SPECULATION: If World War 2 took place today

Every war is terrible. And that’s why we can be glad that the second one, the world one, ended almost eighty years ago, when the world was still normal.

Can anyone imagine how this war would have gone if the generation of our ancestors was as aware, humanistic and awakened as the current part of society?

At the end of July 1943, the Allies bombed Hamburg, one of the most important industrial centers of fascist Germany. This attack was unlike anything that had happened before. During the week, 8,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city. The number of victims is imprecise, the estimate is 40-50 thousand people. 20 square kilometers of urban districts were completely burned, and the number of dead in some shelters could only be estimated by the weight of the remaining ash of charred bodies.

Can anyone imagine the reaction to such an attack by contemporary activists? After the first reports and shocking photographs in the newspapers (which Mr. Josef Goebbels would supply completely anonymously), these activists would freeze in shock on the first day. From the second day, articles would start appearing in the daily press pointing out that 90% of the victims were innocent civilians. There would be several experts speaking on the radio who, although they had never sat in a bomber plane, would still have a clear opinion on how it should be done differently and better.

On the third day, protesters would begin to gather outside the RAF airfield, demanding an immediate end to the barbaric bombing of civilian towns. The German Ministry of Propaganda would supply gruesome photographs of dead children, and the most conscientious part of society would begin to cry for peace. Everyone would pretend to know nothing about Kristallnacht, the massacre of Lidice and the occupation of almost all of Europe. All over the world, humanitarian aid packages would begin to be collected, and no one would care that a large part of them ended up in the bread pans of Wehrmacht soldiers. Young men and women in the latest fashions in London would start spitting at the fighter pilots who were defending their city from the Luftwaffe at the time.

The League of Nations, which did next to nothing to prevent the outbreak of World War II, would immediately begin calling for an immediate cease-fire.

We can only guess what would happen next. Winston Churchill would probably be called a mass murderer and brought to justice, popular demonstrations would demand disarmament, American banks would refuse to support the arms industry, and Mr. Hitler? Mr. Hitler would happily occupy almost all of Europe.

Fortunately, this did not happen because our ancestors were not as advanced and aware as we are today. They knew that there is no negotiation with an aggressor who hates you. So we can be glad that the last great European war was fought eighty years ago, before the world went mad.