I wonder if the person (Brad Cabana) who wrote the essay below is aware of the
"Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact", a non-agression pact between Germany and the Soviet
Union? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact My
understanding is that this agreement allowed (and was intended to allow)
Germany to attack the Western European countries without fear of Russian
attack, and it did so. The only thing which ended that agreement was the
attack by Germany on Russia in 1941. The essay claims, "Hitler would have
crushed Britain in short order if he had not diverted millions of German men to
the invasion of the Soviet Union." But apparently the only reason Germany
attacked Russia was because of its inability to invade England, and there is
absolutely no reason to believe that Russia would have attacked Germany absent
Germany's prior attack on Russia. So what was Brad Cabana smoking?Should we be
sympathetic to the Soviets in this matter? There's an old joke about a kid who
kills his parents, and throws himself on the mercy of the judge, claiming "But
I'm an orphan!!!".
The essay, below, selectively describes WHAT happened, but omits the WHY it
happened. Yes, there was a Soviet "sacrifice", but it was made necessary by
the actions of the Soviets themselves. Jim Bell
On Sunday, April 5, 2015 9:57 PM, Александр <[email protected]> wrote:
Brad Cabana
The West's Shame
There is something so bizarre, so inhumane about Western countries boycotting
the parade for the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Germany in World
War II that I just had to write on it. Recently, the prime minister of the
United Kingdom announced he will not be attending the parade. Previous to that,
countries like Germany and the United States had announced the same. It's only
a parade you say? No it's more than that.
The Soviet Union sacrificed 25 million people to defeat Nazi Germany in World
War II. A sacrifice beyond imagination, and far, far greater than all the
countries fighting Nazi Germany combined. In comparison, the Holocaust, which
is rightly remembered annually, claimed the lives of six million people of the
Jewish faith. These are really the two true tragedy's of World War II unleashed
on the world by Nazi Germany. The stories of Soviet soldiers advancing without
weapons to pickup the rifle of the next dead soldier are well known. The
bloodbath of Stalingrad, the siege of Leningrad, the millions of Soviet
soldiers killed and captured (only to then die in POW camps) during the early
days of the German invasion, and so on, all markers of the brutality of man
against his own, stand large in the history of the world. In fact, the German
invasion of the Soviet Union stands as the largest military battle in the
history of man.
Yet, western leaders have decided to not attend the parade that is meant to
honour that sacrifice. When Britain announced it would not attend, well, that's
the straw that broke the camel's back frankly. Of all the countries in the
world, Britain was saved by the massive waves of young Soviet men and woman
that bled the German army white. Hitler would have crushed Britain in short
order if he had not diverted millions of German men to the invasion of the
Soviet Union. Crucially, the diversion of aircraft, fighters and bombers, to
the Soviet front saved Britain from the entire annihilation of a full blown,
continuous air campaign, and the subsequent naval invasion that would certainly
have occurred. In reality, the western allies left Stalin almost alone in
Europe to battle the Nazi's, and take the majority of the casualties in doing
so. By the time D-Day finally arrived, the German army and air force was only a
shadow of it's former self as it existed in 1941. As bad and hard as it was for
the allies to march east through Europe to Berlin, without the Soviet people's
sacrifice, it would have never happened.
It's a place of honour in human history. To quarrel with that is to go beyond
ignorance. To quarrel with that is the hateful and arrogant bastion of the very
seeds that caused World War II in the first place. And now, as if history is
repeating itself, Western leaders have entered that bastion of ignorance and
arrogance to punish Russia for the Ukrainian civil war. By contrast, Russian
president Putin, despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, attended the 70th
anniversary of the D-Day landings in France last year. He was given the
proverbial cold shoulder by western leaders, yet he subjected himself to that,
in honour of the sacrifice of the men of Canada, Britain and the United States.
He did not ignore the history or the price in blood of that action. He honoured
it. He put the sacrifice ahead of his political position, and it could even be
said his personal shunning. Now that the time is here to do the same for the
Soviet Union's dead, we cannot bring ourselves to do the same.
What that says about us is really quite obvious. It means we haven't learned
the lessons of history. That our political leadership has become so petty, so
detached from historical reality, that it attempts to rewrite the history of 25
million souls. That is the danger of all of this. Russians don't really need
the West to honour their sacrifice. They know it all too well. It's the West
that needs to honour that sacrifice so it can clearly see the dangers of war on
a scale far more destructive than anything it experienced on the western front,
or anywhere else in history. Poland started this train rolling by refusing to
invite the Russian president to the Holocaust remembrance at Auschwitz last
year. This despite the fact that the Soviet army liberated all of Poland, and
specifically Auschwitz from German armies.
The actions of our western politicians say more about us than the Russians
could ever say themselves. They have portrayed us as people who refuse to
honour the dead, those that gave their lives in another time to defeat a tyrant
bent on world domination, and in doing so dishonour those men and women. As the
son of a young man, training in England, fighting in North Africa, Italy,
Holland, and Germany through those tumultuous years of war and senseless
slaughter, I recognize the Soviet sacrifice that probably saved my Dad's life.
How could you not? Yet, that is exactly what our politicians are doing today.
You don't have to be a lover of this country, or that country to recognize and
honour grave human injustice committed on a massive scale. You just have to be
humane, and subordinate your own bias in the remembrance of the fallen. Is that
really so hard? Isn't that what is expected of us all? Wouldn't we expect that
from our children? I've never been so ashamed of the actions of our governments
than I am now with the boycott of that parade in Moscow.
http://rocksolidpolitics.blogspot.ru/2015/03/the-wests-shame.html
