Did the United States unilaterally win World War II?

Only 35 allies?

Published on October 2, 2004 By messybuu In Politics

So, I'm on IRC, and people are having the bot spout out tons of definitions. So, Dancinghobo has it define "world war ii" and the bot lists all the members of the Allies and all the members of the Axis. I notice something immediately: there aren't many allies! Only 35 other countries supported the United States in the war on Hitler! Not even major players such as Germany, Italy, and Japan supported the war! Compare that to the 49 other countries that supported the US in the invasion of Iraq, which do include Italy and Japan!

I don't know about you, but I'm furious with how the United States decided to take matters into its own hands and single-handedly stop Hitler from taking over the world. Not only was Hitler not an immediate threat to America, but there also was no evidence of concentration camps in Germany (and if there were, they were in such small numbers that they were insignificant). Besides, there were many other countries capable of more damage than Germany. Hell, the US had the atomic bomb!

What's even worse is that the United States had the gall to team up with the Soviet Union to stop Hussein, even though Stalin was "supposedly a bad guy." That move really bit us in the ass, eh? We should have been going to war with the Soviet Union at the same time we unilaterally fought Hitler and the Nazis.

It's a shame that America has not learned from its past mistake. Thank God, Johnny Depp and I live in France, the greatest place on Earth.

Comments (Page 1)

Master of the Obvious

on Oct 02, 2004

We are such a terrible nation arn't we? actually trying to fight aginst people who attacked us and slaughterd thouands of innocent civilians. We should have waited for 1134 UN mandates before we should go it alone.

oligarchy314

on Oct 02, 2004

If it was up to Kerry, Saddam would be planning an attack against Kuwait right now and possibly selling nuclear and biological weapon technology....why in the heck doesn't the American public wake up and understand that Kerry is a man that admits to burning down villages and has no place as president?

Master of the Obvious

on Oct 02, 2004

Well I blame the media, They show only bad which leads people to think nothing is happening and thousands of people are dying for no cause. The media only shows the bad and never the good because that is what sells and now people think thats all there is.

cactoblasta

on Oct 02, 2004

Kerry is a man that admits to burning down villages

Would you rather he didn't admit committing war crimes? That's a weird stance for someone to have - if you do something bad, keep it quiet. What kind of lesson would that teach the kiddies?

I think your point anyway Myrmander is a bit irrelevent - the US was a latecomer to WWII, not an original combatant, and Iraq was neither to a threat to either a) the naval supremacy of England or

the territorial possessions of its closest neighbour. In addition Germany had considerable support amongst many Americans throughout the war; Iraq had very little direct support.

Draginol

on Oct 02, 2004

I would rather that Kerry hadn't commited the war crimes at all.

messybuu

on Oct 02, 2004

I think your point anyway Myrmander is a bit irrelevent - the US was a latecomer to WWII, not an original combatant, and Iraq was neither to a threat to either a) the naval supremacy of England or

the territorial possessions of its closest neighbour. In addition Germany had considerable support amongst many Americans throughout the war; Iraq had very little direct support.

I never realized that the US' purpose was to act in the interest of England's naval supremacy.

I would rather that Kerry hadn't commited the war crimes at all.

Indeed. If I have to choose between somebody who avoided being sent to Vietnam and somebody who valiantly fought against innocent Vietnamese villagers, I'd choose the former.

Jamie Burnside

on Oct 02, 2004

I don't think that the irony works here. Nice try though.

By the way: Russia had more to do with winning World War II (in Europe) anyway.

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 02, 2004

By the way: Russia had more to do with winning World War II (in Europe) anyway.

Hahahahahahahaha, oh hahahhahaahahaha. The Crack troops and Panzer divisions were used on Russia (sure), I think you mean the land after all more German Troops were lost in the Russian Winter and Vehicles lost in the Russian Seasons, it was a mistake of Napoleon Proportions.

Speaking of Russia during WWII, well let's see hmmm, the motto that Stalin enforced 'Not One Step Back' which means Commissars shot on site anybody who took one step back, not to mention when they began one soldier got the rifle, and one soldier got the clip, they did portray this very well in that Call of Duty Game. Look at the number of Russian casualties during World War 2. Russia was able to turn the tide after Normandy because Hittie boy was sending his best against the Americans and Brits to sweep them from the land so he could deal with Russia, alas it did not work.

Plus I never heard of the Nazis SF and Airborne guys being deployed in Russia, they were deployed in Europe in France, and other parts.

- GX

messybuu

on Oct 02, 2004

I don't think that the irony works here. Nice try though.

Some of it is stretching, but that does not change the fact that the United States fought the war unilaterally as defined by anti-war in Iraq people who say that the United States going into Iraq with the support of only 49 other nations is unilateral.

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 02, 2004

Hell what I think they mean by unilateral is that when we go to war EVERY freakin' country on Earth is on our side with only one country not being on our side, the opponent. Seriously if two or more major powers get involved with the support of several lesser powers that is being unilateral or is it bilateral, how about we trilateral the trifecta.

- GX

sandy2

on Oct 02, 2004

More russians died in World War II than americans. More russians fought in world war II than Americans. Since the war was against Italy, Germany and Japan, how can you say that they weren't involved? They had more than 20,000,000 personel in the war. China and poland had almost 5,000,000 personel in the war. The united states was not the largest, not the first, not the leading ally in the war. Stop being stupid, admit that Iraq was wrong and the US is responsible, and If you don't want to even admit that the USA was not unilaterily in WWII, then shove a sock in it.

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 02, 2004

Don't talk to me of Russian involvement during World War 2, I have read up on it, and all I am talking about is World War 2. Russia lost many of those troops not to German fire but to Commissar Fire (actually being shot by Commissars or ill-equipped = no rifle, no proper clothing, etc.), and most of big losses in the Russian Theatre took place when Germany first invaded. Seriously not many children in Russia have Grandfathers who fought in World War 2. Do you equate killing of almost an entire generation of men as being a serious contribution to a war?

Patton said 'Don't die for your country, make the other die for his.' and that is the truth, if you die off who will be left to fight? Russia was able to push back the Germans because of Russian Weather and German troops from the east or German troops who were going to be sent to the East were sent to the West to stop the Americans, Canadians, British, etc.

I could give a rat's ass less about Iraq now, let the two sides hash it over and come up with a decision: my war is over thanks to some Army Docs.

- GX, un-proud member of ENGSOC

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 02, 2004

Hell since I mentioned Patton is only fair to give the son of a goddamned bitch space for his speech:

The Famous Patton Speech...General Patton's Address to the Troops ...

Anyone who has ever viewed the motion picture "Patton" will never forget its beginning. It's most representative of Gen Patton, but not completely true. George Campbell Scott, portraying Patton, standing in front of an immensely huge American flag, delivers his version of Patton's "Speech to the Third Army" on June 5th, 1944, the eve of the Allied invasion of France, code-named "Overlord".

Scott's rendition of the speech was highly sanitized so as not to offend too many faint-hearted Americans. Luckily, the soldiers of USArmy who fought during World War II were not so faint-hearted. After one of my lectures on General Patton, I spoke with a retired Major General who was a close friend of Patton, and who had been stationed with him in the 1930's, in the Cavalry. He explained the movie was a very good portrayal of Patton, in that it was the way he wanted his men and the public to view him ... as a rugged, colorful, commander. There was one exception, however, according to the Major General. In reality, Patton was a much more profane speaker than the movie dared to exhibit. Patton had a unique ability regarding profanity. During a normal conversation, he could, liberally, sprinkle four-letter words into what he was saying, and the listeners would hardly take notice of it. He spoke so easily and used those words in such a way that it just seemed natural for him to talk that way. He could, when necessary, open up with both barrels and let forth such blue-flamed phrases that they seemed almost eloquent in their delivery. When asked by his nephew about his profanity, Patton remarked, "When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight it's way out of a piss-soaked paper bag." "As for the types of comments I make," he continued with a wry smile, "sometimes, I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence."

When I appeared on a local San Diego television show to discuss my Patton Collection, a viewer living in a suburb of San Diego, was very interested for personal reasons. Her husband had been a lieutenant assigned to General Patton's Third Army Headquarters, code-named "Lucky Forward" and he had known General Patton quite well. He had recently died and left, to his wife, a box he brought home with him from the European Theatre of Operations. The lady invited me into her home to inspect the box to see if there was anything which might be useful to me in my search for "collectibles". Inside was one of only a couple hundred copies printed of the Official USA Third Army After-Action Reports. It is a huge two volume history of the Third Army throughout their 281 days of combat in Europe. She said that she had no use for it and that I could have it. I left with my new treasure. When I arrived at my office and removed the foot-thick, oversized books from the box, I had an even greater surprise. Under the reports, lay a small stack of original Third Army memos, orders, and a carbon copy of the original speech which had been typed by some unknown clerk at Lucky Forward and had been widely distributed throughout Third Army.

A few years earlier, I had discovered an almost illegible xerox of a carbon copy of a similar speech. This one came from the Army War College and was donated to their Historical Library Section in 1957. I decided to do some research on the speech to obtain the best one possible, and to make an attempt to locate the identity of the "unknown soldier" who had clandestinely typed and distributed the famous document. I began by looking in my collection of old magazines, newspapers and books which have been written about Patton since his death, and dozens of other books which had references to Patton and his speech.

I discovered some interesting facts. The most interesting probably being that George C. Scott was not the first actor to perform the speech. In 1951, the New American Mercury Magazine had printed a version of the speech which was almost exactly the same version printed by John O'Donnell in his "Capitol Stuff" column for the New York Daily News on May 31, 1945. According to the editors of the New American Mercury, their copy was obtained from Congressman Joseph Clark Baldwin who had returned from a visit to Patton's Headquarters in Czechoslovakia. After publication, the magazine received such a large reader response asking for reprints of the speech that the editors decided to go one step further. They hired a "famous" actor to make an "unexpurgated" recording of the Patton speech. This recording was to be made available to veterans of Third Army and anyone else who would like to have one. The term "famous" was the only reference made by the editors about the actor who recorded the speech. In a later column they explained, "We hired an excellent actor whose voice, on records, is almost indistinguishable from Patton's, and with RCA's best equipment we made two recordings; one just as Patton delivered it, with all the pungent language of a cavalryman, and in the other we toned down a few of the more offensive words. Our plan was to offer our readers, at cost, either recording." Unfortunately, a few years ago, there was a fire in the editorial offices of the magazine which destroyed almost all of their old records. The name of the actor was lost in that accident. Only one master recording of the speech was made. The magazine Editors, not wanting to offend either Mrs. Patton or her family, asked for her sanction of the project. The Editors explained the situation thusly, "While we had only the master recordings, we submitted them to our friend, Mrs. Patton, and asked her to approve our plan. It was not a commercial venture and no profits were involved. We just wanted to preserve what, to us, seems a worthwhile bit of memorabilia of the Second World War. Our attorneys advised us that legally we did not need Mrs. Patton's approval, but we wanted it."

"Mrs. Patton considered the matter graciously and thoroughly, and gave us a disappointing decision. She took the position his speeches were made by the General only to the men who were going to fight and die with him; it was, therefore, not a speech for the public or for posterity."

"We think Mrs. Patton is wrong; we think what is great and worth preserving about General Patton was expressed in that invasion speech. The fact he employed four-letter words was proper; four-letter words are the language of war; without them wars would be quite impossible." When Mrs. Patton's approval was not forthcoming, the entire project was then scrapped, and the master recordings were destroyed.

Patton always knew exactly what he wanted to say to his soldiers, and he never needed notes. He always spoke to his troops extemporaneously. As a general rule of thumb, it is safe to say Patton usually told his men some of his basic thoughts and concepts regarding his ideas of war and tactics. Instead of the empty, generalized rhetoric of no substance often used by Eisenhower, Patton spoke to his men in simple, down-to-earth language they understood. He told them truthful lessons he had learned which would keep them alive.

As he traveled throughout battle areas, he always took time to speak to individual soldiers, squads, platoons, companies, regiments, divisions or whichever size group could be assembled. About the only differences in the context of these talks were the smaller the unit, the more "tactical" the talk. Often, he would just give his men some sound, common-sense advice they could follow in order to keep from being killed or maimed. The speech which follows is a third person narrative. From innumerable sources; magazine articles, newspaper clippings, motion picture biographies, newsreels and books, I have assembled the most complete version possible, encompassing the material available, to date.

The big camp buzzed with a tension. For hundreds of eager rookies, newly arrived from the states, it was a great day in their lives. This day marked their first taste of the "real thing". Now they were not merely puppets in brown uniforms. They were not going through the motions of soldiering with three thousand miles of ocean between them and English soil. They were actually in the heart of England itself.

They were waiting for the arrival of that legendary figure, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr. Old "Blood and Guts" himself, about whom many a colorful chapter would be written for the school boys of tomorrow. Patton of the brisk, purposeful stride. Patton of the harsh, compelling voice, the lurid vocabulary, the grim and indomitable spirit that carried him and his Army to glory in Africa and Sicily. They called him "America's Fightingest General". He was no desk commando. He was the man who was sent for when the going got rough and a fighter was needed. He was the most hated and feared American of all on the part of the German Army.

Patton was coming and the stage was being set. He would address a move which might have a far reaching effect on the global war that, at the moment, was a TOP-SECRET in the files in Washington, D.C. The men saw the camp turn out "en masse" for the first time and in full uniform, too. Today their marching was not lackadaisical. It was serious and the men felt the difference. From the lieutenants in charge of the companies on down in rank they felt the difference.

In long columns they marched down the hill from the barracks. They counted cadence while marching. They turned off to the left, up the rise and so on down into the roped off field where the General was to speak. Gold braid and stripes were everywhere.

Soon, company by company, the hillside was a solid mass of brown. It was a beautiful fresh English morning. The tall trees lined the road and swayed gently in the breeze. Across the field, a British farmer calmly tilled his soil. High upon a nearby hill a group of British soldiers huddled together, waiting for the coming of the General. Military Police were everywhere wearing their white leggings, belts, and helmets. They were brisk and grim. The twittering of the birds in the trees could be heard above the dull murmur of the crowd and soft, white clouds floated lazily overhead as the men settled themselves and lit cigarettes.

On the special platform near the speakers stand, Colonels and Majors were a dime a dozen. Behind the platform stood General Patton's "Guard of Honor"; all specially chosen men. At their right was a band playing rousing marches while the crowd waited and on the platform a nervous sergeant repeatedly tested the loudspeaker. The moment grew near and the necks began to crane to view the tiny winding road that led to Stourport-on-Severn. A captain stepped to the microphone. "When the General arrives," he said sonorously, "the band will play the Generals March and you will all stand at attention."

By now the rumor had gotten around that Lieutenant General Simpson, Commanding General of the Fourth Army, was to be with General Patton. The men stirred expectantly. Two of the big boys in one day!

At last, the long black car, shining resplendently in the bright sun, roared up the road, preceded by a jeep full of Military Police. A dead hush fell over the hillside. There he was! Impeccably dressed. With knee high, brown, gleaming boots, shiny helmet, and his Colt .45 Peacemaker swinging in its holster on his right side. Patton strode down the incline and then straight to the stiff backed "Guard of Honor". He looked them up and down. He peered intently into their faces and surveyed their backs. He moved through the ranks of the statuesque band like an avenging wraith and, apparently satisfied, mounted the platform with Lieutenant General Simpson and Major General Cook, the Corps Commander, at his side. Major General Cook then introduced Lieutenant General Simpson, whose Army was still in America, preparing for their part in the war.

"We are here", said General Simpson, "to listen to the words of a great man. A man who will lead you all into whatever you may face with heroism, ability, and foresight. A man who has proven himself amid shot and shell. My greatest hope is that some day soon, I will have my own Army fighting with his, side by side."

General Patton arose and strode swiftly to the microphone. The men snapped to their feet and stood silently. Patton surveyed the sea of brown with a grim look. "Be seated", he said. The words were not a request, but a command. The General's voice rose high and clear. "Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out
of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones.

Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

The General paused and looked over the crowd. "You are not all going to die," he said slowly. "Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared.

Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent
competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen."

"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!" The men roared in agreement. Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job".

He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did".

The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!"

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn't let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

"We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world", Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, "Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do".

The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the "Old Man's" choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army's history and they would become the bible of their slang.

"My men don't surrender", Patton continued, "I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"

Patton stopped and the crowd waited.

He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling.

The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable."

The General paused and stared challengingly over the silent ocean of men. One could have heard a pin drop anywhere on that vast hillside. The only sound was the stirring of the breeze in the leaves of the bordering trees and the busy chirping of the birds in the branches of the trees at the General's left.

"Don't forget," Patton barked, "you men don't know that I'm here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Some day I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, 'Jesus Christ, it's the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton'." "We want to get the hell over there", Patton continued, "The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit."

The men roared approval and cheered delightedly. This statement had real significance behind it. Much more than met the eye and the men instinctively sensed the fact. They knew that they themselves were going to play a very great part in the making of world history. They were being told as much right now. Deep sincerity and seriousness lay behind the General's colorful words. The men knew and understood it. They loved the way he put it, too, as only he could.

Patton continued quietly, "Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin", he yelled, "I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!" "When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!" "I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position." We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!"

"From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that." The General paused. His eagle like eyes swept over the hillside. He said with pride, "There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

Hooah

Link to Source.

Definition of Hooah

hooah (hoo ah) adj., adv., n., v., conj., interj., excla. [Orig. unknown] Slang. 1. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except "no". 2. What to say when at a loss for words. 3.a. Good copy. b. Roger. c. Solid copy. d. Good. e. Great. f. Message received. g. Understood. h. Acknowledged. 4.a. Glad to meet you. b. Welcome. 5. "All right!" 6.a. I don't know the answer, but I'll check on it. b. I haven't the foggiest idea. 7. I am not listening. 8. "That is enough of your drivel; sit down!" 9. Yes. 10. "You've got to be kidding me!" 11. Thank you. 12. Go to the next slide. 13. You've taken the correct action. 14. I don't know what that means, but I'm too embarassed to ask for clarification. 15. Squared away (He's pretty hooah.) 16. Amen!

- GX

sandy2

on Oct 02, 2004

So the united states lost an entire generation of men? 292,000 American millitary forces died in world war II, compared with a total of more than 21,000,000.

In Iraq, 1059 American soldiers have lost their lives, compared with 137 other coalition soldiers. In world war II, the UK lost 357,000 troops, poland 320,000 and Chine more than a million, compared with the less than 300,000 american soldiers.

Grim Xiozan

on Oct 02, 2004

So the united states lost an entire generation of men?

You know I said Russia so many times that I don't know how you came up with US.

Oh I am sorry Stalin was such a great leader. BAH

From More or Less Link to source

Joseph Stalin
AKA 'Koba', AKA 'Uncle Joe'. Stalin translates to 'Man of Steel'.

Country: Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR - Soviet Union).

Kill tally: Approximately 20 million, including up to 14.5 million needlessly starved to death. At least one million executed for political "offences". At least 9.5 million more deported, exiled or imprisoned in work camps, with many of the estimated five million sent to the 'Gulag Archipelago' never returning alive. Other estimates place the number of deported at 28 million, including 18 million sent to the 'Gulag'.

Background: The vast Russian Empire is thrown into turmoil in March 1917 after Tsar Nicholas II abdicates and the imperial government is replaced by a left coalition. The Bolshevik faction, a network of communists headed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and inspired by the writings of Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, splits from the coalition then seizes government in a coup d'état staged on 7 November, the so-called 'Bolshevik Revolution'.

Civil war follows as the anticommunist 'White Army' battles the communist 'Red Army'. The communists finally secure government in 1921. The USSR, a union of the Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, and Transcaucasian republics, is established in December 1922. When Lenin dies in 1924, Communist Party leaders begin to jostle for the top position.

Mini biography: Born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili on 21 December 1879 in Gori, Georgia, in the then Russian Empire. He is the only child of a poor and struggling family. His father, a cobbler, dies when Stalin is 11.

1894 - Stalin and his mother move to Tiflis, where Stalin enrols at the Tiflis Theological Seminary and joins the Marxist underground in an empire racked by dissent and heading closer to revolution. Stalin becomes a leader of a clandestine Marxist group at the seminary, however when his revolutionary activities are discovered he is expelled.

He takes up work as first a tutor then a clerk, devoting his nights to revolutionary pursuits. In 1898 he joins the Russian Social Democratic Party.

1900 - Stalin organises labour demonstrations and strikes in the main industrial centres of the Caucasus (the region comprising Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia).

1903 - He joins the Bolsheviks and is repeatedly arrested and exiled for his revolutionary activities. In 1905 he serves as party organiser in Tiflis and as coeditor of the Tiflis-based 'Caucasian Workers' Newssheet'.

1905 - In December he acts as the delegate from the Caucasus to the first national conference of the Russian Social Democrats, in Tammerfors, Finland, where he meets Lenin for the first time. Stalin attends subsequent assemblies of the party at Stockholm in 1906 and London in 1907.

1912 - Lenin appoints him to the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party and as one of the leaders of the Bolshevik underground. Later, Lenin places him on the editorial board of 'Pravda', the Bolshevik's newspaper.

1913 - He changes his name to Stalin, which translates to 'Man of Steel'. During the year he is arrested and exiled to Siberia, where he remains until March 1917, when a general amnesty is proclaimed following the abdication of the Tsar.

1917 - On his return from exile he rejoins the editorial board of 'Pravda' and is elected to the party's Central Committee, helping Lenin to organise a meeting of Bolsheviks that approves an armed uprising. Following the 'Bolshevik Revolution' of 7 November, Stalin is made commissar (minister) of nationalities in the new communist administration.

1919 - Stalin is elected as a member of the Politburo, the inner circle of the Central Committee and foremost policy-making body in the Soviet Union. A further position as head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate gives him the power to investigate every official in the country.

1921 - He is placed in charge of the Communist Party bureau responsible for appointing and dismissing party members.

1922 - Stalin takes charge of the whole party administration when he is given the newly created post of general secretary of the Central Committee, a position that gives him control over party appointments and allows him to develop his power base. He will consolidate his influence further by spying on his colleagues, a tactic that will become a hallmark of his dictatorship.

When Lenin suffers a stroke in May, a troika (triumvirate) composed of Stalin, Lev B. Kamenev, and Grigorii V. Zinoviev assumes leadership of the party.

Lenin recovers late in year and reasserts control. He criticises the troika and Stalin in particular, accusing him of using coercion to force non-Russian republics to join the Soviet Union and saying he is "crude" and is accumulating too much power through his office of general secretary. Though Lenin recommends that Stalin be removed from the position, the party takes no action. Stalin remains as general secretary when Lenin dies on 21 January 1924.

1925 - Following Lenin's death the Kamenev-Zinoviev-Stalin troika again comes to prominence. Stalin consolidates his power base until he is able to break with Kamenev and Zinoviev. He has the city of Tsaritsin renamed Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and allows the development of a Stalin personality cult and propaganda campaign.

From 1926 to 1930, he progressively ousts his opponents on the Left and Right of the party, silencing debate about options for the development of communism and the USSR. By the end of the decade Stalin has emerged as the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. He is hailed by cultists as a "shining sun", "the staff of life", a "great teacher and friend", and the "hope of the future for the workers and peasants of the world".

1928 - Stalin introduces the first five year plan, the "revolution from above", to develop the USSR. "We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries," he says in 1931. "We must cover this distance in 10 years. Either we do this or they will crush us."

The state takes control of the economy, introducing a program of rapid industrialisation and agrarian consolidation and setting unrealistic goals for development.

Industry and commerce are nationalised. All social, political and regulatory power is centred on the state. Twenty five million peasant farmers are forced to collectivise their property and then work on the new state-controlled farms. Wealthy peasants (kulaks) and the uncooperative are arrested and either executed or deported to work camps in Siberia.

The collectivised farms are required to meet ever increasing production quotas, even if this results in starvation on the farm. In the Ukrainian Republic up to five million peasants starve to death in the "famine" of 1932-33 when the state refuses to divert food supplies allocated to industrial and military needs. About one million starve to death in the North Caucasus.

By 1937, the social upheaval caused by the "revolution from above" has resulted in the deaths of up to 14.5 million Soviet peasants.

1929 - The Politburo begins to discuss the expansion of the work camp system set up by Lenin following the Bolshevik Revolution. The system will come to be known as the 'Gulag Archipelago' or 'Gulag'. (Gulag is an acronym of 'Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei' - Russian for 'Main Camp Administration'.)

1932 - Although industry has failed to meet its production targets and agricultural output has dropped in comparison with 1928 yields, Stalin announces that the first five year plan has successfully met its goals in only four years. The second five year plan is introduced in 1933 and third in 1938.

On 8 November Stalin's second wife, Nadezhda (Nadya) Alliluyeva, commits suicide following an argument with Stalin during a party at the Kremlin.

Her suicide also reportedly comes after a group of students she is teaching are arrested for sedition after attempting to inform Stalin of the plight of the peasants.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva's suicide and the scathing personal note she leaves Stalin are believed to have had a shattering effect on him.

1934 - The Communist Party celebrates its economic achievements at the 'Congress of Victors'. While Stalin is lavishly praised for his leadership more than 100 of the 2,000 delegates to the congress cross out his name on a secret ballot for the Central Committee. Only three delegates cross out the name of the Leningrad party chief, Sergei Kirov.

Believing that a conspiracy is now afoot to unseat him and overthrow the socialist revolution, Stalin has Kirov assassinated in December then begins a series of purges of party members suspected of disloyalty. Thousands from the Leningrad party office are deported to work camps in Siberia. Few will return alive.

At show trials held in Moscow between 1936 and 1938 dozens of former party leaders are forced to confess to crimes against the Soviet state before being executed. Among those executed are Kamenev and Zinoviev, the former members of the troika that included Stalin. More than half of the delegates to the 'Congress of Victors' also disappear. By the end of 1938 almost every leading member of the original Bolsheviks has been executed.

The campaign of terror, flamed by the secret police (the NKVD, or People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs - the forerunner of the KGB), extends throughout the party and into the general community, including the military high command. Also targeted are scientists, artists, priests and intellectuals.

All told, about one million are executed, in that will come to be known as 'The Great Terror', 'The Great Purge', or the 'Yezhovshina' (after the head of the NKVD, Nikolai Yezhov). At least 9.5 million more are deported, exiled or imprisoned in work camps, with many of the estimated five million sent to the Gulag never returning alive. Other estimates place the number of deported at 28 million, including 18 million sent to the Gulag.

Stalin personally orders the trials of about 44,000 and signs thousands of death warrants. He also ends early release from work camps for good behaviour.

1937 - The purge of the Red Army begins. The purge results in the execution, imprisonment or dismissal of 36,671 officers, including about half of the 706 officers with the rank of brigade commander or higher. Three of the army's five marshals and 15 of its 16 top commanders are executed.

1939 - On 23 August Stalin signs a nonaggression pact with Germany's Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, carving up Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, with the USSR claiming Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, part of the Balkans and half of Poland.

Stalin quickly acts to secure the annexation of the Polish territory with mass arrests of soldiers and others who might resist. By 1945, about 550,000 have been imprisoned or deported. More than 20,000 Polish officers, soldiers, border guards, police, and other officials are executed, including 4,500 military personnel who are buried in mass graves in the Katyn Forest near the Russian city of Smolensk.

German troops invade Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. The Second World War has begun.

Stalin acts to secure the USSR's western frontier without antagonising Hitler. Soviet forces seize eastern Poland in September, enter Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in October, and take territory in Romania in June 1940. Territory in Finland is incorporated in March 1940.

Stalin is named 'Time' magazine's man of the year for 1939 for switching the balance of power in Europe by signing the nonaggression pact with Hitler, a decision that is described as "world-shattering". "Without the Russian pact," the magazine says, "German generals would certainly have been loath to go into military action. With it, World War II began."

In December 1939, to celebrate his 60th birthday, he is awarded the Order of Lenin and given the title 'Hero of Socialist Labour'.

1941 - Sensing that Germany will soon attack the USSR, Stalin appoints himself as head of the government. Japan and the Soviet Union sign the 'Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact' in April, removing the threat to the Soviets of invasion by Japan and allowing the Soviet military to concentrate on the German forces mounting in the west.

When Germany invades on 22 June, Stalin takes command of the Soviet forces, appointing himself commissar of defence and supreme commander of the Soviet Armed Forces.

The Germans advance swiftly but are halted on 6 December by a Russian counteroffensive just short of Moscow, where Stalin directs the Soviet campaign from his rooms in the Kremlin. His armies fight under the slogan 'Die, But Do Not Retreat'.

To the north, the Germans reach Leningrad in August. The city is surrounded on 8 September, beginning a 900-day siege during which almost 1.5 million civilians and soldiers will die.

In order to encourage military aid from the Western Allies, Stalin agrees to release about 115,000 of the Poles imprisoned after the 1939 annexation.

1942 - In 'The Declaration of the United Nations' of 1 January the Allies agree not to make a separate peace with the enemy and pledge themselves to the formation of a peacekeeping organisation (now the United Nations - UN) on victory.

An accord between the British and the Soviets is accepted in May. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's plan for a "grand alliance" between his country, the USSR and the United States is now a reality. Stalin is again named 'Time' magazine's man of the year, this time for stopping Hitler and opening the possibility of an Allied victory in Europe.

The military turning point of the war in Europe comes with the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43. Soviet troops are ordered to take "not one step backwards". Front line forces are flanked by second lines under orders to shoot down any soldier who tries to flee. When the German forces laying siege to the city are encircled and trapped by a Soviet counteroffensive Hitler refuses to allow them to attempt an escape. They surrender on 2 February 1943.

Almost 500,000 Red Army troops have died during the Stalingrad campaign. A further 600,000 have been wounded. The German Sixth Army has been effectively destroyed in what is at the time the most catastrophic military defeat in German history. Over 500,000 of the German-led troops are dead.

Meanwhile, conditions in the work camps of the Gulag Archipelago steadily deteriorate over the course of the war, with well over two million people dying. Camps go for weeks on end without receiving any supplies. In the winter of 1942-1943 alone about a quarter of the Gulag prisoners die from starvation.

1943 - The Western Allies take Africa at the start of the year, land in Sicily and Italy, and prepare for the 'D-Day' landings on the Normandy beaches in France on 6 June 1944 and the invasion of Germany six months later.

Stalin meets with Churchill and US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Tehran, the capital of Iran, from 28 November to 1 December. The three leaders discuss the details of their joint campaign against Hitler and reaffirm their joint policy of accepting nothing less than an unconditional surrender from Germany.

By the end of the year, the Red Army has broken through the German siege of Leningrad and recaptured much of the Ukrainian Republic. By the middle of 1944 the Red Army is approaching Warsaw, the capital of Poland, but stop short when noncommunist resistance forces launch a rebellion against the German garrisons in the city.

The ensuing route of the resistance forces by the Germans clears the path for the ascendancy of the Soviet-sponsored Polish Committee of National Liberation (Lublin Committee). The decision to halt the Soviet forces outside of Warsaw is seen as a deliberate tactic by Stalin to smash the noncommunist Poles. The Lublin Committee is recognised by the Soviets as the government of Poland in January 1945, beginning 48-year period of communist rule.

1945 - From February 4-11, Stalin again meets with Churchill and Roosevelt. The conference, held near Yalta in the Crimea, in Ukraine, concludes with the issuing of the 'Yalta Declaration' committing the Allies to the destruction of German militarism and Nazism.

A conquered Germany will be divided into three zones of occupation and eastern Poland will be ceded to the Soviets. The declaration also announces that a "conference of United Nations" will be held in San Francisco in April.

In March, as the Western forces reach the Rhine River, Soviet armies overrun most of Czechoslovakia and press on toward Berlin. The Soviets march under the slogan, "There will be no pity. They have sown the wind and now they are harvesting the whirlwind."

Few are spared. As the Soviets move through Germany they rape at least two million German women in an undisciplined campaign that is now acknowledged as the largest case of mass rape in history.

By April an Allied victory in Europe is certain. Berlin falls to the Soviet forces on 2 May. On 7 May Germany surrenders unconditionally.

Over 46 million Europeans have died as a result of the war, including:

Over 26 million Soviets,
Over seven million Germans,
About 6.8 million Poles,
About 1.7 Yugoslavs,
985,000 Romanians,
810,000 French,
750,000 Hungarians,
525,000 Austrians,
520,000 Greeks,
410,000 Italians,
400,000 Czechs,
388,000 British,
250,000 Dutch,
88,000 Belgians,
84,000 Fins,
22,000 Spaniards,
21,000 Bulgarians,
10,000 Norwegians, and
4,000 Danes.
Nearly 18 million of the 26 million Soviets killed are civilians.

Following the war Stalin tightens the reins of power. Soviet citizens repatriated from wartime detention in foreign prisons and work camps are deemed by Stalin to be traitors and are executed or deported to Soviet prison camps. Stalin even disowns his own son, who had been captured towards the end of the war.

Freedoms granted during the war to the church and collective farmers are revoked. The Communist Party tightens its admission standards and purges many who had joined during the war.

Eastern European countries occupied by the Soviets are turned into "satellite states" governed by "puppet" communist regimes. The 'Iron Curtain' falls across Europe and a 'Cold War' develops between the USSR and the West.

1948 - The Soviets cut off land access to Allied-occupied West Berlin in June. After the blockade is lifted in May 1949, Germany is partitioned.

1949 - Another wave of Stalinist purges sweeps the Soviet Union. On Stalin's 70th birthday most the Leningrad party organisation, including their parents, wives and children, are secretly arrested in what will become known as the 'Leningrad Affair'.

Believing their experience of independence during the German siege of the city is a threat, Stalin forces the city leaders to confess to treason. After a quick trial they are shot.

1950 - In April Stalin agrees to a plan by the Soviet-backed leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, to force a reunification with South Korea through a preemptive invasion. The Korean War begins on 25 June. It will last for three years and cost about three million lives but ends with no definitive outcome.

1953 - In February Stalin orders the construction of four giant prison camps in Kazakhstan, Siberia and the Arctic north, apparently in preparation for new terror campaign, this time directed against Soviet Jews. However, the plan will never be put into action.

Stalin is pronounced dead at 9.50 pm on 5 March, after collapsing four days earlier at his country house outside Moscow. The cause of death is declared to be a cerebral haemorrhage, although some mystery surrounds the actual circumstances and it is rumoured that he was poisoned to stop him from starting a nuclear war with the US.

Thousands of people from across the USSR flock to Moscow to view his body as it lies in state, culminating in a stampede that kills hundreds rushing to pay their last respects.

Following his funeral, Stalin's embalmed body is laid to rest in the Lenin mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow, beside the body of Lenin, which is also preserved.

1956 - Stalin and his policies are denounced by Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the Communist Party, in a "secret speech" at the 20th party congress in February.

1961 - Khrushchev orders that Stalin's body be removed from the Lenin mausoleum and buried nearby, alongside the Kremlin wall.

Present-day - According to Memorial, Russia's leading human rights organisation, official records prove that during Stalin's reign at least one million people were executed for political offences, and at least 9.5 million more were deported, exiled or imprisoned in work camps. Other estimates place the number of deported at 28 million, including 18 million sent to the Gulag.

However, a poll conducted by Russia's Public Opinion Foundation in February 2003, finds that more than half of all Russians surveyed view Stalin with ambivalence or as a positive force, with 36% saying he "did more good than bad for the country". Only 29% believe the opposite.

Another poll conducted by the All-Russia Centre for the Study of Public Opinion finds that of the 1,600 surveyed 53% believe that Stalin's role in Russian history was "absolutely positive" or "more positive than negative". Just 33% think that his role was "absolutely negative" or "more negative than positive". While 27% describe Stalin as a cruel and inhumane tyrant, 20% say he was wise and humane. Sixteen percent predict that another Stalin will come to power in Russia.

On 24 March 2004 Memorial releases a list naming 1,345,796 victims of Stalin's purges, including the 44,000 sent to trial on the former dictator's personal orders.

"This list is intended to help people search for their relatives who suffered repression," says the chairman of Memorial, Arseny Roginsky. "But it is also a warning to the society and the authorities about what happens in a country where power is unchecked by the society."

Comment: The name Stalin conjures an image of 'Big Brother' - a cold, calculating yet ultimately paranoid tyrant never seen but seeing everything in an Orwellian world of terror and betrayal. A gross oversimplification, to be sure, but with its roots in the reality of the Man of Steel's shadowy life and times.

By his own admission, "rough" and uncultivated, and with a troubled personal life, Stalin set a benchmark for the ruthless pursuit of social engineering. He was the 'Engineer of Human Souls' in the bleak and callous Europe portrayed in the book of the same name by Czech writer Josef Skvorecky. Others have attempted to follow Stalin's lead - Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania; Pol Pot in Cambodia - but none have had his "success".

Hmmm so many Russian civilians died, how much do civilians contribute to a battle?

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