The Truth About War Heroes in America

The Truth About War Heroes in America

war heroes

For the past dozen years or so, Americans have been deluged with talk about “heroes,” and especially “our brave soldiers.” I was at a funeral recently, and was shocked to see the funeral director conduct a ritual: he had all past or current members of the military line up and touch a flag for the deceased.

This is not only stupidly out of proportion, but it is deeply damaging to the “heroes.”

As I’ve said before, I understand how young people get pulled into the military, and I do not think that they join because they want to kill. (Though some small number may.) So, let me be very clear on something:

The vast majority of war heroes are victims.

As it happens, I talk to military people, sympathetically. And I know the other side of the war hero story – the side that they don’t show on TV or when worshiping uniforms in churches, schools, or at sporting events.

Point #1: No one leaves battle whole.

Don’t ever imagine that soldiers come out of battle in any way better than when they went in.

No normal human can kill people without damaging themselves. Perhaps if you’re 50 years old and have to shoot someone who is clearly in the process of killing others, you can come out of it without permanent damage. At that age your character is already developed, and if you can honestly reassure yourself that it was necessary, you may be okay.

But if you think a 19-year-old kid, shooting at people he has never met before, who are simply driving down the street, will be okay afterward… forget about it – that kid will never be whole again.

And the same goes for the soldier who sees his friend get his leg blown off. Or, just having to go into situation after situation where that could happen at any time.

Crowds can chant “hero” all they like, but the soldier who was in battle has something torn in his soul.

Point #2: The soldiers know it.

Can you imagine the kind of internal conflict this hero worship inflicts on the 22-year-old ex-soldier? He’s praised as a hero endlessly, but he’s torn up inside, and sometimes when he’s alone, he cries and shakes.

This is what really happens:

  • The big, tough soldier hides in a bathroom and cries, because he can’t face going out into a crowd.
  • He wonders what was in all those pills they were ordered to take before going into battle.
  • He’s unable to make decisions for himself.
  • He has post-traumatic stress in spades but dares not tell the VA, because that would prevent him from owning a gun, and that’s the only thing that makes him feel safe.

And all the while, the soldier is paraded in front of crowds and publicly praised as some type of superior being, god-gifted with bravery. Could you live with that?

Is it any wonder that US soldiers are killing themselves at a rate of 22 per day?

Point #3: They are abandoned.

I recently had a talk with a friend who spent a full 20 years in the military, and we discussed these subjects.

One of the things that bothers me most is that these young men and women are sent into the hell of battle and then ignored by the Veterans Administration when they get back. I’m certainly no fan of government or its programs, but if you send a kid into death and destruction, you’re also honor-bound to help them recover if they make it out.

The VA is abandoning these former soldiers. I expressed this complaint to my friend, and he told me that it was worse, and more callously malicious, than I knew.

My friend is a decent man, and he does his best to help returning soldiers because no one else does. We discussed this at length, and I was pleased to know that he sits down with whatever few soldiers he can, and says this:

Yes, you’re fucked-up. After what you’ve been through, that’s what you’re supposed to be!

So far as he knew, no one associated with the VA was helping the returning soldiers one-to-one, only him and a few others.

So…

American hero worship is torturing ex-soldiers. It’s driving them to suicide. This mindless worship is good for the State, but it’s hell for the kids who were actually in battle.

Don’t follow that script. Have some compassion for the kid who was immersed in death and hell.

Paul Rosenberg

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Click here to get your free copy.]

41
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
flash
flash

We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.
–Ronald Reagan, 1964

We should declare war on North Vietnam. . . .We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.
–Ronald Reagan, 1965

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_5XvBYfxU_dM/S7wZDJJEjBI/AAAAAAAAI_Y/qTotugoFgtM

Photos: A Look Back at the Vietnam War on the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/04/30/captured-a-look-back-at-the-vietnam-war-on-the-35th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-saigon/1781/

comment image

comment image

comment image

/Domino%20Theory%5B11%5D.png?imgmax=800[/img]

flash
flash
Stucky

From America’s last, great President …. Something every President since has totally forgotten, or ignored …..

comment image

There are many Bible verses about war, but the one that stuck with me all these years from my youth, even from the very first time I read it is this one …

“In the spring of the year, when kings go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites …” 2 Samuel 11:1

One immediately notices there is no condemnation of war (there rarely is in the Bible). In fact, war is a GIVEN, a fact of life …. an occurrence as common, and expected, as spring flowers. No big deal. “Hey, Hezekiah! It’s April. Let’s go kill some fuckers somewhere!”

It’s April. Springtime. USA just droned 55 people to death. Maybe Obama is doing God’s will?

The Bible’s (well, God’s) cavalier attitude to carnage and slaughter — very often even COMMANDING it — was, even as a Believer, the root cause that led to me questioning all other teachings in the Bible.

overthecliff

Smedley Butler said the same thing 75 years ago. It wasn`t new then either. There is nothing new under the sun. Sometimes young men are molested and then turn out to be Prostitutes for their molesters. (Kerry and McCain). So succinctly said “victims not heroes” it is sad but true.

flash
flash

Ike suffered an extreme case of cognitive dissonance, but regardless, he was still a useful tool in the box of the financier class.
And thanks to Ike’s foreign policy /coup d’etat diplomacy Iran , Guatemala and Vietnam became blazing infernos of mass murder and intrigue.

comment image?imgmax=800

5. How the Establishment Controls the Universities.

Dr. Quigley explains in detail how for generations the international financiers have dominated American universities through their control of university endowment money. He tells how Columbia
University was dominated by J.P. Morgan and Company. and ‘its president, Nicholas Murray Butler, was Morgan’s chief spokesman from ivied halls.’ Butler once said, ‘The world is divided in to three classes of people: a very small group that makes things happen, a somewhat larger group that watches things happen, and the great multitude which never knows what happened.’ Dr. Quigley gives many examples of how the international bankers placed their men as presidents of leading universities, including the placement of Dwight Eisenhower as president of Columbia.

Columbia University was the intellectual rostrum of the father of Progressive Education, John Dewey, and his favored disciples, William H. Kilpatrick, Harold O. Rugg, and George S. Counts, author of Dare the Schools Build a New Social Order? which urged teachers to ‘deliberately reach for power and then make the most of their conquest.’

6. Establishment Influence on the Election of Presidents.

Dr. Quigley tells how and why the Establishment was determined to defeat and destroy Barry Goldwater in 1964, unleashing a torrent of rage against him with such epithets as ‘extremist,’ ‘racist,’
‘atomic bomber,’ ‘trigger happy,’ ‘warmonger,’ and ‘psychologically unfit.’

Dr. Quigley tells how the international financiers manipulated the nomination of Dwight Eisenhower at the Republican National Convention in 1952. As Quigley explains, ‘The lower-middle-class groups had preferred Senator Taft as their leader. Eisenhower, however, had been preferred by the eastern establishment of old Wall Street, Ivy League, semi-aristocratic Anglophiles whose real strength rested in their control of eastern financial endowments, operating from foundations, academic halls, and other tax-exempt refuges.’

http://radiobergen.org/powergame/tragedy.html

card802
card802

“The VA is abandoning these former soldiers. I expressed this complaint to my friend, and he told me that it was worse, and more callously malicious, than I knew.”

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced a $1 billion package of economic and energy aid to Ukraine on Tuesday, part of its emerging response to Russian military activity in Crimea.

“The president will continue to build support for the Ukrainian people at this critical time,” Carney said in a statement.

Fucked up, when will the people stand up?

flash
flash

Ike was Republican who blew smoke out of both sides his ass, but then he was a Republican

Eisenhower

Eisenhower
Charles Burris

Laurence, the Eisenhower administration was consciously designed by the northeastern seaboard Rockefeller/Morgan Establishment to preserve and enhance the New Deal-Fair Deal’s welfare-warfare State. This was “Modern Republicanism” in action. Major operatives such as Henry Cabot Lodge, the Dulles brothers, Henry Luce, Winthrop W. Aldrich, Thomas Dewey, Prescott Bush, Sherman Adams, Tex McCray, and C. D. Jackson were enlisted in this unsavory effort. The Eisenhower forces employed both overt and covert coercive means such as blackmail, intimidation, and fraud to obtain the 1952 GOP nomination against the non-interventionist champion of the Old Right Robert Taft. (See chapter 8 of this book for a brief summary of these dirty tricks efforts.) These electoral shenanigans were a bitter foretaste of the duplicitous “regime change” covert actions of the CIA under Allen Dulles yet to come. To circumvent the local Republican Party apparatus mostly controlled by Taft supporters, the Eisenhower forces created a nationwide network of grass-roots clubs, “Citizens for Eisenhower.” Independents and Democrats were welcome, as the group specialized in canvassing neighborhoods and holding small group meetings. Citizens for Eisenhower hoped to revitalize the GOP by expanding its activist ranks and by supporting “moderate” and “internationalist” policies. It did not endorse candidates other than Eisenhower.

For four interesting interpretations of the Eisenhower administration see, Murray N. Rothbard, Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy (see chapters “Rockefeller, Morgan, and War;” and “The Guatemalan Coup”); Philip H. Burch, Jr., Elites in American History: The New Deal to the Carter Administration (see chapter 4 “The Eisenhower Administration”); Nomi Prins, All the President’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power (see chapter 10, “The 1950s: Eisenhower’s Buds, Cold War, Hot Money”); and Robert Welch, The Politician (see especially chapter 11 “The Modern Republican,” and chapter 16 “Associates and Appointments”).
5:14 pm on April 27, 2014 Email Charles Burris

The Best of Charles Burris

Billy
Billy

I ain’t no fuckin hero and to tell the truth, I really hate when these media whores sling around the word “hero”. It’s embarrassing.

When I separated, I was in “I hate everybody” mode… all that touchy feely crap that was supposed to make me feel better? Just made me feel more hate and resentment…

When we moved here to the middle of nowhere, I just unplugged. Withdrew from the wider world and didn’t much give a shit what happened in it. Spent a very, very long time with nothing but the wind in the trees, the sun on my shoulders, working the land… spending months in either deep spiritual contemplation or just blanking my mind – allowing me to decompress and deal with shit in my own way – did more to help me come to grips with shit than all the “counselors” the government could employ…

I still think most people suck and that my own government played me for a fool. That will never change. But I made up my mind that if I ever came into money, I would buy a couple thousand acres in the mountains for the specific purpose of letting vets come and decompress on their own – in thier own way and in their own time…

I heard that some SF guys just unplugged… ended up playing dodgeball with Afghans in the mountains… yeah, I totally get that…

Stucky

“The Obama administration announced a $1 billion package of economic and energy aid to Ukraine on Tuesday, part of its emerging response to Russian military activity in Crimea.”
———– article posted by Card802

And that’s in addition to the $5 billion the USA spent to topple the former democratically elected government.

Stucky

Sure as spring produces crocuses, a mention of “Ike” throws flash into a batshit rant.

Sad.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I read something the other day, that Mass. is creating legislation to spend 177 million of it’s state taxes to repair / upgrade military bases (Pentagon) in the state and Governor Deval Patrick is expected to sign the legislation.

flash
flash

Stuck, more fact masterminding as a batshit rant. and from an officer in the military which automatically call into question his motives and credentials…eh?
Eisenhower’s command crown jewel Operation overlord D-Day was an unnecessary waste of between 30 -50 thousands human lives…but ,really what sad assholes counts the dead when heroes reputations are being made.

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/NoOverlord/index.html

OVERLORD: The Unnecessary Invasion

By

William F. Moore
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

A research report submitted to the faculty
in
fulfillment of the research
requirement

Research Advisor: Dr. Joseph L. Strange

Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama
March 1986

CONCLUSION

The massive allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 was not necessary for the military defeat of Germany. The German Army had already been destroyed on the eastern front, and the German war industry was being devastated by the combined bombing offensive. According to Trumbull Higgins,

When the British were finally compelled by their Allies to invade France in 1944, it was an invasion essentially undertaken in the self-interest of the West, the terrible risk of the collapse of the Soviet Union having long since passed. At this date the Red Army no longer needed more than Western supplies with which to occupy eastern Europe. (4:283)

The Normandy invasion was simply too late to be of meaningful assistance to the Russians. In fact, Stalin had conceded that is was no longer necessary.

Furthermore, many capable allied strategists knew that OVERLORD was no longer required and recommended against it. Why were these recommendations not heeded, especially since they would have resulted in greatly reduced British and American casualties? Two considerations cannot be ignored. First was the sheer momentum behind the OVERLORD planning. American planners had placed all their European “eggs” in this basket, they had been advocating OVERLORD against the British for over two years, and they were unwilling to concede to the British position in late 1943. Secondly, American leaders, including Roosevelt, felt that unless American forces took a significant (albeit late) share in defeating the German Army, the Russians would be entirely uncooperative in the post-war world and probably would

–35–

not assist in defeating the Japanese. The British were much less concerned about Russian sensitivities, feeling instead that their post-war interests would be better served by strengthening and conserving their armed forces rather than squandering them on the beaches of Normandy.

OVERLORD was not a military necessity; it was an unnecessary military gamble that could easily have failed. In retrospect, it is impossible to understand why American strategists were so committed to it. This commitment itself is evidence of serious strategic inflexibility. American planners either could not or would not adjust to the realities of the European theater in late 1943 and early 1944. Having already made the investment in a strategic bombing force that, in combination with the Russian Army, could have defeated Germany in a matter of months, why did the US not unleash the bombers and turn its attention to the Pacific theater? Why did US strategists not accept British recommendations for a less risky Mediterranean/Balkan strategy that would have left the western forces in a much more favorable post-war position relative to the Russians? The answers to these questions have political as well as military dimensions. President Roosevelt believed he could buy Stalin’s post-war cooperation. When Stalin expressed his final preference for OVERLORD at Tehran, he essentially allowed American political and military strategy to coalesce. OVERLORD was what the Russians still wanted and it was what Gen Marshall had always wanted. Roosevelt could not have been more pleased.

–36–

In the final analysis, parochialism cannot be discounted. During World War I American leaders and forces had chafed under the constraints of a strategy developed by Britain. With World War II, America had another opportunity to assert its world leadership role and develop the strategy for victory. Gen Marshall was entirely consistent with the attitudes of the American people and their political leaders when he insisted that OVERLORD, the American plan, would be used to defeat Germany. Furthermore, and perhaps even more important to Gen Marshall, he knew that victory in the Pacific theater would be achieved primarily by Naval and Air forces. Geography alone dictated this. OVERLORD was the last opportunity for the US Army to play a major a rather than a peripheral role in the victory. General Marshall simply would not let such an opportunity pass.

–37–

Stucky

T4C

I’m very disappointed in your post. First, you quote from Rense … not the best source of info about anything. Rense, in turn, quotes from James Bacque’s book, “Other Losses.” Bacque was an unknown Canadian novelist who, when he wrote the book, had absolutely no previous historical research or writing experience, even by his own admission. I expected more from you.

Couple quick observations /questions.

1)- I know for an absolute fact that my parents loved Ike. They had buttons and posters and saved newspaper clippings. My parents, in case you don’t know, are German immigrants. Why did they love this “war criminal”? Yeah, anecdotal, I know.

2)- Where are/were the million plus dead bodies???

3)- How in the fuck was Eisenhower able to order starvation on a mass scale …… AND KEEP IT SECRET?? Conspiracy theories vs. Keeping Secrets …. That’s where they always fail.

4)- I am NOT saying German POWs were mistreated at times. There IS evidence for that. It’s war. Shit happens. But nowhere near the scale Bacque says.

5) Eisenhower said —— “”The success or failure of this occupation will be judged by the character of the Germans 50 years from now. Proof will come when they begin to run a democracy of their own and we are going to give the Germans a chance to do that, in time.” ——— Does that sound like a man who directed death by starvation of a million young Germans??

.
Good luck defending your fairly ridiculous position.

Stucky

flash

Only 5 copy and pastes? I need more. Maybe 20 more. Maybe then I’ll see the light. I love your copy and pastes. I read them word for word. They’re just great. Really great. I need moar!!!

SSS

“SSS is not going to be happy with T4C or flash. Get out the popcorn.”
—-Admin

Stucky already dealt adequately with T4C, a miracle in itself in that he normally enjoys irritating the hell out of me.

As for flash, I stopped reading most of his shit years ago. There was a time when I would enjoy a game or two of “Smash Flash,” but that got old. Infrequently, a rational thought makes its way from flash’s brain to the keyboard. Mostly, however, he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.

Stucky

I’m not sure why my parents loved Ike. I was pretty young at the time. Nice of you to compare loving Ike with loving Hitler. I don’t care about your qualified comments. That’s some sick shit right there. But a thinking person would be able to understand that two actual German immigrants would NOT love a man who murdered a million of their compatriots.

Why would it take about 50 fucking years for this “secret” to be revealed? We got lots of German newspapers and magazines in my house. I’ve been scouring the internet. Why isn’t there a TRACE of this story in any German print in the decade or two after the war? Where is the fucking documentation?

Why don’t you address Bacque’s total lack of qualification as a writer, historian, and researcher? Yes, that “Ike and the Disappearing Atrocities” article, complete with references. He is worse than a rank amateur. My God, Bacque is about as qualified and credible as Obama was (and still is) when he took over.

These questions are rhetorical. You got nothing. We both know it.

You are equating Ike with Hitler. Six million … one million … with huge numbers like that, it hardly matters. That’s total fucking bullshit. Maybe SSS or others will run with it. But, I’m done with it. Not because I want to bury my head in the sand. But because you haven’t provided a single credible shred of fucking evidence. Lemme know when you actually have something.

Crickets.

Forward_Idiocracy
Forward_Idiocracy

The VA is now just another jobs program. Those people hate working for vets. They just want to lounge and get paid. You’ll hardly ever be greeted by or interact with a cheerful VA employee.

As a veteran, I loathe the VA.

flash
flash

Stuck, whether you or SSS ever read another comment I make or anything I post bothers me not., but the spectacle you [Stuck] make of yourself deigning to never read another of my posts stamp you for the attention seeking whore you really are.

I just spread what I think may be relevant information on the subject posted by admin. If you want to read it fine, if not then why should I or anyone else on the board give a shit.? Disputing facts are one thing , but spewing random blather for the sake of attention is another.

Personally I hold no mass murderer in any place of high esteem, and that would include any who wage unnecessary war on civilian population including the likes of Lincoln,Wilson, Ike, both Roosevelts, LBJ , Nixon the Bushes and now the half-cracker Obama.

And , as for SSS. I’ve heard all his arguments on everything from war to pot to politics and frankly it’s the same tripe every thug in uniform , black robe or elected offices uses to enforce their lethal bureaucracy on those who don’t willingly comply.

BTW, Stuck ,Buchahan documents the mass murder of Germans via starvation, execution and forced labor in his book
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War” and the details are even more staggering than T4C’s Rences article depicts.

Stucky

“Stuck, whether you or SSS ever read another comment I make or anything I post bothers me not., ” ——- flash

Yes it does.

” … the spectacle you [Stuck] make of yourself deigning to never read another of my posts ” —-flash

I never said I wouldn’t read any of your posts. I just read most of that “race” post, and it was hilarious.

What I mean by ‘not reading your posts’ is when there is an argument being made. Yes, I post articles also. But, when there is a debate most of my argument consists of MY words. And that’s what I’m interested in, flash … YOUR words …. not what someone else says (via c&p). When YOU say something, I read it.

You DO post some interesting stuff (c and p) that has educated me. I don’t want to change you … not that I could. A lot of the time it’s just me ragging on you … like I do to SSS. You know how I am …. an attention whore. Keep on keeping on. Place wouldn’t be the same without you.

I am aware of the slaughter of Germans after the war. The Russians were especially brutal. Germans living in Eastern European countries, kicked out and told to march back to Germany, they died in huge numbers. Revenge killing … considering the horrors of WWII, I kind of understand it. It was a sad time … for the killers and the killed … that kind of thing changes everyone for the worse.

But, Ike did not take part in mass murder. Again, where is the documented evidence / proof?

Stucky

“Saying your Saying your unquestionably lovely parents loved Ike is like offering an empty soup bowl. parents loved Ike is like offering an empty soup bowl.” —T4C

I don’t think so. It’s not that my parents are “unquestionably lovely” It’s that they are not stupid. They don’t know about this vast conspiracy. A million men mysteriously vanish off the face of the earth, and no one in a country the size of California knows about it? Implausible.

OK, forget Stephen Ambrose. I’ll bet that within 15 minutes of searching I could find a LOT more folks critical of Bacque. We can play my-expert-is-better-than-yours.

.
“I on the other hand…..don’t expect anything from you. It simply wouldn’t be fair to you” —T4C

Well, that wasn’t very nice. You hate Germans don’t you??!! Rayciss!!
.
.
“So, I doubt if this comment gets read” —– T4C

Not true. I read the whole thing. Bookmarked the links for later reference. I learned more from your post regarding Ike than I knew previously.

I am not an Ike scholar … never even read a single book about him. I probably like him because my parents loved him, so I’ve believed Ike was cool since being a kid, in other words for a long time and for no definitive reason …. and because SSS says Ike is great.

To be honest with you, T4C, I probably also WANT to believe we had a decent President during my lifetime … someone to be somewhat proud of. Jesus Krist, do they all fuckin suck?? Was there no one decent? How far back do I have to go? George Washington? Wait … flash says he sucks too. Jeebus Krist!

Stucky

Oh … dammit … thanks for the long thoughtfully written post. And you have a good night, also.

SSS

Another fucking TBP goat rope. This time between Stucky and T4C.

I’ve got an early tee time tomorrow. Evidently, Stucky needs help in smashing T4C, even though I mistakenly thought that lightweight had the situation under control. Help will be late in coming, but it will come.

Zarathustra

The only true war hero I have known (medal of honor recipient from Guadalcana,l 1942 campaign, 1st. Lt in the Marine Corps, participant in the battle of “bloody ridge”), eventually rose in the Marine Corps to Lt. Col and served in the 50’s in Germany. He had a mistress and to provide an excuse to his wife for visits to her, he took his 8 year old daughter with him, who was left to play in mistress’s living room while the war hero banged her in the bedroom, young daughter fully aware of what was going on.

But hey, he’s a war hero! America’s best! Why shouldn’t he have compelledl his young daughter to lie to her mother about where they went?

And that is all you need to know about the “Greatest Generation,” and all you need to know about why the Boomers rebelled against them.

flash
flash

To be honest with you, T4C, I probably also WANT to believe we had a decent President during my lifetime … someone to be somewhat proud of. Jesus Krist, do they all fuckin suck?? Was there no one decent? How far back do I have to go? George Washington? Wait … flash says he sucks too. Jeebus Krist!

I never said Washington was a bad president . As far as presidents go he was one of the best , along with Calvin Coolidge. But, I sincerely doubt radical extremists like Washington or Coolidge could get elected in today’s dumbed down electoral circus of FSA reakd , morons mewling half-men and shrieking harpies.

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=127863&stc=1&d=1346044758

That said, getting back to Eisenhower , Pat Buchanan lays out the full gamut of war crimes committed against the German at the end of WWII , but you’ll have to read to read his book Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World to see the full documentation.And another good read on the whole mass genocidal era of WWII and Ike’s presidence is Carroll Quigley’s Hope of the Wicked wherein Quigley describes Eisenhower as an empty suit qualified for neither the presidency of Columbia University nor the Unites States.

Metapedai has a little on this Eisenhower war crimes , but nevertheless like all statist historians are naturally bent there are those who will defend the likes of Lincoln , FDR, Truman, LBJ, Stalin, Mao and even Hiltler (and Gave) if it gets them a friggin pat on the head and an attaboy from the big boys higher up.

http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_Dwight_Eisenhower

Eisenhower also did not oppose the transfers of POWs for forced labor. The topic of using Germans as forced labor was first broached at the Tehran conference, where Soviet premier Joseph Stalin demanded at least 4,000,000 German workers to repair enormous damage inflicted by German invasion on Soviet Union[2] . It was included in the Morgenthau Plan and was finally included in the protocol of the Yalta conference where it was sanctioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although not included in the protocol of the Potsdam conference the policy was nevertheless later implemented de facto. In March 1947 4,000,000 Germans were being used as forced labor [30]. General Eisenhower transferred several hundred thousands of POWs to the Soviets[31] which used them, alongside Soviet captured POWs and German civilians, as forced laborers (See also Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union for the fate of the civilians). Death rates for the German civilians doing forced labor in the Soviet Union ranged between 19% – 39%, depending on category. Most German POW survivors of the forced labor camps in the Soviet Union were released in 1953.[32][33]. The last Germans were repatriated in 1956.

The U.S. used over 500,000 German POWs in Germany in Military Labor Service Units[34]. Great Britain used 225,000 Germans as “reparations labor”. In addition to the 200,000 Germans held by French forces (and 70,000 held by France in Algeria), France demanded 1,700,000 POWs for use as “enforced labor”.[35] In July 1945 they were promised 1,300,000 POWs by the SHAEF. The number of actually delivered prisoners is debated, as is the number of surviving POWs eventually released by the French.[36] General George S. Patton commented in his diary “I’m also opposed to sending POW’s to work as slaves in foreign lands (in particular, to France) where many will be starved to death.” He also noted “It is amusing to recall that we fought the revolution in defense of the rights of man and the civil war to abolish slavery and have now gone back on both principles”.[36] On 12 October 1945 The New York Herald Tribune reported that the French were starving their POWs, and compared their emaciation to that of those liberated from the Dachau concentration camp[37]. German prisoners were for example forced to clear minefields in France and the Low Countries. By December 1945 it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents.[38] On 13 March 1947 the U.S. made an agreement with the French to the effect that roughly 450,000 German prisoners would be released, at a rate of 20,000 a month. This number included the roughly 200,000 prisoners the French had themselves captured.[39]. In Norway the last available casualty record, from August 29, 1945, shows that by that time a total of 275 German soldiers had been killed while clearing mines, while an additional 392 had been maimed.[3]

In discussions between France and the US in early 1947 regarding whether France should begin repatriating its German prisoners it was noted that of the 740,000 handed over by the U.S. to France for forced labor only 450,000 remained; 290,000 had been “stricken off the rolls”.[4]

flash
flash

…more on courage from http://www.starvingthemonkeys.com/articles/BundyParadox.html

The Bundy Paradox
Often, people think that the highest courage is required in combat. That misunderstanding of the nature of courage is absolute horseshit. While I haven’t had the bang-bang shoot-em-up kind of combat as many of my readers have, I have lived under the shadow of potentially-chemical Scuds and have been lit up by SAM sites whilst ordering the killing of people so some evil shits could get richer, so I kind of have the right idea.

Combat courage boils down to this: you accept that you will/can/might die, and you put that aside and move forward. Should that day arrive, there is the possibility that you might at least die a hero, your family gets survivor benefits, and they get to put some flag on the wall in a nice box and think about you for a few minutes each year between chowing down on hotdogs. Or, if you get all messed up but don’t actually die, you get to soak in some sympathetic admiration for life, while getting some checks along the way. Happy, fuzzy, flag-waving thoughts to get you through your day (or years), or next mission.

In other words, combat courage, when performed with a little stripey flag on your shoulder, is a relatively consequence-free kind of fantasy courage, where even if you lose, in a twisted kind of way, you still win.

Contrast this to the kind of courage required to even show up at the Bundy ranch in support, knowing full well that one could die, or at the very least, be tracked down later for arrest, and with all the life-altering consequences such as forever being marked as a radical by our Human Resourced corporate society. Imagine trying to face your kids because you lost your job, and all future jobs, over an idea that most suburban slobs cannot even articulate. Or facing the prospect of your children being orphaned because you went to the aid of some guy you don’t even know, over that same idea. Now that, my friends, is courage. The real, nut-crunching kind of courage, which wouldn’t even be recognized by the soft and sallow suburbanite which is the current American electorate, including the combat veterans among them.

It is one thing to face death knowing that at least a fake kind of honor awaits. It is entirely different knowing that your entire character will be later impugned by the elite press, a la Waco et al, who will also try their damnedest to shame your families into self-destruction. My black hat is off to each of you out there, including those horseback cowboys waving the flag, not realizing that this time around, you are the Indians. God bless each of you for what you are doing and have done for the rest of us. Including us ribbon-wearing combat veterans.

What you are doing, no matter what the outcome, will not be in vain.

SSS
SSS

T4C

No sabía que usted es un homo. No es que haya nada malo en ello. Por lo tanto, voy a rimar tu culo cuando vuelva.

SSS

T4C

That obscene Spanish bullshit posted above at 7:19 am wasn’t me.

SSS

THE FORCED REPATRIATION OF SOVIET CITIZENS:

A STUDY IN MILITARY OBEDIENCE

Donna E. Dismukes December, 1996 (link to thesis follows)

“Eureka. I found it.”
—-T4C

“The truth of the matter was that an estimated three to five million Soviets were in
the service of the Reich. They fell into three basic categories: forced laborers, POWs and
Soviet defectors.”
—-from the thesis T4C found

Ah, so THESE were the Russians who were returned to the Soviet Union, with the vast majority having been forced laborers essentially kidnapped by the Nazis. BTW, although the return to Soviet control of these Russians was agreed to by FDR, the thesis link you provided also notes that the British and American senior military officers found the policy so distasteful that 500,000 Russian citizens somehow managed to “escape” or miraculously had their nationality changed. Ike eventually put a stop to the whole damn program.

Now, as Stucky has asked a couple of times re German POWs, where are the bodies, T4C? Hiding over a million bodies is something even Houdini couldn’t pull off. I’ve visited the mass graves of 400,000 people who died during the siege of Leningrad. Dozens of mounds of earth for as far as the eye can see. One of the saddest and most sobering sights I have ever seen.

Finally, T4C, have you ever considered the fact that Ike and MacArthur NEVER acted in a vacuum as theater commanders? For one simple reason. They couldn’t.

Ike had a whole host of honorable, senior generals to deal with, not just Patton. Men like Omar Bradley, Mark Clark, Mathew Ridgeway, and dozens of others. All of these men would have to be COMPLICIT with any order to deliberately mistreat German POWs, not to mention the thousands of American soldiers manning the POW camps themselves.

Yet, somehow, all of THEIR reputations remain untarnished even to this day. None of their biographies are stained with any mention of mistreatment of German POWs? How did that happen, T4C, if there were even a SMIDGEN of truth to what you allege of Ike?

Fact of the matter is, T4C, these allegations are totally false. Sorry. Thanks for playing.

Memo to flash: shut the fuck up.

GilbertS
GilbertS

Read On Killing by LTC David Grossman. He studied the history of how the military got people to overcome their natural inhibition against killing people. Interestingly, videogames and realistic people-shaped targets were a big part of it.

Also, look up Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America by Dr. John Shay. The author was a PTSD therapist who compared modern PTSD to classical literature and felt there was a strong connection between what our vets today say and what the warriors of the past said. His comparisons are chilling. Based on what he wrote, I think a modern veteran and a hoplite from a few thousand years ago might understand each other better than their contemporaries.

There isn’t enough space to go into what Dr. Shay writes, but I assure you, it was illuminating. Reading his detailed accounts of PTSD, both historical and modern, is fascinating. It shed some light on my own comparatively minor experience. I did a year and a half overseas, and I got through with nary a scrape. I still came back with some baggage and needed some time to decompress afterwards. I can totally understand why alcohol is the first thing people turn to. I never went to the VA for anything. I’ve never once checked in with them-Active duty medicine is deadly enough as it is.

If you read up on other veterans accounts, try Russians’ accounts. I have a book at home about Russian veterans and how they have had to lead a double life, living with the atrocities of WWII and the brutality of their own side, and basking in the official adoration of the public and the state for 70 years. The writer said it is very hard to get Russian vets to remember anything but the official heroic account. They don’t remember or avoid the nasty details that conflict with the official story, such as looting corpses, widespread rapery, etc. They’ve been living this dual life for so long, the official fiction is more real than the truth. The author pointed out that while Americans have written countless wartime memoirs, very few Russians have.

GilbertS
GilbertS

There are accounts of the open air prison camps the German soldiers were herded into at the end of the war in France and Germany. They were left to die of exposure in the open elements and they were starved. I forget the German soldier’s account I read about it, but you can dig that story up. I have his story in my sprawling WWII shelf. They weren’t necessarily murdered, just left to suffer with inadequate provisions or shelter. Not hard when all of Europe is blown up to make room for a few more corpses. Finally, let me point out the massacre at My Lai seemed perfectly reasonable to the folks involved. It isn’t hard to get people to participate in a war crime, especially if they’ve been fighting their victims tooth and nail just prior. (Look up the Milgram experiments and the Stanford Prison experiments. And read Ordinary Men: The Men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution and look up Abu Ghraib…)

A lot of truths about the war have been forgotten or covered up. For instance, did you hear about the US having mustard gas in Europe? A lucky German bomber blew up a US ship carrying a load of mustard gas in Bari, causing the only chemical release of the war. Or did you hear about the concentration camps in the US for Americans of German and Italian descent?(no one ever apologized to them and they aren’t holding their breaths) Have you ever heard anyone talk about the Bonus March and how Ike and Patton and Black Jack Pershing led tanks and cavalry against unarmed men, women, and children?

BTW- my spouse’s family live in a farmhouse that was originally German. When the Soviets decided to redraw the map, Prussia suddenly became Poland and lots of Germans people suddenly had to resettle to the West. It’s a lovely home. When you contrast those pre-war German farms with the Communist-era concrete blocks on the same road, well, you have to admire German craftsmanship. According to my spouse, the Communists made it illegal to build a peaked roof because it was a bourgeoisie waste of materials, so everyone had flat roofs that leaked.

SSS

flash

In addition to shutting the fuck up, I noted you might be a fan of Silent Cal. Well, the U.S. mint just came out with a Coolidge product. Order yours today. Only $19.95.

comment image

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading