I could not have put it better myself..I will not blame Russia one iota
if they decide, in response, to stick two fingers up at the west on this
one. although I doubt that is likely to happen, we can say all we can of
Putin but one thing we cannot lay at his feat if arrogance. in the face
of quite heaby provocation Putin has shown considerable restraint I
would think.
I have said elsewhere that I feel ashamed to call myself British , this
latest episode of political (?) arrogance from our leaders just confirms
my belief that Britain is heading down a very dangerous route.
On 05/04/2015 19:25, Александр wrote:
Brad Cabana
The West's Shame
There is something so bizarre, so inhumane about Western countries
boycotting the parade for the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory
over Germany in World War II that I just had to write on it. Recently,
the prime minister of the United Kingdom announced he will not be
attending the parade. Previous to that, countries like Germany and the
United States had announced the same. It's only a parade you say? No
it's more than that.
The Soviet Union sacrificed 25 million people to defeat Nazi Germany
in World War II. A sacrifice beyond imagination, and far, far greater
than all the countries fighting Nazi Germany combined. In comparison,
the Holocaust, which is rightly remembered annually, claimed the lives
of six million people of the Jewish faith. These are really the two
true tragedy's of World War II unleashed on the world by Nazi Germany.
The stories of Soviet soldiers advancing without weapons to pickup the
rifle of the next dead soldier are well known. The bloodbath of
Stalingrad, the siege of Leningrad, the millions of Soviet soldiers
killed and captured (only to then die in POW camps) during the early
days of the German invasion, and so on, all markers of the brutality
of man against his own, stand large in the history of the world. In
fact, the German invasion of the Soviet Union stands as the largest
military battle in the history of man.
Yet, western leaders have decided to not attend the parade that is
meant to honour that sacrifice. When Britain announced it would not
attend, well, that's the straw that broke the camel's back frankly. Of
all the countries in the world, Britain was saved by the massive waves
of young Soviet men and woman that bled the German army white. Hitler
would have crushed Britain in short order if he had not diverted
millions of German men to the invasion of the Soviet Union. Crucially,
the diversion of aircraft, fighters and bombers, to the Soviet front
saved Britain from the entire annihilation of a full blown, continuous
air campaign, and the subsequent naval invasion that would certainly
have occurred. In reality, the western allies left Stalin almost alone
in Europe to battle the Nazi's, and take the majority of the
casualties in doing so. By the time D-Day finally arrived, the German
army and air force was only a shadow of it's former self as it existed
in 1941. As bad and hard as it was for the allies to march east
through Europe to Berlin, without the Soviet people's sacrifice, it
would have never happened.
It's a place of honour in human history. To quarrel with that is to go
beyond ignorance. To quarrel with that is the hateful and arrogant
bastion of the very seeds that caused World War II in the first place.
And now, as if history is repeating itself, Western leaders have
entered that bastion of ignorance and arrogance to punish Russia for
the Ukrainian civil war. By contrast, Russian president Putin, despite
the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, attended the 70th anniversary of the
D-Day landings in France last year. He was given the proverbial cold
shoulder by western leaders, yet he subjected himself to that, in
honour of the sacrifice of the men of Canada, Britain and the United
States. He did not ignore the history or the price in blood of that
action. He honoured it. He put the sacrifice ahead of his political
position, and it could even be said his personal shunning. Now that
the time is here to do the same for the Soviet Union's dead, we cannot
bring ourselves to do the same.
What that says about us is really quite obvious. It means we haven't
learned the lessons of history. That our political leadership has
become so petty, so detached from historical reality, that it attempts
to rewrite the history of 25 million souls. That is the danger of all
of this. Russians don't really need the West to honour their
sacrifice. They know it all too well. It's the West that needs to
honour that sacrifice so it can clearly see the dangers of war on a
scale far more destructive than anything it experienced on the western
front, or anywhere else in history. Poland started this train rolling
by refusing to invite the Russian president to the Holocaust
remembrance at Auschwitz last year. This despite the fact that the
Soviet army liberated all of Poland, and specifically Auschwitz from
German armies.
The actions of our western politicians say more about us than the
Russians could ever say themselves. They have portrayed us as people
who refuse to honour the dead, those that gave their lives in another
time to defeat a tyrant bent on world domination, and in doing so
dishonour those men and women. As the son of a young man, training in
England, fighting in North Africa, Italy, Holland, and Germany through
those tumultuous years of war and senseless slaughter, I recognize the
Soviet sacrifice that probably saved my Dad's life. How could you not?
Yet, that is exactly what our politicians are doing today. You don't
have to be a lover of this country, or that country to recognize and
honour grave human injustice committed on a massive scale. You just
have to be humane, and subordinate your own bias in the remembrance of
the fallen. Is that really so hard? Isn't that what is expected of us
all? Wouldn't we expect that from our children? I've never been so
ashamed of the actions of our governments than I am now with the
boycott of that parade in Moscow.
http://rocksolidpolitics.blogspot.ru/2015/03/the-wests-shame.html
