Messerschmitt Bf109. Heinkel He 111. Junkers Ju 88. Junkers Stuka. These names are lost to history, except for military scholars of Second World War aviation armaments. Despite them seeming outdated, the development and production of German warplanes bear a striking resemblance to the war in the Gulf.

Right under the eyes and noses of the French, British, Polish and other European nations, the Germans rearmed after WWI with predictable results. In the early thirties, German aircraft production was in the hundreds. By 1938, there were over 5000 and by the time of the Blitzkrieg on Poland in 1939, there were over 8000 Luftwaffe planes in the air.

It was a similar story for every other armament. The Panzer series of tanks increased by the thousands and tens of thousands for half-track trucks, mobile howitzers, and machine guns. In essence, every material aspect needed for an aggressive war was in full production.

The number of soldiers in uniform went from a hundred thousand in 1930 to three million on the eve of the invasion of Poland in 1939. All in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles.

What did any sentient person alive then think Hitler was going to do with a war machine bristling with lethality? One that he threatened to use?

That is the question that must be asked today about Iran and the Gulf States. What did the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia think was the intended use of the thousands of aggressive armaments and the extensive defensive ones, like advanced anti-aircraft radar, in the hands of medieval........

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