Posted on 06/12/2019 9:34:00 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
And thousands went to Japan. What’s your point?
My late father was a Marine. He fought in Guadalcanal and Bougainville. He had to be sent to a hospital back in the states(nothing extremely bad but bad enough) He was scheduled to go back to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan when the bomb dropped. He was grateful for the bomb.
In the 90s he bought a Toyota. “The wars over “ he said.
The perseverance of the Russian People during the siege of Leningrad was definitely valiant.
In fact, the entire performance of the people of the USSR in World War II was valiant.
It is also true that the Soviets could not have defeated the Nazis without the shipment of enormous quantities of ordinance from the USA to the USSR. This ordinance--in fact the enormous ordinance produced by the USA, essential to winning the war--was entirely the result of the American Free Market--i.e. capitalism--and the freedoms whose protection is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
US wealth--produced by the Free Market--won World War I, World War II, and the Cold War.
A friend who immigrated to the USA from Iran (a Christian, by the way) told me that during World War II he watched endless convoys passing through Iran from America headed for the USSR. He marveled as the enormity of it all. Everyone who witnessed these caravans was astonished--astonished at the wealth of a nation that could ship so much to the USSR--wealth produced by freedom, for the Free Market--i.e. capitalism--is, in fact, freedom. It was then that he began to dream of coming to America.
And Stalin treated them like crap. I already mentioned what he did to the leadership of Leningrad after the war, then there was Operation Keelhaul, and the fate of former Soviet POWs, and then there were the Red Army soldiers whom after the War, saw too much of the West.
I concede to you the valiant efforts and the valiant battles fought by the Soviet army and citizens of the USSR. My comments were meant to address Joseph Stalin specifically and his initial duplicity with hitler
BFL
My point is that likely much of the U.S. armed forces would have refused to fight Russia once Germany and Japan were beaten.
You both stated similar point. No one is denying Nazi barbarism towards women and children in Russia. Or the suffering of innocent Russians. I don’t see how this justifies or negates Soviet barbarism towards women and children, not just towards their own but towards civilians in Germany/Austria/Czechoslovakia/Hungary and the numerous places in between who had to deal with both Nazi and Soviet occupation.
Then there was the postwar conduct and Stalin’s setting the tone for his widescale oppression first with efforts to blockade Berlin from receiving food.
American soldiers did not have the same reputation with civilians. To the contrary. While not perfect and not without exception, American soldiers in Europe were upstanding in their conduct in ways befitting actual liberators. And that is my point. It is one of the reasons why we own the victory.
The Russian People are valiant.
Stalin was a monster. Communism is monstrous. All of Karl Marx’s theories lead to the oppression of people by monsters.
The Yalta Conference was in Feb, 1945.
FDR died in April, only two months later.
Churchill wrote that he could tell FDR was on his last leg and fading.
The Russians knew this and did everything possible to keep the two western allies apart, including setting up the housing so FDR was next door to Stalin while Churchill was practically down the street.
The Russians also kissed Rosies butt while ignoring Churchill.
They even had Stalin and FDR sitting in chairs only inches apart while Churchill’s chair was at least a foot away. Look at the official photos from the conference and you will see Stalin and FDR smiling and a po’d Churchill.
It worked on FDR and Churchill felt it better to go with FDR than to split with him and by default throw FDR into the Soviet camp.
Churchill was no saint when it came to divvying up eastern Europe but the Russians played FDR like a fiddle.
You have to understand the Russian mentality which is a lot different than western.
And then there’s the partitioning of Germany for you Commies as “allowed compensation for your help.”
“Wasn’t that actually a sort of self-dealing, as at the time FDR was very ill and delegated the negotiations to a Soviet agent in the State Department?”
I think you may be referring to the “Yalta Conference.” FDR should never have been given a third term. He did give away the store to “Good old Joe!”
Oh yes— and... Robert Duvall was seriously psychotically scary—as Stalin. Am convinced he can play anyone appropriated to his stature, face structure etc. Brilliant actor whose first role... “Boo Radley” in To Kill a Mockingbird.
He is fantastic in “Gods and Generals” the sequel to Gettysburg, as General Robert E. Lee.
I mean- even the role as the guy running the shooting range in the Jack Reacher film (and later— as a combatant using an M1 Garand)===totally believable. “Open Range” another one.
And— Augustus McRae Texas Ranger in “Lonesome Dove”— no one else could have played him so well. Real empathy for his character (people still cry when he dies from the Indian arrow leg wound sepsis).
BTW— “Death of Stalin” is black humour at it’s best— Stalin not in it long-— the movie is excellent, and coldly funny about the sovietski system.
The other one really want to see is again a black comedy— “Red Monarch”-— David Suchet as Beria (a real life pervo- played very well) and forget who played Stalin.
Stalin was a monster. A Georgian priest candidate that instead became a che’ like person— loving death and murder and truly was a mass murderer.
Wow— that would have been interesting. A long dead friend— thoracic surgeon who was.... get this— at Jesuit High School in Havana— roommates with Fidel. Which did not stop, when the time came-—Che’ confiscating firearms. In my friend’s case— his father protested loudly “there are no guns here at all” repeatedly and they searched the place tearing it up— a main residence in Havana.
My friend then— out in front of the house, on the street- watched the crazed angry Che’ blow his father’s brains out— horrific and smiling while he did. Friend made it through med school in Spain and forced to come back- and practice “Russian” medicine as he called it— all sorts of cockamamie ideas...lot from Fidel (him being an expert even in medicine— NOT!) Lot of stories.... really miss this great man, survivor.
One thing: he did say “of course there really were no guns at the house- dad wasn’t lying” ... then: “we long before the revolt took them up to our place in the mtns and hid them well under the house and used them on those Bastards-— killed a hell of alot of them and they never even knew who!” The kind of guy one would want in an “uncivil” political hot war.
I can respect your friend.
The US gave the USSR almost $10 billion USD in military equipment on lend-lease. Had it not been for the US, the Soviet soldiers would have walked to the battles ...barefooted ...fought the battles with sticks and rocks, then walked home ...barefooted ...presuming their feet hadn’t been shot off by the Nazis.
BTTT!
None of these politicians let an opportunity pass. They chime in wherever they can to promote their cause. Sometimes, it is so out of place/context that it's near comical, as this is.
Of course D-Day air brushes out Russia. It commemorates the landing of US/British/Polish/Canadian forces in France. If the Russians have a commemoration of the fall of Stalingrad, do they talk about the US invasion of Italy, or the battles in Africa?
He's a politician and sees a chance to “say something.” To bad it was stupid.
NO ONE in Europe has gotten any smarter.
Why do you think they can just plow over peoples civil rights because of Covid?
Why do you think they can censor like they do?
The Europeans have a love affair with big and centralized all powerful government. They do not see the dangers in this, only the benefits in being unified, efficient (economy of scale)...
And that is why you have the same story over and over again, may it be in former Yugoslavia, Ukraine today... The Euro's are a ticking time bomb for conflict. The idea of “decentralization” and allowing for autonomy, a weaker central government and more power at the lower levels is foreign to them. They will soon have the green pass bio-metric vaccine passports, and thank God the EU already established a standard for the size and curvature of a cucumber: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verordnung_(EWG)_Nr._1677/88_(Gurkenverordnung) The world is a much safer place today because of this!
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