War Stories

After years of Congress demanding the Bush administration release documents on torture, the Justice Department finally released a legal opinion John Yoo wrote March 14, 2003 as head of the Office of Legal Counsel. Just reading this memo shocks the conscience, and it is the declassified version. When I read it, I cringed and thought about my father and the horrific torture he endured as a POW in then-Yugoslavia during WW II.

Early in the winter, twenty years ago in a small living room on the Argentine Pampa, a family I don't remember had another guest that evening besides myself and my missionary companion. The old man, upon learning that I was an American, was thrilled to meet me. He had been a soldier in the Italian army in the Second World War and had been captured and interred in Texas as a prisoner. "It was great there," he effused. "I would go back in a second if I could. As a prisoner again if I had to." Never before did I so swell with pride for my nation.

I am fortunate, because I had a grandfather who took the time to teach me about History. Starting around when I was a 5 or 6 my grandfather would sit with me and page through a large book which was my own Thru the Looking Glass view of Wonderland. It’s title was ‘LIFE’s Picture History of World War II’. I can still remember him sitting patiently as I turned each page and explained what each picture in this huge book was about, and its context.

American intelligence analysts allegedly saw aerial photos of the German-run concentation camps during World War II and had some idea what they were. But the public did not see these images at the time. Just as radio, television, and the Internet have tremendous affects on the public’s access to information, so does aerial imagery.

I began my trip to the Center with an exploration of L Ron Hubbard’s life – my tour guide, June, went through childhood to death, telling me of all the wonderful things that L Ron Hubbard did in his life (many of which are false; for example, the display said Hubbard was a heavily decorated WWII soldier, earning 21 medals of honor. Unfortunately, his US Navy record indicates he was awarded just four routine medals - the American Defense Service Medal, awarded to everyone serving at the time of Pearl Harbor, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War Two Victory Medal, this last received by everyone serving on V-J Day).

An Italian judge did the right thing and put the Nazi back under house arrest. Pity the Italian authorities didn’t throw the bastard in jail, where he belongs.

By showing footage of side-by-side presidential justifications for various American wars since WW II -- especially Vietnam and Iraq -- the patterns of deception followed by intimidation become clear.

Rioting by ethnic Russians in Estonia in protest at that country’s removal of a World War II memorial to fallen Soviet soldiers has subsided, but not in Moscow. For the past six days, a pro-Kremlin youth movement has been blockading the Estonian Embassy, demanding that either Estonia apologize for its desecration of the memorial, or else that the Embassy be razed.

I suggest that we think seriously about re-invading Grenada, a small island nation off the coast of South America in the Caribbean. It should be a place of great nostalgia for all Americans. Next year will be the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s triumphant invasion (1983) to depose the Castro Friendly Marxist regime of Bernard Coard. It produced America’s first military victory since WW II and helped to eradicate the shame of Vietnam, despite the fact that the war itself lasted only a few days.

Q: The Kono statement was, of course, a statement issued on behalf of the cabinet and it is on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website; I wondered if I could ask you about its content in a bit more detail, because I believe there certainly has been confusion in the past few days. Just to ask the most basic question: there were—in the view of Foreign Minister Aso and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—there were comfort stations in military facilities during World War II?

Huh?! How about some Congressional reaction to this flip-flopping? Either the military was lying a year ago when they acknowledged dumping munitions after World War Two, or the Army is not acting in good faith in making this latest claim that they are not responsible for these pellets. Or the Army may be splitting hairs, for example, perhaps it was some other branch of the military that dumped these particular munitions.

A 74 year old Italian woman got quite a surprise when she examined the sack of potatoes she purchased at her local market. She found a pineapple in there.

Since the end of World War Two, they fought and died for nothing, except corporate profit. Until we, as a nation, truly understand — that we are enslaved by our OWN soldiers, and our corporate military, and the vast sums of OUR money they consume – we have NO chance of making this country work again. Our money is stolen from us before we even earn it. We spend as much money on our military, as the entire rest of the world combined. It’s INSANE.

Perhaps that’s why a ceremonial guard stands at Brivibas Piemineklis – the Freedom Monument – every day, from 0900 to 1800. They used to stand duty here before the second world war as well. A changing of the guard takes place every hour, on the hour. It is a stirring, moving experience, which I found myself watching several times.

Churchill proved that by sheer bluff and bluff one could rise up to great leadership position. That was because the second world war helped him to reach the top and remaining in public memory at the difficult period of history. The biographer notes with insight: “Though he was in India for under thirty months, “India was for several years in the early 1930s to dominate his political activity, and considerably damage his political prospects, he never felt it necessary to refresh his direct knowledge of the subcontinent, which he regarded as a geographical expression and ” no more a country than is the equator”

Almost missed it this week, but Great Lives on Radio 4 features the life of William Beveridge.

Man-machine interface: A mishmash of fetishes ranging from World War 2, fighter planes, garters, blondies, Russians, nekomimi, pantsu and lolicon.

Clint Eastwood tells the other side of the story of his earlier “Flags of Our Fathers”. Decades after the battle of Iwo Jima, researchers unearth several hundred letters from Japanese soldiers never sent to their families. The letters put a human face on the men who fought one of the most brutal battles of World War 2. I saw this as a study of leadership, thanks to actor Ken Watanabe’s excellent portrait of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the architect of the Japanese plan of silence and ambush. Eastwood gives us an “ah ha” moment in a long shot of the American flag far away on one of the hilltops of the island, the flag made famous in the Life Magazine photograph.

Clint Eastwood’s most recent directorial project Flags of our Fathers is a sombre, meditative fact-based war film concerning the battle for Iwo Jima in World War II, and how three soldiers came to be regarded as heroes simply for appearing in a photograph which showed them raising the American flag. This photograph proved to be excellent morale raising propaganda back in the States, and was even turned into a famous memorial statue in Washington DC after the war.

There was a tall, thin boy with a whispy moustache disguised
  as an orthodox Jew
On a crowded bus in Jerusalem, some had survived World War Two
And the thunderous explosion blew out windows 200 yards away
With more retribution and seventeen dead along the road to peace

• Jonathan at Crush Liberalism takes a good look inside my heart and says what I'm feeling even better than I could. By that, I'm meaning how we Americans seem to have forgotten Pearl Harbor and the hard lessons learned by an entire generation of Americans in World War 2. Go read it, y'all.

When things—when people become hungry, when people see that their way of life is on the edge of being over, they will put razor wire up and just based on the way you look or just based on your religion, they will round you up. Is that wrong? Oh my gosh, it is Nazi, World War II wrong, but society has proved it time and time again: It will happen.

Call of Duty has always been at the forefront of World War two games in recent years, with Single player and Multi-player excelling among its peers every time it comes out. But for once, many gamers wish they would have delayed the release due to ranked matches taking forever to join. But a patch should restore these wounds early next year.

A sad anniversary to be sure. It is also the day America entered the modern age. From December 7, 1941 onward, the USA ramped up for war against the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan, and never looked back. Victory was secured 4 years later, and then there was the Cold War.

Historians in Poland have discovered the wreckage of a World War II RAF Halifax bomber along with the remains of its British and Canadian crew.