The Devistation of World War Two

[techno900]

Some perspective on the deaths from WW2. 18 minutes, but worth watching. How soon we forget, or never realized.

https://vimeo.com/128373915

[J64TWB]

Thanks for sharing techno. Good post.

[nw30]

Good subject, my take, even though I don't like it.

Have we really won a real war since Vietnam? I don't think so, the Vietnamization of this country still runs very deep w/in our government, too scared to fully commit these days, and it's really sad to me, why start if you're not fully committed? It becomes a waste. So many lives lost since the end of WWII for basically nothing, and now our international clout has been diminished to the point to where Russia, Iran, and many other countries just laugh at us when we draw a red line with only crayon.
Was the Iraq/A-stan war following 911 just a replay of WWI? Think of the attack on 911 as being the same as the sinking of the Lusitania, it sucked us into WWI, with the inevitable WWII still to follow, when Pearl Harbor finally woke us up. I fear that we are just asking/waiting for our next Pearl Harbor. But it won't be the same, but damn near, a dirty bomb maybe w/in our country, maybe, who knows, but things seen to be in a similar, parallel, historical path lately.
Yikes, I hate to think about nothing being learned from history.
ISIS and the Nazis have soooooo much in common.

Laissez-faire? The world is too small for that anymore, no matter what Paul Ryan says.

[techno900]

I didn't intend for my post to be any kind of commentary on current politics. The presentation opened my eyes to the scale of the war and how devastating it really was. It also says a lot about the level of national commitment, on both sides of the conflict.

[isobars]

Sooooooooo ... how can Obama admit that after years, he STILL has no plan to defeat ISIS, yet not resign? And how can even ONE PERSON in the world still support a president who is FAR less prepared than Dubya was? Obama is one significant ISIS-inspired attack away from universal infamy as the worst U.S. president in the history of this nation ... and that's even if the Supremes don't drive coffin nails into Obamacare next week.

BTW ... I tried yesterday to change PCPs because my civilian hospital PCP is an idiot and my VA PCP is worse. My hands-down first choice won't take new Medicare patients because Medicare payments don't even cover her costs, let alone provide a few bucks' profit. Does anyone think Obamacare will be better, even when its premiums increase 25-50% later this year as briefed to the president in 2010 and set in motion last month by the insurance companies?

The deaths of WW II would be dwarfed by an EMP explosion over the U.S. North Korea and Iran, jointly and maybe even separately, may already have the means to pull that off with no warning by exploiting our undefended southern polar route. We suspect North Korea may already have such a capability in orbit, and they feed Iran's arsenal.

Yet your man just whines, tap dances, parties, blames Bush, and tells you his teleprompter BS will protect you. Wake the hell up, Liberals. Your tolerance of this idiot and his pie-eyed sycophants may just lose the nation altogether on a scale that would make WW II look like the Boston Marathon bombing in comparison. Do you think Hillary's red herrings (e.g., the fictional war on women, abortion, gay marriage, free condoms, unearned entitlements, idiot doctors foisted on us by Obama/Hillarycare, government-mandated wealth redistribution) will mean CRAP when hundreds of millions in the U.S. alone are killed by one, big, dumb, imprecise, high-altitude, crude nuclear bomb anywhere near our heartland? Or when ISIS turns thousands of parents'-basement-dwelling U.S. malcontents into motivated jihadi puppets via their impenetrably encrypted internet?

We ignored Hitler, who only wanted to control the world, not slaughter 80% of it. We ignored Al Qaeda, got that measly little 9/11 in return. Now, despite much clearer warning and a near-infinitely bigger threat, our president is ignoring ISIS and its even worse spinoffs. And given Benghazi and her lies about landing under fire, we've seen zero indication that Hillary will be any better.

If all that and WW II don't wake the left up, few of you and none of your kids are likely to survive the result.

And that will forever be on you.

[uwindsurf]

Washington (CNN)Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld now said that the goal of creating a democracy in Iraq was "unrealistic" and that he was "concerned" when he first heard the idea floated by former President George W. Bush, a stark admission by one of the Iraq War's biggest defenders.

"I'm not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories. The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words," Rumsfeld told the Times of London last weekend.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/09/politics/rumsfeld-no-democracy-in-iraq/index.html

[swchandler]

WW2 seems so distant today, particularly since most of those that fought in and lived through that war are now gone. So many people died in terrible and horrific ways, yet so much is lost and forgotten today. In some parts of the world, there are those that foolishly believe that the Holocaust never really occurred.

I guess in some ways the forgetfulness and the loss of experience of what has happens from generation to generation can be viewed as both a blessing and a curse. History will always be there for all of us to review and consider, but it's so readily divorced from the realities of those that actually experienced those times. And unfortunately, there are those that don't have any interest in studying and learning the lessons from history. To not be burdened by the memories of an ugly past frees us from carrying the weight of it, and it can ultimately give us a chance for a better future. Needless to say though, the lessons learned from times of strife and war are often lost, so that it leaves us potentially doomed to a fate of repeating the mistakes and ugliness of the past all over again.

Given the comments here from two of our friends from the right, there is clear evidence of a bold eagerness to invest in war and destruction in other parts of the world. Frankly, it's a very scary and unsettling sign that worries me greatly.

[KGB-NP]

I was at the dump a couple years back and found stacks of war time pictures that must have belonged to a Veteran, and all with writing on the backs. Some were picture of the town my mother grew up in that was leveled during the war. Only then did I grasp what she must have gone through as a child.

[wynsurfer]

I suppose that if you were Russian, you would probably think that Hitler did in fact want to slaughter 80% of the population. Russia lost between 20 and 30 million, mostly civilians.

Hitler was anything but ignored by the elite of U.S. corporations. By the time Hitler came to power in 1933, about 20 U.S. corporations, including Standard Oil [Rockefeller], Du Pont,Westinghouse, Union Carbide, Ford Motors, General Electric, IBM, ITT, and many others, had operations in Germany.

Corporate America embraced Hitler,who destroyed the labor unions and threw the communists and other far right socialists in prison. German workers were forbidden to quit or even change jobs, Wages were cut. Profits soared!

[wynsurfer]

I suppose that if you were Russian, you would probably think that Hitler did in fact want to slaughter 80% of the population. Russia lost between 20 and 30 million, mostly civilians.

Hitler was anything but ignored by the elite of U.S. corporations. By the time Hitler came to power in 1933, about 20 U.S. corporations, including Standard Oil [Rockefeller], Du Pont,Westinghouse, Union Carbide, Ford Motors, General Electric, IBM, ITT, and many others, had operations in Germany.

Corporate America embraced Hitler,who destroyed the labor unions and threw the communists and other far right socialists in prison. German workers were forbidden to quit or even change jobs, Wages were cut. Profits soared!