Do a little reading on the impact of fresh and eager troops on the Germans. See what you think then.
We all know what French morale was by then about zero. Note the widespread mutiny after the Nivelle Offensive,which was a virtually unmitigated disaster for the French Army in April of 1917. Petain agreed not to commit his forces to offensive operations thenceforward.
At the Marne, US forces were credited with stopping the German advance.
Americans took the offensive at St. Mihel, a lesson in combined arms operations.
Americans are credited with the breakthrough at the Meuse, gaining as much as five miles a day in November. Do you think this offensive had anything to do with the German's deciding to give it up?
As for the often heard "The USA was VERY reluctant to get involved in the European war" you are absolutely correct. I wonder why? Eh? Did you ever read Washington's Farewell Address?
Well, I assure you many if not most Americans had after WW1 and prior to WW2. I'm sure you know the US Congress passed the Neutrality Act forbidding the supply of arms to belligerents in the event of war in April of 1935. No dummies they. That was LONG before any hostilities broke out in Europe and only about 2 years after Hitler came to power. So, US reluctance to become involved in any European war was WELL KNOWN to European countries long before they started shooting at each other. To expect us to jump right in once the Euros lost control..... through absolutely no fault of ours..... is a bit much, I think. Not to mention illegal, considering the Neutrality Act.
Your optimistic contention that the Soviets would respect former national borders is probably not shared by those countries that had Soviet troops on their soil when the war ended.
The point you miss in the Cold War is the effect of many thousands of US troops nose to nose with the Soviet armies. It's the same effect US troops have in Korea right now. They kept things from getting out of hand just by being there. Had the balloon gone up, it would have been a major disaster for the world. But, IMO, the presence of US troops was a key factor in keeping the balloon on a tether.
Final note: I doubt there is any Euro government that doesn't have irrefutable information that Saddam has WMD and is also a murderous dictator that has oppressed and killed his own people.
We've clearly taken the lead on removing him for those reasons and what we perceive as a threat to ourselves.
Now, we would think that given those two realities, our "friends" would give us the benefit of the doubt on this one. We're not asking anyone else to do the fighting; we're not begging for French, Russian or German troops. We merely want UN support and Security Council sanction.
Apparently that is too much to ask of someof our "friends". Perhaps we've learned something about the true meaning of friendship here as well.
As to the boycott..... I doubt it will be very organized or very effective. But I'll wager there is some drop in sales with respect to products of those countries.
