Posted on 02/10/2003 3:01:02 AM PST by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:12:02 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
February 10, 2003 -- COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France - They stand only 3 feet high, but they're towering mountains of sacrifice.
I'm standing in the American Cemetery. Gray clouds hang low as if in mourning for the nearly 10,000 young Americans buried beneath crosses and Stars of David that stretch as far as the eye can see.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
At least THOSE frogs are doing something useful, ne c'est pas? These frogs are not:
Alternatively, Heave les France!
The assembly must have heard that a troop of Girl Scouts were in the vicinity, and fled in disarray.
My uncle landed at Omaha Beach and battled Nazis through snow-covered fields all across France. As they marched through the streets of Paris, two little French girls came running up to him and handed him a lady's brooch pin, an Ivory elephant. (Wouldn't the libs hate that!) The crowds cheered and called out to the soldiers, "We love you...Thank you." He gave me that treasured pin, which I keep in the gun safe.
You'll notice that in WWI Russia suffered 1,700,000 dead; 4,950,000 wounded; - 6,650,000 total casualties out of 12,000,000 mobilized. You'll notice that in WWII the Soviet Union suffered 25, 568,000 total casualties; 8,668.000 military and 16,900,000 civilian.
You'll notice that in WWI France suffered 1,365,735 dead; 4,266,000 wouded; 477,800; missing/unrecoveravble; 6,109,535 total casualties out of 8,410,000 mobilized. You'll notice that in WWII France suffered 810,000 total causalties; 340,000 military and 470,000 civilian.
You'll notice that in WWI Germany suffered 1,808,546 dead; 4,247,143 wounded; 772,522missing; 6,828,211 total casualties our of 11,000,000 mobilized. You'll notice that in WWI Germany suffered 7,060,000 total casualties; 3,250,000 military and 3,810,000 civilian.
You'll notice that in WWI the USA suffered 116,608 dead; 204,002 wounded; - 320,610 total casualties out of 4,743,826 mobilized. You'll notice that in WWII the USA had 295,000 military casualties. No civilian casualties are mentioned.
I'm sure some of you must have noticed where all the great battles of WWI and WWII were fought. The idea that "Old Europe" needs the United States to tell them about war, or to be mau-maued by the Empire-builders in the Bush administration and the corporate media about the costs of war, borders on the viscious.
In fact, I'm developing a theory that there is something even worse than mere visciousness at work here. For over thirty years--The Thirty Years War perhaps?--European Americans have been taught to hate themselves by every The Government bureaucrat and corporate manager. Since we have almost no other cutural outlet beyond the State and the Corporation any more, that's a pretty thorough indoctrination.
The country has been brutally torn away from its European roots. There is no more study of Greece or Rome and the rest of European history is presented as two blips on the timeline--the Inquisition and the Holocaust.
Christian religious leaders have embraced self-loathing as their vocation and have transmitted it to their flocks in various ways in various denominations. One of the most popular ways is to de-Europeanize the Church and embrace the Old Testament with its endless tales of land-grabbing. So much more instantly gratifying than: My Kingdom is not of this world.
When Rumsfield does his gansta rap routine and disses "Old Europe" he's gleefully engaging in the Great National Pastime--burying "dead, white European males".
Down the memory hole with it all--all their stuggles; all their art; all their literature; all their music; all their sacrifices; all their glories and all their failings. They have nothing to say to us.
We have Michael's nose, Bill's penis, Oprah's butt and George says "Jesus" every once in a while.
What more could anyone ask?
HOW DARE THEY ASK FOR MORE?
Yes, by all means, let's desecrate the graves of the dead so we can use them to make points in a passing foreign policy dispute.
I wonder what the men in those graves would make of the idea of a preemptive strike? After all, Pearl Harbor was a preemptive strike by the Nippon Empire against the United States.
But who cares what they believed? After all they're dead......
Sure, in WWII, North Africa and the South Pacific. The French were a tremendous help in those theaters. Thanks...
Are you making that point to remind me that the US government enjoys the support of some European governments? I know that. They have made their choice. But if, as every one around here claims, we liberated Europe, what was the point if they are not free to buck the Government of the United States?
My only complaint about the diverse voices in Europe is that none of them were raised to stop our illegal, immoral bobming of the Serbs. (But, self-loathing is not just an American phenomenon.)
Are you suggesting we didn't?
I don't think they would have had much of a problem with a pre-emptive strike on Japan, considering that many might still be alive today had we done just that.
There's no hope. Americans like you view the great European struggles of the 20th Century through the lens of their corporate Hollywood tutors, and that's that...
So Britain and the United States should have just given Hitler everything he wanted?
No, madamoiselle, it is not the right honourable gentleman who is beyond hope. It is you.
Ivan
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