[Tarsk]

"and sometimes unsavory alliances were formed in order to save the smaller countries from being overruled by their more powerful neighbors."

I expect you imagine that the mass-murder of millions of civilians was just an innocent by-product of this "noble" desire.

[george wythe]

I expect you imagine that the mass-murder of millions of civilians was just an innocent by-product of this "noble" desire

Last time I checked, one of our allies was the communist regime in the Soviet Union, one of the most murderous governments ever conceived by humankind.

Just the state-sponsored famines and quota-killing pogroms by Stalin may have killed dozens of millions of people.

Nevertheless, Stalinist Russia was America's ally during WW2.

Who was worse, Hitler or Stalin?