Re: Historical Ignorance - was Re: World's First Fuel Cell-Powered Train Locomotive Slated for 2008

From: Don Kelly (dhky_at_peeshaw.ca)
Date: 08/19/04 

Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 05:24:51 GMT

"LongmuirG" <longmuirg@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040818232909.28878.00001272@mb-m26.aol.com...
> Canadian Dreamer Ian St. John displayed profound historical ignorance:
> <tendentious garbage snipped>
> >However, the outcome of the war
> >without the U.S. was probably a 'pyrhic victory' with both Germany and
> >Britain exhausted by the time they finish.
> <more rubbish snipped>
>
> It is strange when even hate-spewing extreme leftist Canadians ignore
their
> former hero -- Stalin.
>
> For all the evil that Stalin did, we cannot ignore or diminish the fact
that he
> was the leader of the Soviet Union during its struggle against Nazi
Germany in
> the later part of World War II.
>
> The history seems fairly clear -- at staggering human cost, the peoples of
the
> Soviet Union bled Nazi Germany dry. (The Soviets got substantial material
> support from the USA, but a modern Canadian ultra-leftist would not want
to
> acknowledge that).
>
> Not to take anything away from the heroism and sacrifice of the Western
allies
> in the air war over Germany and the D-Day invasion, but Germany was on the
> losing end of the struggle from Stalingrad on.
>
> Without US involvement, the probability is that the war in Europe would
have
> had a much higher body count but a fairly similar outcome -- the
Communists of
> the Soviet Union would have ground down the National Socialists of
Germany,
> with Britain left exhausted on the sidelines. The Vichy French might have
> found "liberation" by the Soviets much less enjoyable than liberation by
the
> Western allies. And there would have been no Soviet humanitarian
equivalent to
> the USA's astonishingly generous Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe.
>
> I can understand that Canadian liberals don't know anything about
energy --
> many liberals everywhere have problems with the immutable laws of physics.
But
> don't they teach history in Canada anymore?
-----------------------------------------

Ian St John is not representative of Canadians.

 Nor was Stalin a "hero" in Canada anymore than he was a "hero" in the US
during the war. If I recall correctly, it was Churchill who recognised the
future threat from Stalin before the US .

Yes, we do get history in Canada and the contribution of the US is not
trivialised. The Marshall Plan could not have been undertaken by any other
country. However, we also are proud of our contributions which were and not
trivial and out of proportion to our population.

We may not care for Bush and his policies but note that far more Americans
than Canadians also do not care for them- does this make them anti-American?

Ian's concepts of engineering and economics, appear to be as far out as his
vitreol . 

--
Canadian (liberal but not "leftist") and proud of it.
Don Kelly
dhky@peeshaw.ca
remove the urine to answer

Relevant Pages