The ill future of Germany and Bismarck's mistake in taking Alsace Loraine.

In the short time following Hans Blix's devastating report and President Bush's compelling State of the Union address, Saddam Hussein looks increasingly more like a dead man walking. In all likelihood, Baghdad will be liberated by April. This may turn out to be one of those hinge moments in history--events like the storming of the Bastille or the fall of the Berlin Wall--after which everything is different. Another such moment is history was the commencement …

…of Alsace-Lorraine became the chief rallying force for French nationalism and was a major cause of the armaments race that led to World War I. The Franco-Prussian war embittered Franco-German relations for decades to come, contributing to the European rivalries which would later erupt. French agitation for revanche - revenge for the loss of Alsace-Lorraine - gave its name to the phenomenon of revanchism, the desire to punish a past enemy and regain former territories.