Posted on 09/28/2007 9:44:45 PM PDT by kathsua
Watching the series helps put the current conflict in Iraq in perspective. Many are concerned about the occasional bombings and explosions of IED's, but these threats don't compare to what our fathers or grandfathers faced in WWII.
Soldiers in WWII died by the hundreds or thousands rather than the few deaths at a time in Iraq. Soldiers in WWII were threatened by huge artillery shells and bombing by enemy aircraft. They faced thousands of enemy soldiers at a time rather than maybe a dozen or perhaps as much as a hundred.
For those serving in Iraq, the fact that they have a greater chance of survival than soldiers in WWII doesn't lessen the concern that there is still a chance they won't survive. They can never be sure that the vehicle they are in will not be destroyed when it passes by what looks like a rock or some trash along side the road.
The enemy in WWII wore uniforms. The enemy in Iraq is so weak its soldiers must dress like everyone else to avoid detection.
If I were a young man who had to go to war and could choose the foe, I would prefer the fight al Qaeda than the North Vietnamese and the North Vietnamese than the Japanese. We forced both the North Vietnamese and the Japanese to sign peace agreements, although the North Vietnamese later violated their agreement.
Our soldiers in Iraq can keep al Qaeda from taking over in Iraq if we don't give up.
There are a billion Muslims in the world. Osama bin Laden is convinced he can unite a substantial number of them under his leadership to fight us. If we surrender Iraq to him, he will have a much better chance of doing that. Do we want to risk having to fight an army bigger than the combined armies of WWII Germany and Japan?
My father hates Bush and takes every opportunity to criticize our involvement in Iraq. I mentioned to him once that the # of deaths in Iraq wasn’t as many in 4 years as we lost on D-Day. His response was that WWII was a fight for our existence. The left still doesn’t understand the threat from radical Islam and won’t until it’s too late.
The dems and their minions in the msm have made it their mission to convince the American citizenry that Iraq is a war of choice, not of survival.
Your dad doesn’t sound like a vet .Certainly not a WW2 vet.
Mine is , and he gets it.
Go figure that we would have the exact same thought at the same time.
The original footage and how it is put together is amazing. It took him 6 years to produce it.
After the Third episode ended, they rebroadcast the opening celebration of the D-Day museum.(June 6,2000)
Tom Brokaw, Tom Hanks, and Stephen Spielberg spoke. I don’t know how to describe it, they were brilliant... they expressed such deep felt gratitude to these men that united and saved “us” and the world for us.
This is the first broadcast of “The War”. There is a rebroadcast schedule if you can see it. Or after it is over can be ordered.
Some dont.
My wifes grandfather.
Amazing, but not the nicest person by any stretch, so maybye some other deeper issues there.
Islamo facism today is just as evil as anything this nation fought in WWII.
We just are not waiting for it to get to that kind of level of power again.
The military of World War II was composed of about 67 percent draftees, Vietnam era about 33 percent draftees, but today it is all volunteers. Man-for-man, woman-for-woman, I think these kids today are the best in the history of the world.
That will make him wake up. It's probably the best book which explains what Islam is and terrorists like Osama Bin Laden believe, and what we are up against. We can't loose this war or any that follow.
The kamizee pilots killed more the 4000 according to the History Channel.
Oddly enough, not nearly so much as this one is. Nazi Germany was not going to invade the U.S. Mainland nor was Japan. Not any time soon anyway. WWII was totally a war of choice. The right choice, to be sure, but choice nonetheless.
“I mentioned to him once that the # of deaths in Iraq wasn’t as many in 4 years as we lost on D-Day.”
That really is a meaningless argrument if you think about it. The problem is Iran would make a stab for control in the ME and other ME countries would go for nukes in a second if we leave Iraq. Nobody asks what will happen if we leave.
“A Quiet Triumph...”, (good article about Iraq and Afghanistan)
In what way was the war against Japan a fight for our existence? Your father must know that the Japanese aim was to establish a defensive perimeter and to force us to let thenm dominate Asia as we dominated Latin America? Even Hitler had no immediate designs on the United States. His aim was to control western Eurasia. This was certainly the wat that the isolationists looked at the matter. I mean, why prop up the Soviet Union, which was Hitler’s main enemy? Our main ally was Britain, and our major objective militarily was to deny the British fleet to the Germans.
Thanks Brad
I will check with our Wal-Mart’s.
Greetings from East tn. I too have been watching the show and like all of Mr. Burns shows I’m amazed at some of the photos and letters ect. he finds to put in them. The Civil War program I found extremely interesting as I really like this period of history. However if I remember correctly from reading Patton’s “War as I knew it” he stated that the majority of Allied injuries were caused by artillery.
Not trying to rip on you, just something your post brought to mind. I do wholeheartedly agree that the Men and Women serving today are the BEST bar none!! God bless and keep every one of them!
It may have been. I can’t find any meaningful statistics right now. I know in Vietnam it was gunshot wounds closely followed by artillery, rockets and mortar and mines and booby traps.
The first time I saw any data like this was in Vietnam where they were comparing causes of wounds with previous conflicts.
I feared booby traps more than anything because they could be hidden anywhere and detonated without warning. These ranged from a Soviet mine buried in the trail to a grenade in a tin can with a tripwire to an unexploded 500-pound bomb placed up in a tree, for an airburst effect, and command detonated from a distance. This configuration could wipe out a whole platoon.
There was also something we called a “Butterfly” mine which were dropped along communist infiltration routes by the USAF where we often worked. They were constructed of sheet metal with three wings that would slow, stabilize and spin the device as it dropped to the ground and embedded a spike into the jungle floor. The “Butterfly” was seismically detonated when something walked near it. Once seeded, it had a theoretical life of about 90 days after which it self-destructed by rust. This was to allow us to move through these areas months later after the mines were inert. Sadly, they often didn’t corrode as fast as advertised and we had some bad experiences with many of them. I live 12 miles north of Pickwick Dam.
It has gotten to the point where I dread visiting them because every time we do he ends up, spewing vitriol against the President and the war effort and purposely tries to start an argument. This from someone who has seen and endured the world wide threat posed by Imperial Japan, the Nazis and Italian fascism first hand! This from someone who should know better, who should be able to put the present conflict, along with our losses into PROPER perspective: We are at war with a fanatical, implacable, religious/fascist enemy that wants to take over the world for "allah", destroy all of the Jews on the face of the planet, steal all of their land and possessions and convert, enslave or kill every "infidel" in the entire world who does not believe that allah is god or that mohammed is his prophet… an enemy that wants to destroy all of the governments along with every legal system in the world and replace them with a world-wide caliphate, and Shariah law.
My parents response to world events is totally inexplicable; our current loses, though painful are less than nothing compared with what took place during WW2 and they know it! The loss of life and limb in one action of WW2 usually surpasses ten to a hundred fold the entire sacrifice in men and material that we have experienced to date. Given the nature of the war and our enemy, our cause is just, right and totally necessary. If anyone should recognize this it is my parents and those of that generation. But Satan himself has blinded their eyes and hearts to reality... They, and multitudes of people here and around the world, have eyes, but they can not see reality. They have ears, but they refuse to hear. They have minds, but they staunchly refuse to think/reason. They have hearts but they are incapable of feeling the ominous threat that we face. The only thing I can liken it to is how Europe, the West and America viewed/dealt with the Axis powers in the 30's before all hell broke lose. At that time around 80 MILLION people died and only God Himself knows how many more MILLIONS were wounded and scarred for life. This time around, our Islamofascist enemies are seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction that will make WW2 look like a day in the park multiplying the number of dead and wounded a hundred/thousand fold in comparison within a few short weeks. Communist China and Russia seem bent upon helping them achieve their ends and partake in the spoils and the islaomofacists have the will to use these weapons if the can get their hands on them, without compunction or conscience because "it is the will of allah that all mankind worship him and be subject to his Islamic masters here on earth.
This is the reality of the world we live in and the threat/enemy that we face and again, the only way one can logically explain the irrational attitudes and actions of those who should know better is that they are being deceived by Satan, Abaddon, the Destroyer, himself and those under his influence because it is his desire to kill, destroy and enslave as many of us to him as possible in the cataclysmic conflagration which will result if we fail to acknowledge and fight to the death, this enemy who threatens our very existence as a nation and as individuals… alah is in fact Satan himself and he wants what he has wanted for a very long time: to be worshipped and treated as god by the world and the universe. While Satan will ultimately fail to achieve this end and be cast into the Lake of fire, countless billions will die before his doom is finally accomplished and the Lord Jesus Christ takes his rightful place.
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