[bvw]

Oh how we mocked and aspered Il Duce, and Der Fuehrer and Emperor Tojo! We were all so fanatic in those days. We did, when not on the line, under fire -- feel good. Damn good. Yet we has no sense of propriety or restraint in our vile epitaths, crude slogans and bawdy name-calling of those governmental officials of the Axis, or of those forces siding with them. Now, with such fine moderne reasoning, we understand how we were then only antagonizing those with clearer and truer images of the positive and negative dynamics of human interaction.

In those years we thought ourselves the self-proclaimed champions of "Liberty" but the images of the miserable exceations we lathered upon our opponents resonated -- and will long resonate -- with rational skeptics: the images of a "Liberty in Dresden" or Liberty in Nagasaki" -- something out of a horror movie, not a celebration of the miracle of Liberty G-d gave man!

With our odious war-like behaviours, our copulsion, we tortured Germany and Japan, destroyed their dignoty and squandered our national assets!

Forgive us! Forgive us! Forgive us!

[Ohioan]

You show your complete ignorance of history in this little gem:

Oh how we mocked and aspered Il Duce, and Der Fuehrer and Emperor Tojo! We were all so fanatic in those days.

As one who grew up during World War II, I can assure you that the mocking of our enemies was never of the fanatic variety. Comic relief in a desperate war. The fanaticism was on the other side--indeed, but for the fanaticism on the other side, there would probably have been no war.

We have had other examples of fanaticism in American History, but defending ourselves in World War II was not one of them!