Stalin was a thoroughly despicable man, no doubt. The Russians think they did the job perhaps because they paid the heaviest price. http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/world-war-2-statistics.asp I am aware of that travesty of justice that occurred when the Japanese Americans were interned. In war there really are no winners, only varying degrees of losers, but old men start wars and send young men to die so they need them to believe they are dying for a noble cause. Standing up to the likes of Hitler was a noble cause. Going to war over some crappy little islands in East Asia is not, never mind how much oil and gas you have there. Oldtime referred to an Eisenhower quote. I have three Eisenhower quotes that are relevant to this discussion; Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing.
Similarly, many Chinese hold Mao in high regard despite his administration overseeing systematic human rights abuses...whose rule is estimated to have caused the deaths of between 40â70 million people through starvation and executions.
But you never heard them say much about the war and the Japanese, other than occasionally recounting the horrors they went through. This was what I said about my parents. Are Americans permitted to use 'them' and 'they' in this way, or is it no longer allowed?
oldtime has a unusual way of conversing with others.. Best to ignore the posts you find insulting on ET or else you'll waste a lot of time.
Yes. According to Rudy Rummel:- " The total for the communist democide before and after Mao took over the mainland is thus 3,446,000 + 35,226,000 + 38,000,000 = 76,692,000, or to round off, 77,000,000 murdered. This is now in line with the 65 million toll estimated for China in the Black Book of Communism, and Chang and Hallidayâs estimate of 'well over 70 million.' " http://democraticpeace.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/getting-my-reestimate-of-maos-democide-out/ http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE2.HTM
and we all knew about it it was published in all the papers at the time and we didn't do a damn thing about it because we all just figured, "That's the way they do it in China."
You assume we have a choice, the choice is not ours to make. Economic issues eventually turn into War. We have been putting ourselves in a position to bring about another major war by selling our long term future for short term gains. We do not have enough jobs for the surplus population in the US, surplused because we exported our work to foreign countries. We are exporting debt and importing goods and services. Our deficit keeps growing, our youth are saddled with debt just to get a work permit (College degree) and if they are lucky the get a job that pays poorly and the rest they have to borrow to make up the difference. We are taking an unsustainable path, eventually such paths lead to war and a great painful reset. History speaks for itself.