Posted on 10/29/2005, 9:34:29 PM by Dog
October 28th, 1944
WASHINGTON (Routers) As this bloody and futile war enters its fourth year, the casualties continue to rise, and while it's hard to know how many American soldiers have been lost, due to a secretive Roosevelt administration, many analysts think that the number of deaths in brutal battle is now approaching a quarter of a million, with many more millions of civilian casualties in Europe and Asia. Even ignoring all of the innocent loss of life, the loss of American soldiers alone is now almost equivalent to that of the entire population of a medium-sized American city.
This mark is being reached amid growing doubts among the American public about the seemingly endless European and Pacific conflicts, hastily and, some say, thoughtlessly launched in December 1941 to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor by radical Japanese Shintoists.
Here in the nation's capital, many urged the U.S. Senate to observe a moment of silence in honor of the fallen 250,000.
"We owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their courage, for their valor, for their strength, for their commitment to our country," said a prominent Democrat leader.
Critics of the war also acknowledged the sacrifice, even as they questioned the policies of those who lead it.
"Our armed forces are serving ably in Europe and the Pacific under enormously difficult circumstances, and the policy of our government must be worthy of their sacrifice. Unfortunately, it is not, and the American people know it," said a well-known Republican Senator on background.
Another veteran Republican Senator said today that Americans should expect "many more losses to come."
"Millions of U.S. troops remain overseas. They did not ask to be sent to war, but each day, they carry out their duty while risking their lives. It is only reasonable that the American people, and their elected representatives, ask more questions about what the future holds in Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and how we got into this situation," he said.
"Anyone who examines the record can see that this president has lied his way into this war. Over the two years before December 7th, while he was telling the nation that we'd never send these boys into a foreign war, he was making backroom deals with the bellicose British government, holding secret talks with them without informing the Congress, supporting them with war material, which could be considered an act of war in itself, providing naval patrols in the north Atlantic and giving orders to fire on German submarines, occupying Iceland, freezing Japanese assets...the list goes on."
"He knew that the Japanese extremists were going to attack us, and let it happen to get us into his illegal war. It's time for us to ask why the world hates us, and why they continue to fight against us and kill hundreds of thousands of our soldiers."
It should be noted that while he disagrees with the characterization of his actions prior to December 7th, President Roosevelt has also warned in one of his fireside chats last year that "...the war is going to last a lot longer than you think. The plans we made for the knocking out of Mussolini and his gang have largely succeeded. But we still have to knock out Hitler and his gang, and Tojo and his gang. No one of us pretends that this will be an easy matter."
This past summer, he said that we "...shall have to push through a long period of greater effort and fiercer fighting before we get into Germany itself. The Germans have retreated thousands of miles, all the way from the gates of Cairo, through Libya and Tunisia and Sicily and Southern Italy. They have suffered heavy losses, but not great enough yet to cause collapse."
Unfortunately, the message was lost in the understandable furor over his crude language, referring to the Japanese and German governments as "gangs" and, even more appalling, his unapologetic use of racist language in the same speech, in which he repeatedly referred to the Japanese people and troops as "Japs."
In cities across the country, anti-war protesters and others concerned about the mounting death toll created tiny, glimmering cemeteries in public places. The anti-war group People for Peace And Justice organized many solemn candlelight ceremonies.
The anti-war movement has rallied around Etta Mae Hanberg, whose son was killed in Italy early this year. She gave a speech prior to the ceremony here last night:
"It is insane that there are so many people living and working in the White House that are responsible for war crimes, high crimes and misdemeanors and other crimes against humanity and they are wandering free to enjoy their lives and live fat off of their war profits. We will probably be arrested for exercising our rights to freedom of speech and freedom to peaceably assemble."
"Besides asking him for What Noble Cause did he kill 250,000 of our wonderful and brave young people, I would also like to ask Franklin Delanodamngood Roosevelt what he is sacrificing. Is he even sacrificing a good night's sleep? Is he sacrificing his future with his child? He is not sacrificing anything. He and his cabal of warmongering crooks are asking us Americans to give up our lives and our children's lives for his lies and mistakes and I am sure the grim milestone is barely causing a blip in their souls. Franklin Delano Rosenfeld, the syphillitic Dutch Jew, and his wealthy buddies don't even have to pay more taxes for the horror in Europe or to rebuild Houston and Galveston [referring to last year's devastating hurricane, about which the White House and the War Department have suppressed almost all news], which is another Rosenfeld horror."
Former military personnel are involved in the protests as well.
"We wanted to show people the immensity of the 250,000 people dead," said Harvey Whitmeyer, a veteran of the first world war who has spent the past several months with a handful of other veterans making the quarter of a million candles that people have been arranging in a vast circle over the past few weeks on the mall, 200 rows deep. "The Roosevelt administration has done everything in its power not to connect this war with death," Whitmeyer said. "We will rectify that with this peace display."
Joe Ferguson, a wounded veteran of the military disaster at Kasserine Pass a couple years ago, told the small, quiet crowd he had trouble looking at the shining monument. "These are my people," he said, shielding his eyes from the quarter of a million candlepower of intense light.
Anti-war activists, many of them wearing elaborate costumes and giant papier-mache heads fashioned in the likenesses of President Roosevelt and Secretary of War Stimson, danced around the peace inferno and chanted slogans such as, "Hey, hey, FDR, how many kids have you killed so far?"
Sadly, grief and mourning turned to tragedy anew as the radiance of the heat caused the wings of one of the giant Birds Of Peace to catch fire. Its wearer ran around in a panic, ablaze and screaming. The horror was increased as other protestors attempted to help by beating the fires out with cardboard plowshares, further spreading the flames and torment. The grim event seemed a living symbol, a flaming metaphor of what is apparent to many--the heartless callousness and indifference of this administration to human life and dignity.
In unrelated news in the past month, General MacArthur has retaken the Phillippines, many atolls continue to fall to American forces in the Pacific, and General Patton continues to roll through France on to Germany.
How are you in possession of such knowledge?
- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Code Pink block chief, Greater Washington D.C (in absentia).
Let's just say it's an ULTRA secret.
Yeah, I really want to know why today's 'Rats aren't holding FDR responsible for US forces being taken completely by surprise at the Battle of the Bulge, not to mention Pearl Harbor, etc. Or when the MSM is going to announce that D-Day and Iwo Jima obviously weren't worth it because we lost more good men in the first few hours of those battles than we have lost to date in Iraq.
Actually, when you review the war records (as Presidents) of Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson, not to mention Carter and Clinton, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that no Democrat should ever be elected to the White House again..... well, I might make an exception for FDR, he did a lot to redeem himself at times, but not the others.
Bravo for a good perspective. If only those d@mn Germans and Italians had not attacked American soil......
Goebbels would have played today's MSM like a fiddle.
"well, I might make an exception for FDR, he did a lot to redeem himself at times, but not the others"
--- He had a lot to redeem himself for. The nanny state is a direct result of his love of communistic solutions to problems.
The best that can be said, as far as I am concerned, is that in his goal to protect his mentor Stalin, he did force the growth of military industries so that when the Japanese did attack (after being goaded), we could build up our strength rapidly.
(I've often wondered what FDR would have done if Hitler had not declared war on the US. Germany was not obligated to do so under the Tripartate Pact since Japan was not attacked. How would FDR have mantained his Europe First / Save Stalin strategy if Hitler had not gotten involved? I also wonder how many more Americans were killed taking the Pacific islands because the Japanese had more time to fortify since most of the American war material went to Europe until 1944.)
Under FDR rule by unelected and unaccountable govt agencies was enshrined. Rule making by bureaucrats without oversight replaced Laws made by elected representatives.
He must be a NAZI....or a Republican, as if there was a difference!
It would have been interesting to see him try and sell a war against Germany to congress.
Casualties are probably much less than they would be under a continued Saddam regime. Possibly including Americans going about their business at home.
Did you read the article?
It is about the present war.
Puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
Around here we've been talking about the media
frantically trying to bring down a President while
we are fighting the war on terror.
These attacks are ludicrous, staged like
something out of a Pink Panther movie. The
Special Prosecutor even twitches and sputters
like Herbert Lom.
But it's no laughing matter. The media can't
get enough: "CIA!" "leaks!" "indictment!".
And based on what? The most inane non-story
you ever heard in your life!
I was mainly thinking of FDR pushing military preparedness before 1941, at a time when few Americans were willing to take it seriously enough. I don't know if any other US political figure of the time would have gotten as much done on that front, and the fact that a substantial re-armament was underway before Pearl Harbor certainly did help us in 1942-43. But I wouldn't argue with your other points....
When are we going to bring all our troops home from Germany?
Didn't you hear?
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