ZGram - 11/20/2002 - "What We Can Learn From WWII"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

November 20, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Now here is a promising book review that has a few things to impart:

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What We Can Learn From WWII
By Harry Browne
=A9 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
11-15-2

World War II is supposedly the one "just" war America has fought. 
Even critics of the Vietnam War or the so-called War on Terrorism 
feel obliged to say that World War II was necessary.
 
And that war provided a justification for all sorts of military 
adventures afterward. In fact, whenever I write that Americans 
shouldn't be bombing Iraq or Serbia or Afghanistan or some other 
hapless Third World country, I get e-mails from critics saying such 
things as:
 
*	"You would have turned the other cheek after Pearl Harbor."

*	"Munich showed you have to stop a dictator before he's too 
strong to resist."
 
*	"If you'd been in charge in the 1940s, we'd all be speaking 
Japanese or German today."
 
World War II has always been of great interest to me. I've known for 
decades that it was just one more war the politicians suckered us 
into. But I still learned a great deal from reading Richard Maybury's 
new book "World War II: The Rest of the Story."
 
Maybury provides no startling new evidence. But he sifts through the 
known facts - which nearly all historians agree on - and assembles 
the evidence to show irrefutably that:
 
*	The U.S. could had stayed out of the war, because Hitler had 
no chance of conquering England - let alone America. (His doom was 
sealed the moment his troops invaded Russia in August 1941.)

*	The Pearl Harbor attack was neither a surprise nor 
"unprovoked." (The Japanese code had been broken 16 months before, 
and Roosevelt had bullied the Japanese in order to provoke a war. On 
Nov. 26, 1941, Secretary of War Stimson wrote in his diary, "The 
question was how we should maneuver them into firing the first shot 
without allowing too much danger to ourselves.")

*	There was no military reason to drop atomic bombs on Japan. 
They were used as terrorist weapons - killing innocent people to 
influence other people. (Japan was already offering to surrender, 
their homeland was blockaded, and the Japanese couldn't have survived 
six months even without an invasion.)
 
There's much more, of course. But the main point is that America 
should never have intervened in the age-old quarrels of Europe and 
Asia. If our politicians had minded their own business, 292,131 
Americans wouldn't have died - died thinking they were defending 
American freedoms, but actually sacrificing for the benefit of 
politicians.
 
The Roosevelt myth
 
Why did America get in the war?
 
Because Franklin Roosevelt thought it was to his personal advantage.
 
In 1939, most people considered the New Deal to be an abject failure. 
The unemployment rate was still at 17 percent, with no end in sight 
to the Depression.
 
Roosevelt still managed to be re-elected in 1940 because he had great 
personal charisma, and because he was running against a typical 
me-too Republican, Wendell Wilkie - a man with no solution for the 
economic crisis. Roosevelt insisted he would keep America neutral, 
proclaiming "I have said this before, but I shall say it again and 
again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign 
wars."
 
But in reality, Roosevelt saw getting into the war as a way to redeem 
his reputation and join the ranks of the "great" presidents - wartime 
leaders like Washington, Lincoln and Wilson.
 
Making the world logical again
 
Maybury writes in a lucid, easy-to-follow style. He explains how 
Hitler made impressive early victories in the war, but still never 
had a chance once he decided to invade Russia. His sources of 
information are the same available to anyone else, but many of his 
insights and conclusions are original and refreshing.
 
He ties what happened in World War II to what is happening today in 
the so-called War on Terrorism. In fact, he shows that today's crises 
are simply an extension of one century-long war.
 
Reading this book may help you see the world as a logical place 
again. It answers a question that might concern any lover of liberty: 
Why did a nation devoted to freedom and small government - blessed by 
being isolated from the age-old turmoils of the Old World - cross two 
oceans, sacrifice a quarter-million Americans, and become embroiled 
in everyone else's affairs?
 
The answer: It was done to satisfy the personal ambitions of 
politicians - not to save America from tyranny.
 
It's too much to expect tens of millions of Americans to understand 
that our wars are just a political racket - not when their historical 
knowledge consists of the one-liners fed to them in government 
schools. But it is important that you understand - if you hope to be 
effective in restoring liberty to America.
 
If you want to know more about World War II, I urge you to read 
"World War II: The Rest of the Story," which you can obtain at 
Maybury's website.

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