Posted on 01/14/2008 10:02:11 AM PST by DFG
I take second place to no one in my admiration for George W. Bush. But there are times when he comes out with something so obtuse, so ill thought out, that it simply grates on the brain. Remarks of the "I have gazed into Putin's soul" variety. (I gazed into Putin's soul too. I needed two weeks of electroshock to straighten me out afterward.)
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
B17’s or B24’s taking off from England or Libya (or maybe Sicily after mid 1943) to bomb Auschwitz in southern Poland could possibly have continued on to land in Russian terrority (shuttle mission). Several of those types of missions were flown with reduced bombloads. But they had heavy losses and our Russian “allies” were not very cooperative.
Also, the early Ploesti raids in Romania by B24’s from Libya killed a lot of American bomber crewmen and did very little damage to Ploesti. The Ploesti raids might have been a factor in FDR’s decision.
It would also have made the Germans aware that we knew what was going on there.
Bush is right . .and it takes some courage to indirectly criticize FDR and his handling of the Holocaust.
History IS important.
What did FDR know and when did he know it?
Heh, heh.
There's more of that infernal "blame America" talk again!
I wasn’t aware that I was defending FDR. I would blame Ike more than FDR if the US Army Air Corps had the ability to pull off such a mission before D-Day. Unfortunately, Ike listened too much to advice from British generals like Montgomery.
You have sidestepped my point for your purpose. There was no mention of FDR in my reply.
I think the point being made last week by people considerably smarter than I is that every bomb we used on non-strategic targets was one more day that our troops were under the gun.
Winning the war by securing the German surrender as quickly as possible seems the best way to save the Jews that remained in the camps. Bombing the railways leading to the camps does nothing to save the Jews en route (the Germans would have just sealed the cars and they would die there), or in camp.
Yes, FDR should certainly have bombed all the death camps.
This request to bomb the Auschwitz railroad tracks was made repeatedly to FDR and was repeatedly ignored.
FDR’s State Department worked very hard not to save any of the Holocaust victims or to let them immigrate to the United States. I suggest you read up on the subject.
Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long outlines ways in which consulates can indefinitely postpone granting visas. “We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants into the United States. We could do this by simply advising our consuls to put every obstacle in the way and to require additional evidence and to resort to various administrative devices which would postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of the visas.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/index.html
In line with its undeclared policy not to aid in the rescue of refugees, the War Department routinely turned down requests to bomb deportation railways. No studies were ever conducted to check the feasibility of such bombing raids.
Bush is a disappointment to me. I took a little time to look into the whole “legacy/family name” thing, though, back in 2000. I had an old childhood friend who has an MBA from Harvard and asked if it was possible to get that based on family connections. It’s not.
“He was saying it for the consumption of Israel and others. He knows its not real.” Yeah! He scared hell out of Israel by badmouthing them about their occupation of Palestine.
I had some admiration for Bush a few years ago. I have since lost it. Too many of his ideas run counter to U.S. sovereignty and independence. Too many globalist ideas and agendas.
The facts speak for themselves; there is no “argument” of which I’m aware.
My point was that many of the death camps like Auschwitz and Sobibor were in Poland or the eastern part of Germany. The March 4, 1944 raid on Berlin was one of the longest 8th Air Force missions up until that time and bomber losses were high. Before D-Day, it would have been a suicide mission for our bomber crews if we had attempted to send to eastern Germany or Poland.
President Bush is a hero for saying this. It’s a question many people have been asking for years. This writer goes to great lengths to provide excuses for why nothing was done when it was known full well what was going on.
It sounds like you should be a Ron Paul supporter? Or is your preference Pat Buchanan?
Occupation of “palestine”? What Palestine?
You are wrong about this. In fact, Auschwitz was once bombed ACCIDENTALLY when a nearby chemical factory was targeted.
The inmates at Auschwitz were overjoyed, they thought that FDR had finally listened to their prayers. Instead, FDR told the Air Force to never let it happen again.
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