GUEST,Dave - 03 Jan 16 - 04:47 PM

"Yes. Belgium could have "refused to engage" and the Germans would have left them alone."

They might. And they might not. Either of which would have been better than 17 million dead.

Academic Dave, in making the above statement I take it then that you have read nothing about Germany's attack plan for a war against France.

German mobilisation demanded that immediately after mobilisation Luxembourg and Belgium HAD to be invaded otherwise massive bottlenecks would be created.

Pray tell how the Germans avoiding the invasion of Belgium would have prevented the deaths of 17 million people? After all the formal military alliance between France and Russia, between Russia and Serbia and between Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire would have still come into play - or had you forgotten all about that - more likely you were completely unaware of their existence.