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Post by Dallas Cowboy on Jun 6, 2008 22:50:14 GMT
Not only do Americans butcher the English language with their spellings and made-up words, they also seem to want to rewrite history and some have difficulty in understanding the political spectrum.
Here is today's editorial leader column from The Florida Times-Union, the daily paper in Jacksonville, which I refer to as the Jacksonville Joke.
D-Day: Turning point
Today is the 64th anniversary of perhaps the most logistically difficult and historically significant military maneuver since the dawn of time.
It was the invasion of Normandy, a beach area in occupied France during World War II. It happened June 6, 1944 - D-Day.
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower planned well.
Thousands of bombs had been dropped and an estimated 13,000 saboteurs had been parachuted behind enemy lines to destroy rail lines, bridges and landing fields, u-s-history.com reports.
Even then, Ike had a daunting task - sneaking his troops 100 miles across the English Channel to face a well-equipped army of defenders headed by Gen. Erwin Rommel.
The legendary "Desert Fox" was one of the greatest military minds of all time.
And Ike had to count on untested troops; fewer than 15 percent of them had seen combat, the Web site says.
The fight was long, furious and bloody.
At times, it looked hopeless. But in the end, the Americans and their Allies somehow had prevailed.
It's a good thing they did.
World War II would last nearly another full year, but D-Day was the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany.
If the Allies had not prevailed, the entire world might now be socialist.
All countries, including the United States, might be ruled by ruthless Nazi despots under Berlin's control.
And an entire race of people - the Jews -might have been eradicated.
Even if that had not happened - if the Soviet Union had conquered Germany by itself - history still would have turned out differently ... and not for the better.
In that case, the Soviets presumably would have controlled western Europe, as well as eastern portions.
The Cold War might still be under way - and the Soviets, having been dealt an upper hand at the beginning, might be exporting Marxist revolutions across the globe.
The modern world owes a great debt of gratitude to Ike and his gritty bunch of unlikely heroes who changed the course of history on this date all those decades ago.
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Post by chinesedave on Jun 6, 2008 23:05:09 GMT
We lost 2700 men on the beaches of France whilst the US lost 6600 men. Total allied deaths were around 10000 for D-DAY.
Whether we like it or not we would have never defeated Hitler on mainland Europe without US intervention. The German army was superior in number, equipment and training.
I don't really see the point of your post???? I'm sure our troops were glad the US were there with us.
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Post by Norfolkstokie in manchester on Jun 6, 2008 23:19:16 GMT
Hitler a socialist? Blimey- this history degree isn't teaching me anything  |
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Post by serpico on Jun 6, 2008 23:26:48 GMT
"All countries, including the United States, might be ruled by ruthless Nazi despots"  world war 2, as Churchill himself once mused, was the unnecessary war. |
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Post by Dallas Cowboy on Jun 7, 2008 2:12:37 GMT
The point of the post, chinese dave, is the factual errors contained in that leader column and the scant regard paid to the contribution of the British and Canadians. It was not an American operation, it was an Allied operation. The men fighting on the beaches, men of all nationalities, were under the command of Field Marshal Montgomery.
Norfolk Stokie picked up on one of the other errors.
The other factual error is that the Allied troops were faced by Germans under the command of Field Marshal Rommel and not General Rommel.
The leader was written by a supposedly educated man of the world, not some 12-year-old dragged in off the streets. I doubt such mistakes would have occurred in one of the British broadsheets. And if US newspapers perpetrate such errors, it is no wonder that a lot of Americans are misinformed on a great many subjects.
I am not for one moment denying the contribution that America made to the Allied victory in Europe and the sacrifice that many Americans made so that serpico, along with the rest of us, has the freedom to express the opinions that he holds.
Churchill did later call the Second World War "The Unnecessary War" because he felt that a firm stance against the aggressor nations during the inter-war years would have prevented the conflict.
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Post by MrBigJobby on Jun 7, 2008 2:41:13 GMT
Not only What Dallas Says, but also the writing is shit!
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Post by carverdoone on Jun 7, 2008 5:52:40 GMT
D-Day was really an American 'show.'
Churchill (haunted by the terrible events at Gallipoli during WWI) was toally against an invasion in France. He preferred to fight up from Africa into Italy. Churchll gave in to American pressure over D-Day.
Yes Bernard Montgomery was in charge of Allied ground forces on D-Day but Eisenhower was in overall command of the invasion.
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Post by johnnyrotten on Jun 7, 2008 7:41:49 GMT
Isnt there a general discussion board for threads like this? zzzzzzzzzz
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Post by Rebelliousjukebox on Jun 7, 2008 7:48:07 GMT
Hitler a socialist? Blimey- this history degree isn't teaching me anything Missing out one word - "National" - makes such a difference, although I suspect that many Americans sadly do see socialism as just as bad as fascism |
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