Sun editorial:
No appeasing evil
The atrocities of World War II should be a chilling reminder to the world
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
In the 1930s the world’s leading powers tried to stop the rising Nazi threat in Germany by following an ill-begotten policy of appeasement, seeking to placate Adolf Hitler. In 1938, after Britain and France signed an agreement allowing Germany to expand its territory, British Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain infamously declared there would be “peace in our time.”
Less than a year later Nazi Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. The invasion was 70 years ago today, and the story of the Nazi regime and its atrocities should never be forgotten.
Despite Chamberlain’s declaration, there were clear signs of Nazi Germany’s intentions. Before the war, as Europe watched, Hitler’s government harassed, segregated and jailed Jews and others deemed to be undesirable. It also built an imposing military.
Hitler expanded Germany’s territory through various agreements and treaties. Left unchecked, Hitler grew more brazen.
When Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France — the powers in Western Europe — declared war. They had pledged to fight for Poland’s defense, but they didn’t have the means. They had let Germany build up its military into a force that was superior to any other at the time. Nazi Germany was easily able to cut across Western Europe to conquer France.
Hitler also neutralized the power to the east, the Soviet Union, by signing a nonaggression pact. He agreed to split Poland with the Soviets. Two years later Hitler broke the agreement and ordered the invasion of Soviet-held Poland and the Soviet Union.
The Nazis constructed concentration camps across Europe, shipping off Jews and other perceived enemies. More than 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including more than 1 million at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland.
In the decades since, there have been any number of wars and countless atrocities, from the killing fields of Khmer Rouge to the ethnic cleansing in Darfur. They have all been committed because the world’s leading nations looked the other way or tried to placate a regime. If there is one lesson the world should remember today, it’s that evil cannot be appeased.
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In lib crazy world, what "crimes" and breakage of the US Constitution that FDR and Truman were on a large scale.
They never talk about it.
Yet, they rank and rave at the actions of Bush which were perfectly legal and tiny when compared to what FDR and Truman did.
Do I smell a big hint of hypocripsy?
you know what the world needs...
more nazi movies...
more holocaust movies...
i don't think 10 a year is enough!!!
hey private pebble...
w the scum bag liar loser clown and cheny the evil doer started a war based on lies...
got that skippy...
we invaded a foreign country based on lies...
4,000 brave americans dead...
over $1 trillion wasted...
based on lies...
that is a crime...
ain't no hypocripsy...
ain't no hypocrisy either...
got that skippy!!!
What lies are you talking about?
Up to the very end of the Clinton adminstration, they were saying Hussein had WMD's.
The CIA director said it was a slam dunk that Iraq had WMD's. You do know who appointed that CIA director.
You do know that one point in time Iraq did have WMD's.
And of course, you will never call your hero, FDR and Truman criminals and they did a lot of stuff.
How about you go back to dreaming?
Ronald Reagan gave the Iraqi's the WMD's to use against Iran and he did use some, Then he retained a few to use on his people and who ever stood against him.........
So why didn't they get the weapons under bush Sr.
Funny how media missed this about Kennedy trying to cut a deal with KGB. Guess evil depends on your perspective. And to think dumbocrats get upset when their patriotism is questioned.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis...
We have not won a war out right since World War 2 >>>>> There are just to many liberals in this country and the United Nations always gets in the way also we are lock in this bull#hit of a world economy. I really don't even know why we even have a military today they don't seem all that interested in breaking things and killing people anymore so whats the use. A couple of million more people in the unemployment line is not going to make that big of a difference. Also we have a upside down economy dependent on are enemies anyway. CHINA, RUSSIA, VIETNAM, AND ALL THE OIL RICH COUNTRYS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. This country is appeasing evil all the time so that nothing gets in the way of corporate profits. Yea to bad that we don't have a real country anymore we used to before we got sold out by the United States Federal Government.
The Sun got it right:
"If there is one lesson the world should remember today, it's that evil cannot be appeased."
LarryVegas -- what do you mean by "evil"? Too many here, including the Sun, forget Hitler and the Nazi party were elected by the people of Germany. At one point it took five BILLION deutschemarks to buy just one American dollar. The scenario was close to what we Americans are now sliding toward.
Historically Hitler was no one particularly extraordinary, as tyrants go. For real atrocities you have to look at the popes and the history of the Catholic Church (look up "requerimiento" and "Inquisitions"), and what the USA did to its native population as a matter of policy pretty much throughout the 19th century. Can you say "genocide"?
KillerB: If you took time to notice, the word evil was taken from a quote from the LV Sun. Hence the quotation marks...
By the way, comparing the Catholic Church to the German Nazis shows that you need to take a break.
The Prosecutor: Never, never in the history of jurisprudence have such terrifying deeds been brought to light. Gentlemen of the jury, you have before you a cruel and cynical monster. Look at him!
[all heads turn to face Verdoux, who turns around himself to look behind.]
The Prosecutor: Observe him, gentlemen. This man, who has brains, if he had decent instincts, could have made an honest living. And yet, he preferred to rob and murder unsuspecting women. In fact, he made a business of it. I do not ask for vengeance, but for the protection of society. For this mass killer, I demand the extreme penalty: that he be put to death on the guillotine. The State rests its case.
Judge: Monsieur Verdoux, you have been found guilty. Have you anything to say before sentence is passed upon you?
Henri Verdoux: Oui, monsieur, I have. However remiss the prosecutor has been in complimenting me, he at least admits that I have brains. Thank you, Monsieur, I have. And for thirty-five years I used them honestly. After that, nobody wanted them. So I was forced to go into business for myself. As for being a mass killer, does not the world encourage it? Is it not building weapons of destruction for the sole purpose of mass killing? Has it not blown unsuspecting women and little children to pieces? And done it very scientifically? As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison. However, I do not wish to lose my temper, because very shortly, I shall lose my head. Nevertheless, upon leaving this spark of earthly existence, I have this to say: I shall see you all...very soon...very soon.
Henri Verdoux: Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.
Henri Verdoux: Wars, conflict - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!
-Monsieur Verdoux 1947
"If there is one lesson the world should remember today, it's that evil cannot be appeased."
Did not the USA make a deal with one devil to get rid of another devil?
Stalin was just a bad as Hitler and maybe even worse.
Stalin killed more people and eventually they started to imprison and kill jews, too.
FDR/Truman:
1) Denied oil imports to Japan which forced them to choose war with the USA.
2) Had 100% intelligence that Japan was preparing to go to war with the USA months before the attack but did nothing to stop it
3) On the day of the attack had very strong intelligence that Pearl Habor, Phillipines and other bases were going to be attack later that day and did not effectively communicate that to the commanders in the field.
4) Placed US citizens in camps because of their race
5) Denied habeas corpus to Germans citizens who were arrested on US soil
6) Gave a quick military tribunal and excuted those citizens within days by giving them a status of "unlawful enemy combatants" (...not criminals...not POW's)
7) Fire bombed cities where 100,000's of civilian men, women and children would die in just one night
8) American troops on the front lines would often beat up capture enemy to get intelligence out of them before turning them over to MP's
9) There were 10,000's of German prisoners who died of starvation in US prison camps in Europe
Bush:
1) Entered a war based on intelligance reports generated by CIA that was headed by a Democrat and Democratic appointed.
2) Those same intelligence reports were very similar to the ones that were generated up to the end of the Clinton years
3) He wanted Echelon to track calls between Americans and foreign terrorist
4) He ordered 6 or so terrorist to be water boarded and as a result got valuable information
5) Wanted to know when somebody want to check out books out of the library on how to build a bomb (serious stuff)
There is no comparison.
If Bush was evil or a criminal then the father of the modern day Democratic party had to the Superman of evil presidents.
"...comparing the Catholic Church to the German Nazis shows that you need to take a break."
LarryV -- no, it means I'm liberatedfrom dogma in general and theism in particular. You can't see the hypocrisy here -- presenting Hitler, et al., as "evil" while he's quite mediocre when compared to the "thou shalt not kill" professors?
Excellent post SgtRock: I enjoyed that very much' As you also say about the modern Democratic party: I myself also say that they are nothing but a party of spineless losers that have know idea of how to govern as the majority party.
Excellent post SgtRock.
W's little dust up in the middle east pales in comparison to the harm caused by democrat wars of choice.
WWI democrat war of choice, 150,000 killed.
WWII democrat war of choice, 600,000 killed
Korea democrat war of choice, 50,000 killed
Viet Nam democrat war of choice, 60,000 killed
War Crimes democrat, 300,000 killed Japan