He's a smart guy. He knows how to deal with threats.
If Bibi owned a search engine...
Posted on 02/20/2009 6:11:30 AM PST by Scythian
Their Strategic Barrier
Czechoslovakia was strategically placed in the heart of Europe, and its conquest was central to Hitler's plans for overrunning Europe. Though small, Czechoslovakia could field over 800,000 men (one of the strongest armies in Europe), and it had a highly efficient arms industry.
To complicate matters from Hitler's point of view, it possessed a formidable physical barrier to his designs in the shape of the Sudeten mountains, which bordered Germany and guarded the access to the Czech heartland and the capital city of Prague only miles away.
A system of fortifications and fortresses had been built in the mountains over many years, making passage by force a very costly proposition, perhaps even impossible. We now know from the Nuremberg trials and other sources that Hitler's generals were utterly opposed to an assault on the Czech fortifications.
Worse from Hitler's point of view, the Western powers had promised at Versailles to guarantee the Czech border against any aggressive attack. France, which in 1938 could field one hundred divisions (an army 50% larger than Germany's), had agreed in writing to come to the Czech's defense, and Britain and Russia were committed to joining in if France did so.
See how it ends HERE
He gets it...
The comeback yid.
Those who would trade land for peace will get neither. (apologies to Ben Franklin).
Churchill wrote about how he tried and tried to warn everyone about this in “The Gathering Storm.”
Nobody listened...
An interesting historical note: the first German speaking university was in Czechoslovakia.
I am just reading ‘Tomorrow
Will Be Better’. A personal account of a family living through the German invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia. It is gripping reading. She writes about the phoney, made-up issue of the Germans in Czech.
One of the many personal accounts of living under the tyranny of the Germans and then the Soviets.
Published by some small company. One of the many riveting stories of those years which the mainstream publishers and Hollywood utterly ignore.
He’s what Israel needs at this point in time — somebody who knows what is needed, and is able to articulate it well.
Our (UK/French) failure to come to Czechoslovakia’s defense was shameful. But it seemed so damn sensible at the time - why go to war to defend Sudetenland-Germans who wanted to be invaded? Why repeat the horrors of WWI for an effectless border?
Anyway, we were wrong. Stick by treaties, or it is “blood, blood and again blood”.
Of course Hitler didn't give a rat's hiney about the SD Germans.
That doesn't change the fact that you can make a darn good case that the SD Germans were screwed over thoroughly by the Versailles Treaty. They had been part of German (Holy Roman Empire) or at least multi-ethnic but dominated by Germans (Austrian and then Austro-Hungarian) empires for over a thousand years.
Suddenly they are removed from the German state and incorporated into a Slavic-dominated state purely for reasons of geography, not the self-determination proclaimed in Wilson's 14 Points.
IOW, the Czechs have a right to self-determination regardless of how it will affect the Viennese, but the SD Germans have no such right if it makes life difficult for the Czechs.
They had fully legitimate beefs.
During the Nazi occupation, my father was arrested by the Gestapo. His university was being closed down, and students rounded up and taken to a concentration camp. He was fortunate to be released - one of a handful. Apparently the Gestapo initially rounded up more Czechs than they could accommodate, and some were released. In Dad's case, it was because he was under the age of 20. He has never fully recovered from the emotional trauma. He and mom escaped in 1950, after the communist coup. They started over in America in freedom. My brother and I have been blessed with freedom, but for many years, had very little contact with our family left behind the iron curtain.
My maternal grandfather was a wealthy man before the war, owning a lumber mill and a resort on a nearby lake. He started with nothing, deciding to go into business for himself when his widowed mother couldn't afford higher education for him after WWI. The Nazis seized his business for the war effort, and the communists seized his resort, lands and home. In his 60's he was digging ditches and my uncle forced to mine uranium. My cousins were denied university admission because of Grandfather's business success. Our family was deemed an enemy of the state.
This is the price of appeasement - illustrated by just one family.
I fear for Israel, and I fear for our great nation. We live in very troubled times.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
Brillian !!
One of the reasons the Anointed One wanted Churchill’s bust removed from the White House — his views were antithetical to Saul Alinsky’s or William Ayer’s.
He was sure ready to give it his best. He was active in the resistance instead. Firearms were banned, of course, but he had one for most of the war. One night he was in particular fear of arrest and hid it in a barn. Unfortunately, by the time he dared look for it, it was gone. When he came to America, he and mom barely had two nickels to rub together. Nonetheless, his first "luxury" purchase was a rifle. He cherishes his 2nd Amendment rights to this day. Dad is 88 now, but he still hunts deer and turkey.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.