41–50 of 130 posts
If you read German, there are some interesting collections of memories of the other side. Pretty much everyone mentions how terrified they were of Allied white phosphorus.
With good reason. It burns super hot and cant be put out with water.
https://www.dw.com/en/ticking-time-bombs-on-the-bottom-of-th...
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A lot of people, including myself, feel similar when looking back at WWII. The roles of good and evil were very clearly defined and that has forged the US foreign policy up to today. Of course, there's a lot of things we know now which show the conflict was a lot more complex, but at its core, the Axis needed to be defeated for our western style of freedom to exist. I don't think we'll ever have something as clear cu…
I have spent most of my life with the US involved in a variety of ... "not very clear cut things" and we'll leave it at that. It also feels like some things have shifted and there actually is a lot more clarity lately.
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Funny every Ukrainian I know can speak russian, but not all of them can speak ukrainian. A large portion went to university at least in part in Russia. A large portion are intermarried with Russians or have intermarried Russian/Ukrainian parents. Prior to the war Ukrainians' views on russians seemed way more friendly than the 'mainstream' american's views on mexicans.
The 2019 "On Protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language" law forbid the publishing of print media in Russian unless the same publication was available in Ukrainian, it forbid requiring Russian language ability for any job, it forbid Russian instruction in schools after elementary school, and it limited the amount of Russian content allowed in broadcasting.
That does not seem to me to be more friendly than the way Mexicans are treated in the US. It seems like a law that was designed to cause conflict. If Canada passed a law that treated French speakers like that, I would expect violence and I would assume that the legislators who passed the law were trying to provoke violence.
My grandfather was a medic and was part of the storm of Normandy beach on D-Day. He never really spoke of it and had a stroke and passed away before Saving Private Ryan came out. We wondered what he would have thought of the beginning of that movie, as someone who was there and was running around helping people the whole time.
My take is that Saving Private Ryan is "pro-war" movie like most Hollywood productions on the topic and not about 2WW really. The give away is how the save Ryan squad seem to have agency and do like cool self-govern manouvers, like the storming of the 80mm AA gun hill, etc. More like a teenage boy fantasy. Band of Brothers is another good example of cool agency. The opening assualt on the beach is some sort of low po…
No offense intended, but did you really watch Saving Private Ryan? Both of those things you mention occurred within the first 60 seconds of the start of the beach scene.
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My take is that Saving Private Ryan is "pro-war" movie like most Hollywood productions on the topic and not about 2WW really. The give away is how the save Ryan squad seem to have agency and do like cool self-govern manouvers, like the storming of the 80mm AA gun hill, etc. More like a teenage boy fantasy. Band of Brothers is another good example of cool agency. The opening assualt on the beach is some sort of low po…
> A true to history version would be soldiers getting shrapnel wounds from indirect fire and being shot at by soldiers they can't see. Then they redo it somewhere else becouse someone said so. No offense intended, but did you really watch Saving Private Ryan? Both of those things you mention occurred within the first 60 seconds of the start of the beach scene.
The point I am trying to make is that the opening is the 'low point' and then it becomes an action movie with the heroes in control.
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That's true towards the end of the war, but in the beginning ? The US didn't join the war until they were attacked. Same goes for UK and France - they technically did declare the war when Poland was invaded - as there was a defensive agreement between the 3 countries - but in reality they didn't send any help.
What help could they realistically send? Poland was between the two nations that were invading it and the UK was only just introducing a bomber (Wellington) with the range for a direct return flight to Warsaw (and such a flight was impossible since it passes over Germany). Marine access means a long Baltic voyage past the main German navy bases. An assault on Germany would have been via the neighbouring countries and…
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You should read up a bit more on how people perceived it contemporaneously. It’s too easy to absolve oneself of having to think hard about the current goings on when we can look at WWII and act like the right answer was obvious to everyone.
This is an important point. There was a US isolationist strain as strong as it is today. The Man in the High Castle alt history, or The Plot Against America, both involve FDR not being involved for WW2, and that's where the US stands today: at a similar decision point about how it decides to act. The right path is never clear when you're in the valley of the moment.
As strong as? I don't see much of an isolationist strain in the US today at all. The paleoconservatives are isolationist, but they barely exist any more. The Biden administration appointed a neoconservative as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.
My grandfather was a medic and was part of the storm of Normandy beach on D-Day. He never really spoke of it and had a stroke and passed away before Saving Private Ryan came out. We wondered what he would have thought of the beginning of that movie, as someone who was there and was running around helping people the whole time.
My take is that Saving Private Ryan is "pro-war" movie like most Hollywood productions on the topic and not about 2WW really. The give away is how the save Ryan squad seem to have agency and do like cool self-govern manouvers, like the storming of the 80mm AA gun hill, etc. More like a teenage boy fantasy. Band of Brothers is another good example of cool agency. The opening assualt on the beach is some sort of low po…
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Funny every Ukrainian I know can speak russian, but not all of them can speak ukrainian. A large portion went to university at least in part in Russia. A large portion are intermarried with Russians or have intermarried Russian/Ukrainian parents. Prior to the war Ukrainians' views on russians seemed way more friendly than the 'mainstream' american's views on mexicans.
>> Prior to the war Ukrainians' views on russians seemed way more friendly than the 'mainstream' american's views on mexicans. The 2019 "On Protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language" law forbid the publishing of print media in Russian unless the same publication was available in Ukrainian, it forbid requiring Russian language ability for any job, it forbid Russian instruction in schoo…
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Funny every Ukrainian I know can speak russian, but not all of them can speak ukrainian. A large portion went to university at least in part in Russia. A large portion are intermarried with Russians or have intermarried Russian/Ukrainian parents. Prior to the war Ukrainians' views on russians seemed way more friendly than the 'mainstream' american's views on mexicans.
>> Prior to the war Ukrainians' views on russians seemed way more friendly than the 'mainstream' american's views on mexicans. The 2019 "On Protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language" law forbid the publishing of print media in Russian unless the same publication was available in Ukrainian, it forbid requiring Russian language ability for any job, it forbid Russian instruction in schoo…
"and in general russians are seen as enemies. Not just russian soldiers, but people with a russian cultural background. Nationalism in all its glory."
is complete BS. My reference regarding attitudes towards Mexicans was a response to that comment, not to the law you just mentioned.
But what a weird argument you make. Canada has numerous laws like these in order to protect French speakers. How much 'expected violence' by Anglo Canadians has that resulted in?
Again, in my experience, every Ukrainian I have met can speak some russian. A good portion can not speak ukrainian. The President of Ukraine's native language is Russian and was a well known Russian language entertainer who stared in 'Servant of the People' a Ukrainian TV show where he spoke Russian. Strange for a country that's being labeled so historically and systemically anti-Russia.
Edit: See also Zelensky performing on Russian state TV New Years special https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTmhTxzAH70