Yeah, I wouldn't buy into the fairy tale your interlocutor put out about how charitable the Soviets were in their intentions for Germany. A little naive. "The Tin Drum" I think pretty much describes the tenor of those times. Nonetheless, as I've always thought since childhood, the cause of the Allies and the Soviets was a just one, notwithstanding whatever war crimes they committed. Now, people can be called deniers of anything but I think they are right in demanding to see evidence for certain claims, particularly when they are used a certain political purpose. While we're at it: how many women were raped by US soldiers in WW2? more than a few. does that mean it was an official policy of the US government that that take place or was it the indicispline of frustrated soldiers in the field, sadly a common corrollary of warfare. Quite frankly, civilians, particularly, in certain parts of Italy were more afraid of American soldiers than German ones as they tended to be less diciplined and less sober. One story is about how they or "we" broke into the wine cellars in a certain town that the German troops would never been "permitted" to do etc etc. with the women fleeing into the hills.
So, that two million women were raped by Soviet troops AS A FUNCTION OF OFFICIAL SOVIET GOVERNMENT POLICY, that is an assertion that seems highly questionable and one, like WMDs in Iraq, should be viewed with skepticism. > Dismissing the facts in this case for political comfort seems to me > not very different than denying the holocaust or Obama's birth in the > US.... > > ML > _________________________________________________________________ Get your vacation photos on your phone! http://windowsliveformobile.com/en-us/photos/default.aspx?&OCID=0809TL-HM ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
