestarnot]

Well he was elected in 2000, so you got part of your wish.

[defendandprotect]

26. The violent overthrow of females by patriarchy . . .

[CitizenLeft]

27. I came up with two...

(1) Hitler being shot and killed in WWI. The Treaty of Versaille still may have produced a dictator, but probably no one even close to Hitler.

(2) Elizabeth I outlawing the slave trade. It wouldn't have stopped the Spanish and Portugese, but the colonies would've been slavery-free, once established, had there been precedent.

[lpbk2713]

29. I wouldn't have let that submarine find Poppy.

His crewmen went down with that plane. Why didn't he?

[cliffordu]

30. The birth of Dickless Cheney.

[Ikonoklast]

33. Prevented Jack Ruby from killing Oswald

The true conspirators would have been ratted out.

Including Bush41.

[2Design]

34. no dictators anywhere - no hitler n/t

[anonymous171]

35. Definitely President Gore.

[Arnold Judas Rimmer]

36. Cut the brake lines on Prescott Bush's car around 1922 or so.

Before he had kids. Before he funded Hitler.

Imagine taking out Adolf, Poppy, Chimpy, Nixon, Reagan, Cheney, and every other criminal ever associated with them, preemptively.

[silverojo]

39. I'd make old lady Babs Bush unable to bear children n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

43. I second this one! Same for Mother Friedman and Mother Norquist. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

45. And Maggie Thatcher's mother!

Or at least made her become infertile after having Maggie's older sister, as the sister was probably harmless.

[Occam Bandage]

40. I wish that cereal crops had never been domesticated.

Realistic result: Far fewer humans are born. Those that are born have, on average, much longer lifespans, with malnutrition and disease practically unknown. Civilization and culture do not develop. Humans work an average of 5.5 hours per day, spending the rest of the day in leisure. Local ecological collapses are commonplace, but are easily recovered from.

[yardwork]

109. In other words, we'd all live like cats?

I could work with that. My cats seem to have it pretty easy.

[Occam Bandage]

41. I wish that Great Britain had offered all colonists full representation in Parliament

from the foundation of each colony, as well as full citizenship, with colonies considered equal to the home island. Low colonial population results in fairly similar American history through 1700s, though a weaker Britain leads to an imbalanced Europe and more-frequent wars, with perhaps an earlier Napoleon attempting and failing to conquer the continent. Back in America, the moneyed class is unable to inspire an effective rebellion, as the average colonist self-identifies as British. Circa 1790 slavery is abolished by act of parliament, triggering a revolution led by the southern American gentry; the revolution is crushed in an even-more-lopsided replay of the Civil War, despite abortive Continental assistance (from whichever power is dominating at the moment--we'll say France for historical ease).

Backing up a bit, the British Empire extends this model of governance across to the Pacific. Meanwhile, its voracious factories fuel a push for territorial explansion; the civil war triggers a war with France, spilling into a war with Mexico. The Continental theatre is indecisive (see:Napoleonic Wars), but the American theater results in an enormous land-grab. The British fleet, meanwhile, is extraordinarily powerful, and outright controls the Western hemisphere with the collapse of French colonialism; within a matter of time most of the Americas are British, each member colony/nation with full rights and representation.

With the Empire's economy strained by overexpansion, though, it looks to the unexploited African and East Asian continents--as does the Continent. Here my track towards Utopia starts to fall apart...

[cobalt1999]

50. Interesting.

But how does Britain keeping the colonies lead to a weaker Britain? Also, with all those colonies producing income, there would be no incentive for abolishing slavery especially with the colonies now having full voting rights (represented by the gentry).

[Occam Bandage]

74. Let's start with slavery.

There was a very strong abolitionist sentiment throughout Britain and Canada in the late 1700s, and a burgeoning abolitionist movement in the northern United States as well. The gentry of course remained in favor (or weakly philosophically opposed), but widespread public disgust funneled its way upwards, and Britain became a major abolitionist power.

Profit motive was not the only factor at play here. The British could have easily turned a nifty profit by joining in the slave trade. Instead, they all but shut it down, interdicting slaver vessels and raiding slaver settlements on the coast of Africa.

Britain treating the Colonies as co-equal would lead, I'm thinking, to a short-term weaker Britain because they are unable to impose protectionist tariffs and resource supply chains to encourage British economic development at expense of American. The net result is greater overall long-term economic growth, but Britain does not hit its stride nearly as quickly.

[LeftishBrit]

44. Hitler would have lost his election in 1933

[JohnnyBoots]

56. How about that he got into art school like he wanted, before he went into politics.....n/t

[DeltaLitProf]

46. I'd have found the dead body of Christ

. . . and put it right back in the tomb in time for the women to visit it. I'd have left the stone rolled away from the opening.

[Gabi Hayes]

47. no big rock hit earth

fire BAD!

dinosaur GOOD!

[cobalt1999]

49. Lincoln would have let the South go.

We would have avoided the bloodiest war in our nations history.

It reduced the power of the state governments to the benefit of the federal government.

The US would never have become a super power and would have avoided later European conflicts WWI and WWII.

Slavery was doomed anyway with or without the war.

North would by now have a more liberal government with all the things like National Health Care.



People act like saving the union was some great and noble cause. It wasn't. The states voluntarily joined the Union, they should have had the option of voluntarily leaving too.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

73. The US and Confederacy would have been proxy states in European conflicts

The biggest reason the Union couldn't let the south go is that the two nations would have different alliances. Britain would have the US between Canada and the Confederacy. The US would have sided--of necessity--with whoever was against England.

The two American countries would have fought over who got the west.

The Confederacy's plan was to conquer Mexico after reaching a negotied peace with the Union.

A big mess!

[cobalt1999]

78. Possibly.

The fun of these "What if" scenarios is no one really knows how all the inter-related consequences would play out.

That Confederacy would be aligned with Britain is almost a given.

How would the Northern states react is more debatable. They already shared a long border with Canada while maintaining good relations with Britain. If the Confederacy was let go peacefully, then there would be little bad blood on that border too. Both the North and the South were pretty isolationist back then though, so how much either would willing get involved in European affairs is debatable.

[Occam Bandage]

81. I have difficulty seeing the two powers remaining friendly when it comes to the Western territories.

The slave/free alignment of the American interior was a major flashpoint before the secession, and led to several local guerrilla wars. I mean, peaceful borders are nice, but when the borders exist only on paper, they don't tend to last long. I don't think the entire West would be settled without another Sam Houston deciding that his territory needs to change alignment.

[cobalt1999]

110. Probably not

However, the Civil War was the bloodiest and most damaging war our country has ever fought and caused decades of hatred afterwards.

Would a fight over the Western Territories be any bloodier or would it be a more limited fight with a negotiated settlement?

[Occam Bandage]

76. ...setting the stage for a late-1800s war over Western expansion,

a Confederate war against Mexico, competing foreign alliances leading to a WWI American front, and quite likely an authoritarian dictatorship rising in the American loser of WWI in response to the Treaty of Versailles (presumably called something else this time around).

Yeah, sounds great.

[charlie and algernon]

90. That's the storyline for Harry Turtledove's alternative history series

great series of books. Basically the North loses Antetiam and Britian goes to Lincoln forcing him to accept the Confederacy or risk going to war with England and France. A second civil war breaks out over northern Mexico with the CSA winning again and taking territory south of Texas. When WWI rolls around, the CSA is aligned with England and France and the USA is aligned with Germany. Fighting breaks out in Virginia, the plains states, and Canada, the North wins, which leads to a dictator arising in the South. WWII breaks out and the north has to fight the CSA, Canada, and Japan.

[cobalt1999]

112. That's the part I can't see happening.

The assumption that the North and South would become vassal states of European powers and would be so tightly aligned with them. IMHO, there would be a stalemate on both sides not to get involved due to the proximity of any war.

[Hugabear]

135. Have you been reading Harry Turtledove?

He has a whole alternative history series about what could have happened if the Confederacy won the Civil War.

It ain't very pretty.

[SmileyRose]

51. I would not have gotten married.

I know it's small and self centered, but it probably affects my life more than any grand world event.

[boomerbust]

62. Ditto

Married at 18 - Foolishness

[LeftishBrit]

52. In terms of more recent events, more specific to my country...

John Smith would not have died in 1994. If he'd survived, he'd have become PM in 1997; we would have had no Tony Blair; and, while I don't know if Smith would have been one of the great PMs of all time, he would have been a lot better than Blair, and we wouldn't have ended up in half the messes we are in now.

[TexasObserver]

53. Sarah requiring Abraham to send Ismael & his mother Hagar into the desert.

I'd like to have that back.

That family feud is still one of the biggest problems in the world, 4000 years later.

[Tesha]

54. The Big Bang.

I'd change the Big Bang so that the resulting
universe *COULD HAVE* transporters, warp drive,
and faster-than-light communications.

;)

Tesha

[CanonRay]

55. Barbara Bush getting pregnant with George

[raccoon]

57. Adolf Hitler would be a successful artist. But that brings up the question

of "Does history make great men or do great men make history?" (Yeah, I know that is sexist.)

If Hitler HAD been a successful artist, would someone else have risen up to do what he did?

:shrug:

[cobalt1999]

63. There are legions of potential Hitlers out there just waiting for the right opportunity.

Germany in the 1930's was a huge opportunity and if not Hitler, there is a strong likelihood that another would have risen.

In fact, it could have been worse. Think about a Hitler that was smart enough NOT to invade Russia. WWII might have ended in a stalemate and a totally different peace settlement.

The trick would be to change history so the opportunity wasn't there.

[treestar]

77. that's a great point - or a Hitler smart enough to have invaded

England rather than pulling back when he did.

The end would have been the same perhaps, but with even more death and destruction.

[Occam Bandage]

94. He was, like Napoleon before him, kind of stuck.

Napoleon lacked the naval strength required to mount an invasion of England; even if he ferried troops across he couldn't have maintained a supply chain. At the same time, he was slowly being starved; he needed access to open ports to keep the entire Continental economy from collapsing. Invading Russia was a bad idea, but there weren't many good ideas left; England was perfectly content leaving the blockade up indefinitely.

Hitler lacked the naval strength required to mount an invasion of England; even if he ferried troops across he couldn't have maintained a supply chain. At the same time, he was slowly being starved; he needed resources (most notably oil) to keep his economy and war machine running. Invading Russia failed badly, but had he managed to win the battle of Stalingrad, he likely could have punched through to Central Asia and secured an overland oil supply chain.

Perhaps Hitler could have invaded Turkey, and increased the forces allotted to the North African front...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

108. According to Norman Davies (who I enjoy) Hitler was tactically correct to invade Russia

In "Europe: a History" and "No Simple Victory" he argues, based in part on some post-cold war released material, that invading Russia was Hitler's tactical master-stroke (albeit an ultimately hopeless one and thus doomed to be considered a blunder) because Russia was just about to pull the trigger on moving against Germany. He suggests that the ease of the initial move was partially due to the Russian forces being in offensive, rather than defensive posture, and thus easy to break through. And that since it was a forced move it's wrong to blame it on hubris.

The only reason for war with western Europe was to secure his rear before the inevitable war with Russia, so you can walk the hubris back to the whole concept of the war in the first place, which was always going to end up as Germany vs. Russia with everyone else holding their coats.

But the specific decision to invade Russia may have been by far the best of a bad range of options at the moment. (It would help explain Stalin's nervous break-down during the invasion if he were on the cusp of a sneak attack, then getting out-foxed and recognizing that he had everyone positioned in the worst possible places.)

[cobalt1999]

113. I going to have to add those books to my collection.

What I always wondered was what if the Nazi party had not gained control of Germany, but instead the Communists had. Without Hitler, would a Communist leader risen and become allied with Russia.

[peanut2010]

58. 1968 RFK would have been president

[helderheid]

59. I'm with you.

[Arkham House]

61. The prevention of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914

...no World War One, and maybe--just maybe--no Communism and Nazism...we'll never know, but it could have hardly been worse...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

68. You'd be better off preventing the signing of one of the interlocking secret treaties.

Otherwise some other trip-wire would have eventually started the same process.

[hamsterjill]

64. Seconded

I think that would have made things a lot better for all concerned at this point in time.

Mother Earth wept when mankind was foolish enough to "elect" Chimpy.

[trof]

65. Eve wouldn't eat the apple.

And we'd all be running around happy and nekkid and with full tummies.
O8)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

72. Actually, we all wouldn't exist. It would still be just Adam and Eve (getting on each others nerves)

[LynnTheDem]

66. The trial and sentencing of the George W. bUsh regime for crimes

against humanity.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

67. US entering WWI

Hard to say what would have happened, but since what did happen was about the worst 30 years in human history it's hard to imagine how the alternative wouldn't have been preferable.

(Preventing WWI altogether isn't an option... there's no *single* event that could be changed to prevent a similar conflict, if not then, then a few years later.)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

69. Amphibians crawling on to land...

[cobalt1999]

71. I liked Douglas Adams HHGTTG intro...

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy. And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."

[MorningGlow]

87. Sigh. I miss Douglas Adams...

:cry:

[treestar]

75. I agree, and along with that, his competent administration would

have headed off the 911 attacks. 911, while evil in itself, is the cause of so much more evil. (Or its use by the cabal at the White House).

[Stinky The Clown]

79. President Cuomo instead of Clinton

His veep, whoever that might have been, would be finishing his second term right about now ......

[Fumesucker]

82. I've spent enough time on soc.history.what-if.

The alternate history news group, to know that you can't do just one thing..

Even a minor change could well have immense consequences, human history is chaotic in the mathematical sense and chaotic systems are impossible to predict.

[csziggy]

121. Yes, and if you believe in the multiverse all the permutations of every change

exist somewhere in that multiverse. SO every choice has been made, we just don't happen to be on the timeline where it is being played out.

[Hugabear]

136. So that means in some universe, Bush & Cheney are rotting in the Hague

After having been impeached, run out of office, and indicted for crimes against humanity.

[csziggy]

142. I'd prefer the ones where they were recognized as the psychopaths

they are and kept from harming society.

[malaise]

83. Prescod Bush's mother would have had a miscarriage when

she was carrying him.

[bertha katzenengel]

84. Rewrite the Treaty of Versailles

[kestrel91316]

88. The birth of George H. W. Bush.

[MorningGlow]

89. I would make it so the Vatican never became so all-powerful

And that the Council of Nicea never happened (where the bishops voted to declare Jesus the son of God). I've got nothing against Jesus and his teachings, but more harm has been done in the name of the political arm of Christianity than anything else in history (and that goes for Dubya's crazy-ass "born-agin" followers too, not just Catholicism).

[knixphan]

91. Iran hostages freed under Carter's admin.

REAGAN NEVER GETS IN.

[otherlander]

92. I would undo the neolithic revolution.

Because there were societies with agriculture before the neolithic revolution, but not agriculture that produced a large surplus, and I would like to see what those societies would have evolved into if they hadn't been conquered.

[blues90]

93. that no one would have ever discovered

How to split the atom and unlease the atomic power.

[knixphan]

133. actually I change my answer to yours. spot on.

[charlie and algernon]

95. Make sure Eisenhower took Berlin

We would've lost a few thousand more men, but it would've avoided the Berlin Wall crisis and perhaps staved off the Cold War

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

102. attractive but probably impossible.

I doubt we could have beaten the Russians to Berlin. The scenario assumes zero opposition from Germany; a de facto surrender to America and Britain that would have carried its own set of consequences.

As it was, Russia took a months long detour into the balkans to take care of some business, but they only did that *because* Eisenhower decided to stop.

The reason Eisenhower stopped was that the battle of the Bulge had demonstrated to him that we were in way over our head, and in no position to take Germany if opposed. (Patton's post-war bluster notwithstanding, you need a giant advantage to fight on the other guy's turf.)

What the Germans did to the Russians in Germany would have shredded our forces to nothing. So all "on to Berlin" scenarios involve a de facto German surrender to us, but not to Russia. Such a separate peace would have blown up the alliance and probably left us facing Russia having brought a knife to a gun fight.

The thing is, we cannot presume a "fuck Russia" strategy without also presuming a Russian "fuck America" strategy. Russia could have wiped out the other allied forces without raising a sweat, if it got down to that. (No A-bomb yet, at the time) The Russians went into Berlin with what may have been the most powerful land army ever assembled for a single battle. Our forces were a footnote in comparison.

So the scenario presumes that we take Berlin (only because the Germans don't oppose us) and that Russia is okay with it. It's a popular "what if", but is mostly based on a bunch of 1950s Republican fantasies. Patton's army would not have existed after a week's engagement with Russia. (Internal supply lines are worth the world... that's how Israel beat the whole Arab world in their war of independence.)

That said, I will grant that if it were possible for us to take Berlin, and if Germany was happy to surrender Berlin to us, it would have decreased the overall death toll by a million or so. The battle of Berlin was, combining military and civilian casualties, like Stalingrad II.

[charlie and algernon]

106. But it was also an agreement that allowed Russia to take Berlin

You make the agreement so that the US and British take Berlin and allow the Russians to govern post war Eastern Europe. If that agreement is made, and you have to presume that Russia honors it, then Eisenhower would obviously take as much time as needed to strengthen his supply lines and gather enough forces for Berlin. He takes the time to do the Belgium offensive right, then you have forces coming from France and Belguim into Berlin. By 1945, we had over a million troops in Europe and that's not counting the British, Aussies, Canadians, and Free French forces. If Russia wanted to intiate a "Fuck America" strategy, the best it could've done would be to take Germany because then they're the ones whose supply lines are getting stretched. It would all depend on how hard Eisenhower was willing to defend Germany against a Russian onslaught.

[notadmblnd]

96. the birth of the BFEE

[Spider Jerusalem]

97. My answer: nothing

Ever heard of the butterfly effect? Alter one event and the chain of causation changes completely, in unexpected ways. The world we live in is as it is because of the past; we are here now because history unfolded one way and not another. As an example, let's say that I'd have Adolf Hitler die in infancy. What would be the result of that? No WWII, possibly, but then if WWII had never happened I wouldn't be here, either (both of my grandfathers met my grandmothers while a long way from home in the Army). Not to mention that the modern world as we know it probably wouldn't exist had WWII not happened (the war serving as it did to spur research and development of technologies like computers, rocketry, jet aircraft, radar and sonar, and dozens of other things...including nuclear weapons, which, as noted elsewhere, have probably had the net effect of our wars and conflicts since being less bloody).

[Rocknrule]

98. Make Bush Sr. wear a condom

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

100. Napoleon wins Waterloo

Napoleon is the most unfairly maligned figure in world history. He was considerably more civilized and progressive than the alternatives.

The British balance-of-power politics stranglehold on continental Europe is the root cause of most European nastiness. England had to keep Europe divided, and did a bang up job of it for centuries.

I don't blame England. It was the right approach in terms of their national self interest.

But it didn't work out well for everyone else.

[suston96]

101. The big bang that created our universe.......No need to "predict" anything......nt

[Evoman]

103. Arm the neanderthals with bigger clubs than the homo sapiens.

[cobalt1999]

115. The original Immigration problem. n/t

[Hidden Stillness]

104. Wish Tom Harkin had Won 1992 Election, not Clinton

Well, there are many possibilities large and small, but I think one would be that Tom Harkin won the 1992 election, not Bill "I'm a Republican Too, Really--I'll Show Ya" Clinton. People tend to forget that we actually had two really great candidates running for President that year, (and three, if you count the short candidacy of George McGovern): Tom Harkin and the late Sen. Paul Simon, who was a champion on the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas harrassment hearing, who knew she was telling the truth, and who was prepared to bring the other witnesses forward. Either would have been great, and the installment of Thomas could qualify as another "change one event" moment, but Harkin is one of the greatest ever, my whole family was for Harkin that year, not Clinton, and the whole "D"LC-Republican-corporate lobbyist cartel never would have happened if Harkin had won instead, a great public servant who knows, and fights every time for, Community Block Grants, school lunch programs, and a thousand other things besides the main issues people need.

[wvbygod]

105. Not getting married in 1983

Some loved ones would still be alive today.

[A HERETIC I AM]

111. Mine has something to do with Asher Heimerman....

and horse tranquilizers.

I'll not go into more detail.

[madeline_con]

114. DUH-bya's birth.

Should have been still.

[Faygo Kid]

116. Hitler's mother miscarries.

Off the top, I would call that a worthy wish.

[ChazII]

147. or has an abortion n/t

[Bucky]

117. I wish I'd've gone with the peach preserves insteada the strawberry on my PBJ yesterday

other than that, no regrets.

[Alexander]

120. I think Gore would've dumped Lieberman in 2004 had he been president.

It was clear Lieberman wanted to get his wargasm on with Iraq, and Gore wanted no part of it.

I suspect Gore would've dumped Lieberman for Kerry or someone else.

[Regret My New Name]

122. Prevent the giant asteroid that killed the dinosaurs from hitting Earth...

Dinosaurs are cool. I like dinosaurs. I want to ride a t-rex.

[mudesi]

123. I wish the dinosaurs never went extinct

Humans suck.

[Regret My New Name]

129. copy cat.

[Hugabear]

138. Yeah, 'cause intelligent velociraptors would have been so much better

Who's to say that whatever intelligent life that evolved instead of humans would have been any better?

[AutumnMist]

124. The assassination of Lincoln...........

:hi:

[mulsh]

125. I'd scrap Sykes-Picot. the middle east would be very different.

as a side venture I'd like to have been able to get the British Foreign Service office to cashier Churchill and pay more attention to people like Gertrude Bell. But shit caning Sykes Picot and letting the locals hash out their borders and sovereignty would have probably saved the world and the region a lot of grief. who knows the Kurds and the Armenians might have gotten their own land.

[DainBramaged]

126. Monica Lewinsky

She opened the door for the impeachment of Clinton and secured the theft of the election.

[Lisa0825]

127. Stop evolution before it went to far and created humans. nt

[NashVegas]

128. Overturning the Fairness Doctrine

'nuff said

[NorthCarolina]

130. Preventing creation of the Federal Reserve

eom

[BlooInBloo]

131. Wouldn't have messed shit up with the love of my life.

[LWolf]

132. Hunter gatherers would not have become farmers.

They would have stayed hunter-gatherers, thus keeping their numbers and footprint small.

[cynatnite]

137. Katharine Harris would be a bad lounge singer in Duluth n/t

[cynatnite]

139. Oh, and Moses would be a woman...

Ten Commandments sure would have looked a hell of a lot differently had that been the case.

[hughee99]

140. Soup or Salad, I wish I had the soup.

Either that or I would have grabbed 2 beers last time I was in the kitchen (that first one went down quick). If I've learned anything, it's that the consequences of events are not often clear, and the further out you go from an event the murkier things are. Seemingly good thing like reversing the 2000 election, saving JFK, Carter's reelection in '80, or a Germany that never becomes a military power can still result in very tragic consequences.

[nadinbrzezinski]

143. The Habiru never got the Old Testament at Sinai

or rather the myth never took hold

Then the whole judeo christian world would have never come to be

That said, I'd not be here... and that goes for many of us

[Pisces]

144. The Holocaust

[CK_John]

145. Hamilton would win his duel with Burr. n/t

[Massacure]

148. Texas would be a part of Mexico.

No Bush invasion of Iraq; no Johnson escalation of Vietnam.