May 8, 2005
MISUNDERESTIMATION:
What Exactly Is Bush Celebrating in Moscow? (Pat Buchanan, 5/08/05, Real Clear Politics)
To Americans, World War II ended with the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, following detonation of atom bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9.But for Russians, who did not enter the war on Japan until Aug. 8, 1945, "The Great Patriotic War" ended on May 9, with the surrender of Nazi Germany. Which raises a question:
What exactly is President Bush celebrating in Moscow?The destruction of Bolshevism was always the great goal of Hitler. And the Red Army eventually bore the brunt of battle, losing 10 times as many soldiers as America and Britain together.
But were we and the Soviets ever fighting for the same things, as FDR believed? Or was Stalin's war against Hitler but another phase of Bolshevism's war to eradicate Christianity and the West? [...]
Hitler's attack on Poland, the success of which was guaranteed by that pact, came on Sept. 1, 1939. On Sept. 17, Stalin, who had hidden in the weeds to see how Britain and France would react to Hitler's invasion, stormed into Poland from the east and claimed his share of the martyred nation. Six years of terror for Poles began, ending in 44 years of captivity in the bowels of what Ronald Reagan bravely called an "evil empire." [...]
Between 13 million and 15 million Germans were ethnically cleansed from the Baltic region, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Two million, mostly women and children, perished in an orgy of murder, rape and massacre that attended that greatest forced exodus in European history.
As a result of the Great Patriotic War, Finland had its Karelian Peninsula torn away by Stalin and 10 Christian countries -- Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Yugoslavia -- endured Stalinist persecution and tyranny for half a century.
Again, what, exactly, is Bush celebrating in Moscow?
Mr. Buchanan wrote a bit too hastily and underestimated the President's understanding of that ugly history. Fun to watch Mr. Bush so deftly handle the "impossible situation" this trip was supposed to represent. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 8, 2005 10:27 AM
For Buchanan, the anniversary of Hitler's defeat is an occasion for sackcloth and ashes, not rejoicing.
To claim that Hitler's great objective was 'the destruction of Bolshevism' begs the question: If that was the case why did he attack anti-Communist regimes in France, Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland,Greece etc? Going to Moscow through Bruxelles seems like one wanted to take the scenic route.
As for the Germans ethnically cleansed from Eastern Europe, given their behavior in the region during the Hitler period and when they were the catspaws of various Germanic empires in the region, they deserved far worse.
Posted by: bart at May 9, 2005 2:18 PMBecause they declared war on him.
Posted by: oj at May 9, 2005 3:01 PMBelgium, Luxembourg, Greece, and certainly Poland did not declare war on Hitler first.
Posted by: bart at May 9, 2005 3:37 PMThey were incidental.
Posted by: oj at May 9, 2005 4:49 PMThey were innocent. But then, OJ, you and I both know why Buchanan is soft on Nazism. But you feel an almost sexual compulsion to delete me when I bring up the obvious.
Posted by: bart at May 9, 2005 10:20 PMNo, I don't think it makes someone a Nazi to recognize that the war wasn't in our national interest.
Posted by: oj at May 9, 2005 11:25 PM