Thread: Why are we at war?

This came in my e-mail from a friend. An interesting perspective...


I asked a friend of mine who is in his 80's who was in the Korean War and World War II to give me a little history lesson and his thoughts today on War.
I am sharing this because it is a different look at the War. It is not my opinion just thoughts from an honorable man that lived through two Wars and that I have a great respect for. Thoughts to think about:
........................
I'm not going to get into a history lesson. The short, short version is that the League of Nations (established after WW I to prevent wars) failed to stop Mussolini's Italy from invading and conquering Ethiopia. It failed to stop Japan from invading and conquering Manchuria and much of China. Their committees wrung their hands spoke in platitudes but did absolutely nothing to stop war.

At France's coaxing Britain's prime minister Nevil Chamberlain met with Adolph Hitler in Munich and surrendered the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany in the interest of "peace in our time." The French and British watched as Germany took Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia. They all had committee meetings and wrung their hands and talked of peace.

World War II erupted when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Britain had a mutual defense treaty with Poland so they couldn't escape. They declared war on Germany. Germany had a mutual defense treaty with Japan so Japan declared war on Britain. France wet their pants and surrendered to Germany as fast as they could and gleefully shipped all the Jews they could find to death camps in Germany to prove to Adolph that they really were on the side of Germany.

Japan attacked the United States and, because of Japan's mutual defense treaty with Germany, Germany declared war on the United States.

Up until December 7th and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a large number of our people were wringing their hands and saying, "Appease Hitler. He is really a good guy who just needed a little more land for his expanding population. The dear man just wants peace. And World War II was in full swing leaving better than 50,000,000 people dead including about 450,000 American soldiers and sailors.
Three cheers for the League of Nations! After World War II it was decided to do the whole thing all over again. This time we would call it the United Nations and we will have committee meetings and hand wringing parties and make sure peace prevails throughout the land.

While that august body wrung hands the Soviet Union split Germany, invaded Poland and Yugoslavia, Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria along with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The peaceful world saw Korea with 37,000 American soldiers killed, over 1,000,000 South Korean soldiers and civilians killed and the country nearly destroyed.

Since then we have had over 50,000 American soldiers killed in Vietnam and have fought wars in Somalia, Herzegovenia, Panama, Granada, plus the Gulf War when Iraq invaded Kuwait. We should have gone into Baghdad and taken out that evil regime then but the United Nations would have no part of that. All they would allow was for us to chase the Iraqis out of Kuwait, then peace would prevail.

Now, here we are with Saddam violating all 17 United Nations resolutions while he has massed poison gas and bio weapons.

He is frantically trying to develop a nuke and his buddy, Kim Jong-Il of North Korea may give him a few. (It was the United Nations who prevented us from taking North Korea when the war was hot and we had the means to do it.)
Peace!!!!!!!! Sure.

France is wetting their collective pants in fear that the United States will take Saddam out and along with him, France's 60 billion dollar contracts with Iraq. Russia hedges because Iraq owes them 6 billion dollars that they sorely need.

In answer to your question....... hell yes we should go to war with Iraq. We should have done it six months ago. We should also get out of the United Nations. Can you believe that the United Nations has appointed Iraq and Syria to head up the United Nations Disarmament Committee? Can you believe they have appointed Libya to head up the Human Rights Committee? All three of these countries are on the UN List of Terrorist
States.............Absolutely unbelievable.

Just don't get me going. Throughout recorded history the only time peace has prevailed is when the good guys have militarily whipped the bad guys. Who are our best friends in the world? Japan because we whipped them in WWII. Germany because we whipped them in WWII. Italy because we whipped them in WWII. Britain because we whipped them in the 1700's.

This is one opinion, on the War but this is the eyes, ears and heart of
an American Veteran...

What do you think???

Oh! also I had this to add on for those who read along this far...

Parle Vous???
A friend of mine is an officer in the U.S. Naval reserve. A few weeks
ago, he was attending a conference that included admirals from both the U.S.
Navy and the French Navy. At a cocktail reception, my friend found himself in
a small group that included personel from both Navies. The French admiral
started complaining that whereas Europeans learned many languages,
Americans only learned English. He then asked: "Why is it that we have to speak English in these
conferences rather than you speak french?" Without hesitating, the American Admiral
replied: "Maybe its because we arranged it so that you did not have to speak German."
The group became silent.
End

This should be reguired reading in every school and published in every paper.

Originally posted by janelle
This should be reguired reading in every school and published in every paper.

Why? So people can see that the author knows almost nothing about history?

...League of Nations (established after WW I to prevent wars) failed to stop Mussolini's Italy from invading and conquering Ethiopia.

Let's ignore the fact that the US backed out of its promise to join the League of Nations when it was founded because of the isolationist sentiment in this country. Go here and read the League's charter and you will see it was a diplomatic group set up to try and end war.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/V.../leachart.html

Just like the UN, if someone chooses not to follow the League's mandate there was little that could be done.

...Nevil Chamberlain met with Adolph Hitler in Munich and surrendered the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany

Yep he did. However, part of Chamberlain's reasoning was the Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of World War I which was incredibly harsh on Germany. You can read it here:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/ve...rcontents.html

Why was the treaty so harsh that it caused outrageous inflation, poverty, and famine and led to the rise of the Nazi Party and eventually World War II?
Because the US, rather than sticking it out in the treaty negotiations and trying to get Woodrow Wilson's 14 points instituted, decided to let the european countries create a treaty that would cause these conditions.

France wet their pants and surrendered to Germany as fast as they could and gleefully shipped all the Jews they could find to death camps in Germany to prove to Adolph that they really were on the side of Germany.

This is the STUPIDEST thing I have ever read and shows how little the author knows of History. Apparently loosing over 100,000 men trying to stop the German invasion is "wetting you pants." As for shipping the Jews out, guess what? The Germans set up the Vichy Government in France so is it really a shock that they deported Jews? Oh by the way, Hitler tried to get other countries including the US to take the German Jews in 1935 and they wouldn't.

Up until December 7th and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a large number of our people were wringing their hands and saying, "Appease Hitler.

Yep, and there were people that wanted to join Hitler. There are always people who don't want war if it doesn't involve their country directly. During the American Revolution an estimated one-third of the colonists wanted to stay with Britain.

Three cheers for the League of Nations! After World War II it was decided to do the whole thing all over again. This time we would call it the United Nations and we will have committee meetings and hand wringing parties and make sure peace prevails throughout the land.

Actually if you read the charters of the two you would find the difference. Go here:
http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/

While that august body wrung hands the Soviet Union split Germany...
Not quite. The Allied powers divided Germany in Spheres of Influence first. Read the actual history of what happened here:
http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/course...germanies.html


we have had over 50,000 American soldiers killed in Vietnam
Yep, all in the name of stopping Communism from overrunning Asia. Read the History of Vietnam and you read the history of a country that was taken over by Europeans and didn't turn to communism until after WW II when we wouldn't insist that they, like other European colonies, get their freedom.

Now, here we are with Saddam violating all 17 United Nations resolutions while he has massed poison gas and bio weapons.

haven't found them yet though, have we?

(It was the United Nations who prevented us from taking North Korea when the war was hot and we had the means to do it.)

NO. It was actually the one million Chinese Soldiers that swept down across the Yalu River that prevented us from taking North Korea. They pushed UN Forces back to below the 38th paralell.

France's 60 billion dollar contracts with Iraq

No, more like $4 billion and it isn't "France's" contract it is a contract by TotalFinaElf which is a French company. And please don't tell me your naive enough to think that the US government doesn't take business concerns into account when we attack other countries.


All that being said let me add this. I'm glad for the people of Iraq that Saddam is gone. But we need to start getting our people out and getting the UN peacekeepers in to set up the government. Otherwise the hardline anti-US movement there will continue to grow. That is what happened in Vietnam and it will happen in Iraq as well.

Personally I think wars are always going to be with us forever. As long as we are living on this earth. It's not a perfect place. If our country fights and pulls out of that country then some will say our country didn't do enough or they left the people to fend for themselves, no wonder it escalated to the point it has. If we stay some will say we are just trying to take control of the country and all it's resourses. We should go in do the job and get out. So it's a never ending problem both ways.

Now we are being attacked on our soil. What shoud we do? Sit back and hope for the best or try to be proactive and go after terrorists wherever they and their supporters are? Both options has risks and downsides but what side do we want to be on? It will be important if or when our country is being taken over. Scarey.