Peter Wiley wrote:

This is another occasion where I agree with you, Oz. I hate that.

Ole Thom, the rest of the world knows full well that the USA sat on its
hands while Europe got turned to trash.

That's not a fair statement at all. The USA hardly "sat on it's hands." Ever hear of
Lend-Lease? The strategic planners in the US were getting prepared to fight WW2 as
early as 1936.

Nazi sympathirzers and isolationists in American politics tried very hard to tie
FDR's hands, and to some extent they succeeded. But, would the US Army Air Corp have
bought the B-17 Flying Fortress in depths of the Depression, if somebody didn't see
a big need for it on the horizon?


The only reason you guys
entered the war at all was because the Japanese were foolish enough to
attack you. If they hadn't, you'd have done nothing for years more,
maybe forever. The first bit's fact, the last is speculation based on
your behaviour at the time.

IMHO that's even more ridiculous than any 'Murrikun claiming that the US of A won
the war single-handed. There is no way the United States would have avoided entering
the war on the side of the Allies.



However, you never had your people killed in things like the Sandakan
death march, Changi or a lot of other places. You sat all that stuff
out. We have long & bitter memories of WW2. The Japanese treated our
POW's atrociously. You guys let a lot of them off after the war was
over because the politics had changed.

And possibly, by sidetracking this darker side of human nature, we averted an even
more disastrous WW3. Revenge and reparations are what brought on the Depression and
WW2.

I'd prefer to not see two sets of blindly patriotic brinksmen shout at each other,
the facts are both more interesting & more useful.

Regards
Doug King

In article , DSK
wrote:

Peter Wiley wrote:

This is another occasion where I agree with you, Oz. I hate that.

Ole Thom, the rest of the world knows full well that the USA sat on its
hands while Europe got turned to trash.

That's not a fair statement at all. The USA hardly "sat on it's hands." Ever
hear of
Lend-Lease? The strategic planners in the US were getting prepared to fight
WW2 as
early as 1936.

Nazi sympathirzers and isolationists in American politics tried very hard to
tie
FDR's hands, and to some extent they succeeded. But, would the US Army Air
Corp have
bought the B-17 Flying Fortress in depths of the Depression, if somebody
didn't see
a big need for it on the horizon?


The only reason you guys
entered the war at all was because the Japanese were foolish enough to
attack you. If they hadn't, you'd have done nothing for years more,
maybe forever. The first bit's fact, the last is speculation based on
your behaviour at the time.

IMHO that's even more ridiculous than any 'Murrikun claiming that the US of A
won
the war single-handed. There is no way the United States would have avoided
entering
the war on the side of the Allies.



However, you never had your people killed in things like the Sandakan
death march, Changi or a lot of other places. You sat all that stuff
out. We have long & bitter memories of WW2. The Japanese treated our
POW's atrociously. You guys let a lot of them off after the war was
over because the politics had changed.

And possibly, by sidetracking this darker side of human nature, we averted an
even
more disastrous WW3. Revenge and reparations are what brought on the
Depression and
WW2.

2 separate things. I agree with you WRT the reparations which
undoubtedly broke the Weimar Republic and led pretty directly to the
rise of the Nazi Party. doing the same after WW2 would have been
pointless and counterproductive. I disagree about treating war
criminals as such. The Japanese got off a lot more lightly than the
Germans did.

I'd prefer to not see two sets of blindly patriotic brinksmen shout at each other,
the facts are both more interesting & more useful.

Yep. I was responding in kind and I'm going to kill this thread.

PDW

Peter Wiley wrote:


2 separate things. I agree with you WRT the reparations which
undoubtedly broke the Weimar Republic and led pretty directly to the
rise of the Nazi Party. doing the same after WW2 would have been
pointless and counterproductive.

FWIW I think the Marshall Plan is one of the key reasons why we 'won' the Cold War.


I disagree about treating war
criminals as such. The Japanese got off a lot more lightly than the
Germans did.

Yep. Absolutely agreed there. Kinds of puts an interesting spin on the charge of
American racism, doesn't it? I mean, us not nuking the Germans because they were fellow
round-eyes and all.

Personally, I think the Allies in the Pacific should have taken the lot of Japanese war
criminals and turned them over to the Vietnamese, Burmese, Koreans, etc etc.



I'd prefer to not see two sets of blindly patriotic brinksmen shout at each other,
the facts are both more interesting & more useful.

Yep. I was responding in kind and I'm going to kill this thread.

OK, I'll just pull up a seat.

DSK