Posted on 05/09/2002 8:42:27 PM PDT by PsyOp
True to a point. FDR's blessing was one of Hitler's many tactical blunders by declaring war on the U.S., giving him the excuse he needed to take the gloves off so to speak and forge ahead into commited action. Otherwise yes, his hands were tied politically at the time.
With Bush, I'm not denying anything you pointed out. It is all true. I agree the education system is as you state. All of this is a cancer perpetuated by leftist trash. But it doesn't have to be the norm. It's what we've been forced to accept as the norm over the years. But I think the majority of Americans are smarter than that these days. Ever notice how the "peaceniks and pacifists" were either waving flags or very silent in the months following 9/11? It is only since these cowards have realized their own b*tts are safe again that they've crawled back out of the woodwork, dropped the flag, and begun spewing their misguided propoganda again. In my view Americans are beginning to see them for what they truly are. So I don't think I can agree that is a stumbling block for GWB.
Patton pointed out many past nations vulnerabilities over the course of history. Including an early glimpse into our future. We no longer have oceans to protect us. That is the one that rang true for me. We have been weakened, downsized and infiltrated over the years, both in civilian society and militarily. Yes it is a different world today, with many new and different threats and enemies. I am a firm believer we will have to fight these nations and their ideologies eventually. All I am saying is Bush has a choice. He can learn a lot from Patton's insight and place in history and apply it to himself and the nation, status quo and politics be damned. Be a leader. Or just be another modern day populist politician appeasing the crowds at home and "evil empires" abroad with their own agenda. So far he's managed well. I think he needs to ignore the populist stance and lead. We've matured since WWII. We'll follow him and let the minority voices whine. They always have, they always will. And they've always been proven wrong.
Off to Phoenix for sun and golf for a week. Been fun chatting, see you when I get back. God Bless.
It's also available on books on tape.
Patton was quite a character. Amongst other things, he was dyslexic, which posed a problem for him with his studies while at West Point. He was quite an athlete as well as a superb horseman.
Our industrial might was observed by Adm Yamamoto who states that he feared awakening the "sleeping giant."
AWESOME BUMP
I was just lurking around, and thought you guys might be interested in this web site: http://www.stormbirds.com/
It's an outfit in Oregon that's building me-262's.
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Bump for good reading.
"Actually it's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling.... You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. General Mattis (USMC), remarks at a military conference held in San Diego, CA, February 1, 2005.
A modern day General Patton!
At the end of World War II, one of America's top military leaders accurately assessed the shift in the balance of world power which that war had produced and foresaw the enormous danger of communist aggression against the West. Alone among U.S. leaders he warned that America should act immediately, while her supremacy was unchallengeable, to end that danger. Unfortunately, his warning went unheeded, and he was quickly silenced by a convenient "accident" which took his life.
Patton was regarded as the "fightingest" general in all the Allied forces. He was considerably more audacious and aggressive than most commanders, and his martial ferocity may very well have been the deciding factor which led to the Allied victory. He personally commanded his forces in many of the toughest and most decisive battles of the war: in Tunisia, in Sicily, in the cracking of the Siegfried Line, in holding back the German advance during the Battle of the Bulge, in the exceptionally bloody fighting around Bastogne in December 1944 and January 1945.
Several months before the end of the war, General Patton had recognized the fearful danger to the West posed by the Soviet Union, and he had disagreed bitterly with the orders which he had been given to hold back his army and wait for the Red Army to occupy vast stretches of German, Czech, Rumanian, Hungarian, and Yugoslav territory, which the Americans could have easily taken instead.
On May 7, 1945, just before the German capitulation, Patton had a conference in Austria with U.S. Secretary of War Robert Patterson. Patton was gravely concerned over the Soviet failure to respect the demarcation lines separating the Soviet and American occupation zones. He was also alarmed by plans in Washington for the immediate partial demobilization of the U.S. Army.
Patton said to Patterson: "Let's keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to the Red Army. This is the only language they understand and respect."
Two days later he repeated his concern when he wrote his wife: "If we have to fight them, now is the time. From now on we will get weaker and they stronger."
Having immediately recognized the Soviet danger and urged a course of action which would have freed all of eastern Europe from the communist yoke with the expenditure of far less American blood than was spilled in Korea and Vietnam and would have obviated both those later wars not to mention World War III -- Patton next came to appreciate the true nature of the people for whom World War II was fought: the Jews.
The more he saw of the Soviets, the stronger Patton's conviction grew that the proper course of action would be to stifle communism then and there, while the chance existed.
Later in May 1945 he attended several meetings and social affairs with top Red Army officers, and he evaluated them carefully. He noted in his diary on May 14: "I have never seen in any army at any time, including the German Imperial Army of 1912, as severe discipline as exists in the Russian army. The officers, with few exceptions, give the appearance of recently civilized Mongolian bandits."
And Patton continued to express these sentiments to his friends -- and those he thought were his friends. On October 22 he wrote a long letter to Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord, who was back in the States. In the letter Patton bitterly condemned the Morgenthau policy; Eisenhower's pusillanimous behavior in the face of Jewish demands; the strong pro-Soviet bias in the press; and the politicization, corruption, degradation, and demoralization of the U.S. Army which these things were causing.
He saw the demoralization of the Army as a deliberate goal of America's enemies: "I have been just as furious as you at the compilation of lies which the communist and Semitic elements of our government have leveled against me and practically every other commander. In my opinion it is a deliberate attempt to alienate the soldier vote from the commanders, because the communists know that soldiers are not communistic, and they fear what eleven million votes (of veterans) would do."
In his letter to Harbord, Patton also revealed his own plans to fight those who were destroying the morale and integrity of the Army and endangering America's future by not opposing the growing Soviet might: "It is my present thought . . . that when I finish this job, which will be around the first of the year, I shall resign, not retire, because if I retire I will still have a gag in my mouth . . . I should not start a limited counterattack, which would be contrary to my military theories, but should wait until I can start an all-out offensive . . . ."
Two months later, on December 23, 1945, General George S. Patton was silenced forever
Reference ping.
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