Posted on 07/17/2009 6:08:31 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Well worth repeating.
One reason "absolute truth" is so elusive in human terms is the same reason we don't read computer machine language, or understand biological processes on a molecular basis. They are simply too far beyond normal human experience for all but the best experts to figure out.
What we depend on instead are simplified "translations," which reduce the often incomprehensible to terms normal people can deal with. And as such, we are at the mercy of the translators' expertise, perspectives and honesty.
Otherwise we'd all be lost in the tall weeds...
Additionally, it wasn't entirely their goal anyway. Here's an excerpt from AWDP-1 which was the U.S. Army Air Corps basic war plan for air operation against Germany prepared in August of 1941 (before we were even in the war):
a. Possible Lines of Action. Based on an analysis of military and economic factors the following lines of actions for the air offensive can be set up for consideration.
1. Lines of action whose accomplishment will accomplish the air mission in Europe.
(a) Disruption of a major portion of the Electric Power System of Germany.
(b) Disruption of the German transportation system.
(c) Destruction of the German oil and petroleum system.
(d) Undermining of German morale by air attack of civil concentrations.
So we did have more targets than just industry anyway. Item 2 on that list goes over objectives against the Luftwaffe which represents another item all together.
You would think that would be intuitive. Anyone who has ever been in a car accident knows that the witnesses all tell a different story. Some are motivated by certain biases, and other are just the way they perceived and processed what they saw.
As an aspiring historian (boy that sounds better than aspiring rapper), one of the hardest concepts and tasks it to capture the context in which the history took place. It needs to attempt to capture the reasoning of the time period and yet still remain relevant to the current reader. I made an argument in a class this semester that it would be better to write the history of 15th century England in old English since you are losing context by unmatchable translation. The only problem with doing that is no one can read it and an unread history is as useless as one never written. It’s a tough proposition.
Well, if you just add up the numbers killed and property destroyed, clearly the Germans won World War Two, because:
Yes, after the war Russians took everything that could be moved from their zone. But on the other hand, within just a few years, the US Marshall Plan was helping to replace West German manufacturing with all new equipment.
Result is, Germany today is among the planet's most prosperous nations -- they not only live well, they take months of vacation in Spain and North Africa every year.
So I say Germans "won" the war. ;-)
Of course, if you ask Neo-Nazis, they'll tell you the Jews (i.e., Franklin "Rosenfelt") won the war. But I think they're just hoping to draw more attention to the Nazis' singular "accomplishment" -- the Holocaust.
Speaking of which, that reminds me -- in 1939 there was beginning to be some pretty interesting work going on in the field of nuclear physics -- Albert Einstein and his pals. I wonder if any of that ever made the newspapers? ;-)
I reported on Fermi’s discussion on sustainable chain reactions in January. There’s not even a lot of the day to day process from the conference in Chicago which Fermi was headed when he was pondering what they knew and where to go with it.
I am planning on posting a copy of Einstein’s letter on August 2nd since its my birthday and all.
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