Most Americans think that D-Day and Operation Overlord turned the tide in World War II and led to the allied victory. Most Americans are wrong. The tide had already turned, on the Eastern Front, where the Russians had stopped the German advance in 1943 at Stalingrad (at 1 million plus casualties probably the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare) and by June 6, 1944, were routing them back to Germany. The numbers do not lie. The US lost 139,000 dead in the European theater. The USSR lost over 26 million fighting the German invasion, including 10 million soldiers, but inflicted 75 to 80 percent of Axis casualties. Germany had 60 understrength divisions on the Western front to counter the Allied Normandy invasion, with 214 divisions still fighting on the Eastern Front against the advancing Soviets.
The Soviet contribution to defeating Japan is often overlooked as well. While the American effort is undoubtedly foremost in the Pacific theatre, the USSR unleashed a huge offensive from Outer Mongolia to Korea that enveloped Japan’s 600,000-man, 25 division Kwantung Army.
Given the Soviet contribution to the Allied victory and the losses the USSR bore in World War II, it is incomprehensible that President Obama and various European leaders are refusing to attend this week’s Victory Parade in Moscow to commemorate the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany 70 years ago. They were all invited, but only Angela Merkel, the leader of the defeated nation, is attending—one day after the parade—to place a wreath at a memorial for the war dead.
There would have been a lot more French, British, and American war dead had it not been for the Russians, and it is a gratitous snub for the leaders of those countries not to attend, regardless of what is happening in Ukraine. On that score, it is incomprehensible that Western leaders do not recognize Russian sensitivity about the nation on its doorstep, through which Hitler invaded. Both the snub and the tension over Ukraine are driving Russia into closer relationships with China, India (leaders of both nations are attending the parade), and other Asian and emerging market nations.
For a full accounting of the USSR’s contributions and losses during World War II, see “The Grisly Truth About How World War II Was Won.” For one of the few intelligent analyses out there of the Ukraine situation, see “Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault,” by John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago. His article was published in the September/October, 2014, issue of Foreign Affairs and has been completely ignored. For an analysis on how the Western powers are driving China and Russia closer, see “Isolated—China and Russia Demonstrate Closer Relationship with Joint Military Exercises,” from Michael Kreiger at libertyblitzkrieg.com. Finally, for an excoriating look at the stupidity of our spoiled brat president, “Obama’s Petulant WWII Snub of Russia,” read the following from Ray McGovern at antiwar.com:
President Barack Obama’s decision to join other Western leaders in snubbing Russia’s weekend celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe looks more like pouting than statesmanship, especially in the context of the U.S. mainstream media’s recent anti-historical effort to downplay Russia’s crucial role in defeating Nazism.
Though designed to isolate Russia because it had the audacity to object to the Western-engineered coup d’état in Ukraine on Feb. 22, 2014, this snub of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin – like the economic sanctions against Russia – is likely to backfire on the U.S. and its European allies by strengthening ties between Russia and the emerging Asian giants of China and India.
Notably, the dignitaries who will show up at this important commemoration include the presidents of China and India, representing a huge chunk of humanity, who came to show respect for the time seven decades ago when the inhumanity of the Nazi regime was defeated – largely by Russia’s stanching the advance of Hitler’s armies, at a cost of 20 to 30 million lives.
Obama’s boycott is part of a crass attempt to belittle Russia and to cram history itself into an anti-Putin, anti-Russian alternative narrative. It is difficult to see how Obama and his friends could have come up with a pettier and more gratuitous insult to the Russian people.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel – caught between Washington’s demand to “isolate” Russia over the Ukraine crisis and her country’s historic guilt in the slaughter of so many Russians – plans to show up a day late to place a wreath at a memorial for the war dead.
But Obama, in his childish display of temper, will look rather small to those who know the history of the Allied victory in World War II. If it were not for the Red Army’s costly victories against the German invaders, particularly the tide-turning battle at Stalingrad in 1943-1944, the prospects for the later D-Day victory in Normandy in June 1944 and the subsequent defeat of Adolf Hitler would have been much more difficult if not impossible.
Yet, the current Russia-bashing in Washington and the mainstream U.S. media overrides these historical truths. For instance, a New York Times article by Neil MacFarquhar on Friday begins: “The Russian version of Hitler’s defeat emphasizes the enormous, unrivaled sacrifices made by the Soviet people to end World War II …” But that’s not the “Russian version”; that’s the history.
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2015/05/08/obamas-petulant-wwii-snub-of-russia/
To continue reading: Obama’s Petulant WWII Snub of Russia
The Soviets declared war on Japan on 9 August 1945 – after the A-bomb was used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then there was the continuing heavy conventional bombardment of Japan by B-29s right up to the Japanese capitulation on the 14th. The Soviet’s “huge offensive from Mongolia to Korea” for five days had very little to do with it.
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