This won't sit well with some

[Newt]

argyll:

1 It would have had some merit if the soldier in the picture had any idea where France, Germany and Russia are on the map. That goes for Iraq (sorry Eyerak), Iran, Grenada and Vietnam too. Most only know that Mexico is to the south and Canada is somewhere to the north. Beyond that most havnt a clue where the rest of the world is.

[Zigs]

im glad to see it still portrayed as flat

[argyll]

I'm amazed that you managed to get this out of the pentagon without being caught. But then again.............

 

[ 17. January 2005, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[severus]

quote:

---

It's in the past now Severus but, as I understood it, having seen it on Discovery TV, Ford, amongst others, did business with Germany at that time.

---

Ah, Deutschland. It's true - Hitler was not considered evil here until his brutality exposed him for the monster he was. But US anti-war sentiment simply mirrored that of Britain and France, did it not? All Western nations, including the US, were guilty of policies of appeasement or isolation that allowed der Fuhrer to re-arm and start another bloodbath. But then, hindsight is 20-20. It's difficult today to realize just how deep 1930's anti-war sentiment ran in Britain, France, and America when we now know the result of such folly.

 

Unfortunately Peter, America's Vietnam experience was an ill-advised adventure based on the so-called "domino theory", an anticommunist policy likely born out of a knee-jerk reaction to appeasement. It was simply easier to lump all communists together instead of realizing that men like Ho Chi Mihn were more interested in nationalism than dogma. Here's a guy who actively sought our support after WWII and even quoted Thomas Jefferson, and we ignored him.

 

BTW, have you read A Bright Shining Lie, Neil Sheehan's book about Vietnam? Excellent non-fiction, a real eye-opener.

 

[ 17. January 2005, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: severus ]

[argyll]

Absolutely right Severus. Chamberlain and his allies 'gave' Hitler a chunk of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) in order to keep him quiet. Didnt last.

 

[ 17. January 2005, 02:52 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]

[Ian FG]

Severus,

I have a read A Bright Shining Lie and it is such a strange book, how a civillian had so much power in a war zone is baffling (to me anyway) and the guys sexual appetite was almost unbelievable. i think they made a movie but I have never seen it.

[nursejudy]

"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monsterous anger of the guns.

only the stuttering rifles'rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them;no prayers nor bells,

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-

The shrill,demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

 

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands odf boys,but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

 

 

Anthem For Doomed Youth

 

Wilfred Owen

 

 

Judith

[severus]

Gobio,

 

John Paul Vann was a true eccentric, a man who knew the war was unwinnable yet tried harder than anyone else to win it. And yes, his sense of morality was peculiar. So was his mother's.

[severus]

What a sad poem, Judy. I had to look up Wilfred Owen to see who he was. That war certainly produced a lot of poets, like Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon. Thanks.

[chesters1]

whats war got to do with soldiers :confused:

the winner is the side that can kill the most women and children in the shortest time