[lit-ideas] Re: Barnett's Blueprint for Action
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:16:16 -0400
They were a brutal regime, absolutely. Stalin in my opinion was worse than
Hitler. That doesn't mean that emotions aren't complex and that people can't
fight for their homes and their homelands and their beliefs. The Germans also
fought a terrific fight. Are you saying also only because they were coerced?
The Russians had the Germans in their country, invading them. It's something
Americans can't relate to. Life is sometimes more complicated than constant
simple answers like clashing of civilizations and nuking Iran and the need to
fight war because war is 'natural'. Coercion must speak to you since you think
anyone who doesn't agree with you is a traitor and anti-American. You want
the U.S. to be The Hero in WWII. Can't do that without tearing everybody else
down.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 9/11/2006 2:31:06 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Barnett's Blueprint for Action
The following doesn?t specifically deal with how well Stalin was liked, but it
does run counter to Irene?s view that ?coercion was not a driving force behind
motivation.?
On page 163 in the chapter ?World War II, of Honor, Bowman writes ?But in all
the totalitarian countries, fear seems to have played a much greater part in
motivating ordinary soldiers than honor. ?In a war during which no British
soldier, and only one GI, was shot for cowardice, at least 15,000 German
servicemen were executed for dereliction of duty [while] in the first winter
of the war on the Eastern Front in 1941-42, more than 8,000 Russian soldiers
died not in action but shot by their own army for cowardice or desertion.
During the battle of Stalingrad alone, another 12,000 men of the Red Army were
put to death pour encourager les autres.? ? [Bowman sites as his authority for
this information, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, ?How Good Was the Good War?? Boston
Globe, May 8, 2005.]
Lawrence
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