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?
Sure, in WWII, North Africa and the South Pacific. The French were a tremendous help in those theaters. Thanks...
"WWII France suffered 810,000 total causalties; 340,000 military and 470,000 civilian."
Perhaps if more french"men" had stood up more french ladies would not have fallen down (or not had those severe haircuts so common in '45).
Geo. Patton said we don't want our soldiers to die for their country; we want the other sons of bitches to die for theirs.
That's a plan. get w/ the program or get out of the way.
Don't pretend France wasn't lusting after "revanche" when it lurched into WW I. This was about Serbia? Please.
Then, having stumbled into two wars and managed to lose one and very nearly lose the other, the French sat on their hands while Hitler occupied the Rhineland with a TOTAL . . . TOTAL, mind you, in all Germany, of FIVE DIVISIONS (France alone had about 40).
No, your own rant is that of a "6th grade girl," and a pitiful defense (when none is possible) of a useless nation that lost its moral compass after Algeria.