If it was 1914...

purple said:
Here's the point; those who start wars don't much care what the toll is in terms of human suffering, nor are they inclined to find out and take this into their decision making. Ironically, Hitler was a veteran of the trenches in WW1 and this didn't seem to color his thinking one bit in 1939. Recent bad guys, like Slobodan Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein, weren't moved to conduct any inquiries into the predicable human toll of things either.

Consider the road to war in Iraq in 2003 as well, and remember the selling job that the Bush gang, including Cheney, "Rummie", "Wolfie", and sadly even Colin Powell, did on this one. Truth is always the first casualty of war. We had all the usual deception/misinformation, demonization of the opposition and the big sell about WMD followed by the assurances of a quick "shock and awe" campaign with few casualties, no collateral damage, lots of "gee-whiz" high tech stuff, assurances of a happy reception by the population, a regime change to democratic government.... and then what. It turned out to be almost a 10 year grind with a huge toll in lives and treasure and a bitter guerilla war which left a broken and devastated country in it's aftermath, and it had exactly diddley squat to do with 9-11. Lately we have seen some of "the old gang" of neo-conservatives who engineered this one, most notably Wolfowitz, popping up on TV totally unrepentant and even offering good ideas about how to proceed in Syria. Talk about a failure to learn.:kickInTheNuts:
Click to expand...


I firmly believe Hitler did not come back from the Western Front a sane person. His diary and poetry from that period are, excuse me, bonkers.
 
I think that that particular War damaged a LOT of people in ways that they tried, very hard, to conceal.

A book I have found particularly powerful in this regard is NO PARACHUTE by Arthur Gould Lee.

It helps if you know that SIR Arthur Gould Lee retired from the RAF with the rank of Air Vice Marshal and enough medals to open his own pawn shop..... but this is the book of a YOUNG man in the Great War. It covers all the way from his first experience in an airplane, which he notes ecstatically in personal letters and in his diary....... through the exprience of combat, the horrific casualties, the nightmares, the heavy drinking and finally the loss of feelings, the state of personal numbness as he prepares to die.... until the day that he is sitting, like a machine, in his plane, waiting to take off, knowing that THIS flight will kill him.

The book was constructed from Lee's personal logbooks, diaries and letters home to his first wife which he found as he was a very old man, cleaning out some papers so that his descendants would not have to do it. He found the bundle of letters back from The Front and looked through a couple..... and then decided that he had the materials.

So it is a YOUNG MAN's tale, seen only partly through the eyes of the very OLD and very senior man who he became. He started as a fighter pilot at a time when they had a 2-week life expectancy..... and he lasted 40 years.

The problem of "No Parachutes" is critical to the book and is ANALYSED thoroughly in a lengthy Afterword.

I would say that this book is CRITICAL to understanding the mind of a Great War Serviceman at the Front.

It has been available in Paperback for over 30 years. Get it.
 
purple said:
Here's the point; those who start wars don't much care what the toll is in terms of human suffering, nor are they inclined to find out and take this into their decision making. Ironically, Hitler was a veteran of the trenches in WW1 and this didn't seem to color his thinking one bit in 1939. Recent bad guys, like Slobodan Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein, weren't moved to conduct any inquiries into the predicable human toll of things either.

Consider the road to war in Iraq in 2003 as well, and remember the selling job that the Bush gang, including Cheney, "Rummie", "Wolfie", and sadly even Colin Powell, did on this one. Truth is always the first casualty of war. We had all the usual deception/misinformation, demonization of the opposition and the big sell about WMD followed by the assurances of a quick "shock and awe" campaign with few casualties, no collateral damage, lots of "gee-whiz" high tech stuff, assurances of a happy reception by the population, a regime change to democratic government.... and then what. It turned out to be almost a 10 year grind with a huge toll in lives and treasure and a bitter guerilla war which left a broken and devastated country in it's aftermath, and it had exactly diddley squat to do with 9-11. Lately we have seen some of "the old gang" of neo-conservatives who engineered this one, most notably Wolfowitz, popping up on TV totally unrepentant and even offering good ideas about how to proceed in Syria. Talk about a failure to learn.:kickInTheNuts:
Click to expand...

It isn't a failure to learn. They knew what they were doing and they knew at the time it was lies.
But they got their war.
 
Adding to the politics of the Ross rifle saga is the fact that the UK authorities seem to have deliberately dragged their feet on sending out the drawings for the P14 which was to have been made in the Ross factory after production of the MkIII ended. They doubtless imagined that Canada would then adopt it, whereas the Imperial authorities were determined to restrict it to sniper and training use and to see the Ross factory closed. You can be sure the US manufacturers had the some wish.

Similar things have happened many times: the Westland Whirlwind equipped squadrons were kept in Scotland throughout the Battle of Britain, the aircraft was not updated, then it was withdrawn in 1943 and every single one was scrapped. A twin engine fighter with four 20mm cannon in the nose at the time when the Spitfire and Hurricane had none! A plane that those who flew it loved and called faultless, which could deal with the BF109 very well...politics, money and prejudices.
 
I found this documentary the other day. It's an excellent example of what this type of war can do to people. I'm sure you've all heard of it. This Japanese veteran gets admissions of war crimes from elderly vets by beating the s#$% out of them. It's bizarre, tragic, disturbing, silly, and many other adjectives. It's clear the protagonist never returned from the war. He's still there.

http://youtu.be/FDkrunQwoLc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom