This is what we have to endure, part one
My father-in-law sent me this email (sent to him by some rightwing acquaintance) asking for my comments. I thought I'd share them here as well. It's excruciatingly long, so I will break it up in installments. Feel free to ignore as many or all of them as you will, but this is the tenor and knowledge level exhibited by many of our opponents, so I thought I'd pass it along.
A California Lawyer's Perspective on Iraq War:
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat, and had sunk more than four hundred British ships in their convoys between England and America for food and war materials. Bushido Japan had overrun most of Asia, beginning in 1928, killing millions of civilians throughout China, and impressing millions more as slave labor.
1928? You might want to invest in a simple encyclopedia. Or read a book. Japan invaded China in 1931. (Manchuria, to be specific. Sources aplenty, try here and here.
The US was in an isolationist, pacifist, mood, and most Americans and Congress wanted nothing to do with the European war, or the Asian war. Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, which had not attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.
Yeah, except for a very large, and very wrathful Soviet Union. Not to mention Great Britain. Germany, on the other hand, had Japan (little army to speak of at all, for the most part, and a navy we crippled within 8 months of Pearl harbor [at Midway]--heck, we only gave them secondary attention throughout the whole war!), Italy (sorry, Penny, but Italy has never had a world-class military), Finland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic States. A pretty lame group. The Allies had more men, more industrial capacity, a bigger army, and a soon-to-be bigger navy than the Axis powers combined.
France was not an ally, the Vichy government of France aligned with its German occupiers. Germany was not an ally, it was an enemy, and Hitler intended to set up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, it was intent on owning and controlling all of Asia. Japan and Germany had long-term ideas of invading Canada and Mexico, and then the United States over the north and south borders, after they had settled control of Asia and Europe.
Uh huh. As had we, for the first 100 years of our existence. So what?
America's allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia, and that was about it.
Jesus Christ, man, what more did you want? See above.
There were no other countries of any size or military significance with the will and ability to contribute much or anything to the effort to defeat Hitler's Germany and Japan, and prevent the global dominance of Nazism.
Clearly, we didn't need any more, did we?
And we had to send millions of tons of arms, munitions, and war supplies to Russia, England, and the Canadians, Aussies, Irish, and Scots, because NONE of them could produce all they needed for themselves. And we were well able to do so. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy, except Russia in the east,
And Great Britain, Sweden, and Switzerland. But who's really counting?
was already under the Nazi heel. America was not prepared for war. America had stood down most of its military after WWI and throughout the depression, at the outbreak of WWII there were army units training with broomsticks over their shoulders because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted on the doors because they didn't have tanks. And a big chunk of our navy had just been sunk and damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Wrong! No carriers (which were the main warships of WW2) were even there to be sunk, and all but 3 of the attacked ships were raised, repaired, and refitted by the end of the war, some as soon as February.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England that was the property of Belgium and was given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler - actually, Belgium surrendered one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day anyway just to prove they could. Britain had been holding out for two years already in the face of staggering shipping loses
Wrong. The Battle of the Atlantic was, at the very best for Germany, a draw for the first couple years. Unrestricted submarine warfare was not really effective until after the US entered (1942 was the best year for the Nazi subs), and after convoy tactics were adopted in 1942-3, the tide turned drastically against the Germans. (Source here.
and the near-decimation of its air force in the Battle of Britain,
Wrong. The Battle of Britain was a failure for the Germans, as they lost over 2 1/2 times as many aircraft as the British. Why else did they not invade? The Luftwaffe was supposed to destroy the British will to fight after destroying their shipbuilding and airplane making capacity, and they succeeded in doing neither. They then turned their attentions eastward in June 1941. "Their finest hour", remember?
To be continued . . .
A California Lawyer's Perspective on Iraq War:
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat, and had sunk more than four hundred British ships in their convoys between England and America for food and war materials. Bushido Japan had overrun most of Asia, beginning in 1928, killing millions of civilians throughout China, and impressing millions more as slave labor.
1928? You might want to invest in a simple encyclopedia. Or read a book. Japan invaded China in 1931. (Manchuria, to be specific. Sources aplenty, try here and here.
The US was in an isolationist, pacifist, mood, and most Americans and Congress wanted nothing to do with the European war, or the Asian war. Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, which had not attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.
Yeah, except for a very large, and very wrathful Soviet Union. Not to mention Great Britain. Germany, on the other hand, had Japan (little army to speak of at all, for the most part, and a navy we crippled within 8 months of Pearl harbor [at Midway]--heck, we only gave them secondary attention throughout the whole war!), Italy (sorry, Penny, but Italy has never had a world-class military), Finland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic States. A pretty lame group. The Allies had more men, more industrial capacity, a bigger army, and a soon-to-be bigger navy than the Axis powers combined.
France was not an ally, the Vichy government of France aligned with its German occupiers. Germany was not an ally, it was an enemy, and Hitler intended to set up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, it was intent on owning and controlling all of Asia. Japan and Germany had long-term ideas of invading Canada and Mexico, and then the United States over the north and south borders, after they had settled control of Asia and Europe.
Uh huh. As had we, for the first 100 years of our existence. So what?
America's allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia, and that was about it.
Jesus Christ, man, what more did you want? See above.
There were no other countries of any size or military significance with the will and ability to contribute much or anything to the effort to defeat Hitler's Germany and Japan, and prevent the global dominance of Nazism.
Clearly, we didn't need any more, did we?
And we had to send millions of tons of arms, munitions, and war supplies to Russia, England, and the Canadians, Aussies, Irish, and Scots, because NONE of them could produce all they needed for themselves. And we were well able to do so. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy, except Russia in the east,
And Great Britain, Sweden, and Switzerland. But who's really counting?
was already under the Nazi heel. America was not prepared for war. America had stood down most of its military after WWI and throughout the depression, at the outbreak of WWII there were army units training with broomsticks over their shoulders because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted on the doors because they didn't have tanks. And a big chunk of our navy had just been sunk and damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Wrong! No carriers (which were the main warships of WW2) were even there to be sunk, and all but 3 of the attacked ships were raised, repaired, and refitted by the end of the war, some as soon as February.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England that was the property of Belgium and was given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler - actually, Belgium surrendered one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day anyway just to prove they could. Britain had been holding out for two years already in the face of staggering shipping loses
Wrong. The Battle of the Atlantic was, at the very best for Germany, a draw for the first couple years. Unrestricted submarine warfare was not really effective until after the US entered (1942 was the best year for the Nazi subs), and after convoy tactics were adopted in 1942-3, the tide turned drastically against the Germans. (Source here.
and the near-decimation of its air force in the Battle of Britain,
Wrong. The Battle of Britain was a failure for the Germans, as they lost over 2 1/2 times as many aircraft as the British. Why else did they not invade? The Luftwaffe was supposed to destroy the British will to fight after destroying their shipbuilding and airplane making capacity, and they succeeded in doing neither. They then turned their attentions eastward in June 1941. "Their finest hour", remember?
To be continued . . .
posted by bryduck at 3:24 PM
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