I personally think that the best striking martial arts form is Muay Thai due to its practicality and versatile strikes. It's good for keeping an opponent/attacker away and even more effective in close quarter fighting. There are several ways to throw elbows, shin, and knee strikes and if you can find a way to combine this with joint locking and throwing you have a good solid base from which you can defend yourself from.
I use many joint locking techniques in my arsenal from Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu, and Judo. My striking techniques come from Muay Thai, and Jeet Kune Do. I have been in martial arts for the past 28 years and have found that in the end you will eventually come up with a form that works for you.
But do not be bound to one style try to learn a little bit of everything from every style you come in contact with.
Thai Boxing has to rank at the top. It's simple yet extremely effective, but more than that it is still taught well.It would be quite hard to say the same about Taekwondo, especially in the USA.
Tae Kwon Do kicks generate more force (when you do them right) because of the momentum and centrifugal forces generated when you go through a long circular motion; but I learned and always taught that you never kick higher than the knees in a street fight because it's too easy to get your leg caught and end up on your back. Muay Thai is pretty much the benchmark of low-leg striking. The Discovery Channel did an episode a couple years back on the show Human Weapon where they brought in a bunch of different fighters and measured the force (in pounds per sq inch like that scene in Rocky IV) of everything from elbow strikes to flying knees to boxing jabs to axe kicks.
It pretty much scientifically answered the question of which strike was the hardest...but I don't know if that's what you meant by "best.
Muaythai without a doubt. There is really no comparison between the two.
Muy Thai is the more effective fighting style it's utilized much more frequently in mixed martial arts than takewondo.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.