, 1971)! Well, c'mon, Castro, who executes and imprisons dissidents, and whose populace is on the verge of starvation, is only doing it because the Americans made him. Yeah, brother (fist lifted upwards in solidarity)! Posted on 11/04/2006 5:20:24 PM PST by forty_years
Today, Hungarians commemorated their 1956 revolution against Soviet occupation. 1956 was a real revolution, and 2,800 Hungarians gave their lives in the pursuit of liberty and sovereignty, two words which have lost meaning to some in the free world. It is with a sad heart, but with joyous spirit that I salute Hungary today.
Liberty. Sovereignty. Revolution.
These words are bandied about often nowadays in the West, but many times with little meaning, especially by the Left. For example, we constantly hear about Palestinian "sovereignty" -- over land which at best they can claim only partial historical ties to -- while Palestinian terrorists are readily forgiven for the most horrendous acts, and Palestinian leaders steal foreign aid monies. All in the name of "liberty?"
Liberty is taken for granted by throngs of Westerners who have known nothing else. While it is good that entire generations could have grown up knowing only freedom, our own largesse has allowed some in those same generations to forget how valuable freedom is. Be it middle-class suburban kids who shoot up high schools because they feel left out; be it poor inner city kids who shoot each other up because they've been raised to believe in everything except their own self worth ("its always someone else's fault, never your own"); the sad fact is that many of these people do not and will not ever know how an election works, or what it was like to live in the Soviet Union.
The word revolution is generally reserved to Lenin overthrowing the czar or Castro toppling Batista. Rarely is a popular Iranian "revolution" against the ruling Islamo-fascists, or the overthrow of China's communist (and now capitalist) rulers, the topic of conversation of fashionable cocktail parties.
You would think that guys like George Clooney -- martini in hand -- have to at least wonder about a Chinese government that calls itself "communist" running a stock exchange and doing business with Ford, GM, Google -- all the Great Satans of the world. Castro's gotten worse than Woody Allen's parody of the bearded, cigar-smoking, one -- remember that Woody's version orders everyone to wear their underpants on the outside, and levies an immediate decree that all fifteen year olds are now sixteen (Bananas
The talk, if political, is generally focused on those "evil" Israelis or on strange conspiracy theories about George Bush planning an uber oil pipeline through the Middle East.
When was the last time you heard a Hollywood elite make a movie, let alone a public statement, about Hungary's struggle to throw the Russians out once and for all? All of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and indigenous Siberian tribes lived through 70 years of the legacy of Soviet "revolution" -- which did nothing but replace one form of czar with another ("Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet"). How many million died because of the Soviet "revolution?" 20, 30, 60 million?
Hungarians today are commemorating a true fight for liberty against an Orwellian dictatorship. They fought and died -- which is a lot more than I can say for those Hollywood liberals sipping cocktails and indulging in anti-Semitism to assuage their white guilt.
I think I am second generation one of them.
One of my college professors was a soldier in the West German army in 1956. He said they were told they were going to Hungary to fight with the Hungarian revolutionaries against the Red Army; in other words the beginning of WW3. They sat in transport planes on the runway for 3 days until they were ordered to stand down.
What irony. A lot of people don't know that the Russians/communists were so bad that some Hungarians allied themselves with Germany -- ya' know, Hitler's thugs.
What a squeeze to be in. Pick your poison. Be overrun by Russian murderers or Germany murderers.
Not sure what you're talking about. Hungary was an ally of Germany during WW2. The Hungarian Uprising was in 1956, 11 years after WW2.
If you are referencing the story another poster posted, it took place TEN YEARS AFTER the end of WW II, Hitler had been dead for a decade, and West Germany was a democracy.
Hungary had been give to the USSR after WW II. They were rebelling, in 1956 against their overlords. From earliest times, Hungarians longed for their own freedom! I suggest that you read both Kussoth and Petofi, on Hungarian freedom.
Come read this article. :-)
My outfit [503rd Regt, 11th Airborne Div.] was also on full alert out on the runway at Furstenfeldbruck, near Munich, for a couple of days in early Nov. '56. -- We were told that there was a possibile need to secure the airport at Budapest in order to evacuate Americans.
-- Lots of sabre rattling going on at that point, in hindsight.. But we troops were all pumped up, ready to go.
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