Honestly, now that Obama is the nominee........

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by rubytuesday

. . . So you're giving in to say that yes Russia played a significant part but you won't back down that it's due to America that we're all free of Nazi's? Come on. Russia was up at 4am, digging the path,pouring the cement, laying the bricks, and America comes along in the early hours of midday and sweeps through helping to finish off what Russia simply didn't have the numbers to do. Nobody is denying what America did but it this claim that we'd all be speaking German like we owe America something when if you look at it from outside of an American perspective then you'd see how we don't owe anything or if we do we owe numerous nations who don't go around tooting there own horn like americans do.

It's like in cricket when someone gets caught out they are acknowledged as having performed their task perfectly but it's the bowler that is said to have taken the wicket 'cause they set up the shot. You're acting like you not only took the wicket but took out the whole team 'cause you caught another bowler's ball. And then you wonder why you're booed off the field.

Once again, the allies, as a whole were failing, though Russia was, for the most part, finally holding her own on the Eastern Front, which was only one part of the war.

The fact remains that if America and her millions of troops had not fought in Europe, Germany would have conquered France (he sort of had already) and likely England, which he was bombing to bits in The Blitz (7th September 1940 to New Year's Day 1941). Remember, nothing going on in Europe at that time was really any of America's concern, though Hitler was an evil person. America's beef was with Japan. Remember, Anerica declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941. On December 11, Hitler and Mussolini declared war on America and the U.S. Congress responded in kind on December 11,1941. I just do not see how you can argue that the infusion of the US' 12 million + troops did not turn the tide and save the day

So, yes, Europe does owe America a "thank you" and they often give it. Also, I do not see America as a nation constantly asking for it. I brought it up in the context of this thread to demonstrate that America is a significant world presence. Interestingly, Russia emerged from WWII as a superpower as well, but since, like France, has mostly lost it. England and America are, for the moment, the only true super powers in the sense that they provide aid and try, for the most part, to keep the peace, with the possible exception of Iraq. I suppose most of the world now works through the UN, which is scary considering how corrupt we learned that institution is/was.