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Down The Middle - March 19, 2007 - Printable Version
- Drop The Bomb Exterminate Them All!
by Down The Middle
Anyone who is vaguely familiar with the history of World War I should realize just how easily the entire world stumbled into that global catastrophe, which killed millions across the continent and beyond. With the excuse of a single violent act, the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, nation after nation followed their traditional allies into battle, culminating in almost twenty million military and civilian deaths (virtually ten million each) plus another twenty million wounded in that first “war to end all wars”. Shortly after Germany’s initial flanking invasion of France through Belgium, (This was the Von Schlieffenen plan, which was to be repeated by German forces at the beginning of World War II, dividing the British Expeditionary Force from the French Army and driving them into the sea, at Dunkirk…and once again, near the end of that war, in what became known as the Battle of the (Belgium) Bulge, where the Germans attempted to divide the British and American armies.) the French counterattacked in the Alsace-Lorraine provinces with a misconceived assault that would cost the French Army twenty-seven thousand men in a single day, the introduction of the machine-gun having transformed the frontal infantry assault into a perpetual firing squad.
As the opposing armies continued their attempts to outflank their enemy’s defenses, the battlefield trenches stretched from Switzerland to the English Channel, in what became known as “the Race to the Sea”. With none of these flanking actions ever gaining a significant advantage, the front stalemated into four long years of rat infested trench warfare, rendering thousands of lush green European fields into one vast, crater-filled hornets’ nest of death and destruction, muddied with the blood of patriotic men.
At the Battle of Verdun, {February -December 1916} in what is still sometimes referred to as the “greatest battle” ever fought, the German Army initiated an assault on the city’s extensive ring of defensive underground forts, which quickly deteriorated into continuous close-quarter combat between small groups of desperate men, who now found themselves fighting micro turf wars, just to stay alive.
On July 1, in an effort to relieve the besieged French at Verdun, 100,000 British troops attacked along the Somme River, only to lose 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded, in what became the worst single day of casualties in all of British military history. By the end of the assault, which eventually included two million men from both sides, the French and British losses numbered over 750,000 men. At the end of the near yearlong battle for Verdun, over 300,000 French and Germans had been killed, along with more than 750,000 wounded. Little territory was gained by either side.
This “war to end all wars”, although victorious for the Allies at Armistice, actually became the root of World War II, the Cold War and other regional conflicts of the century, including the Clinton Administration’s intervention into the Balkan wars of the nineties {the region having reverted into ethnic warfare, after the loss of Tito’s heavy, yet binding hand} with American military support of the Moslem Albanians {against the Christian Serbs, who were seeking to recapture their historic lands, long lost to the Islamic invaders of centuries ago} onto the current U.N. effort to bestow autonomy upon Albania.
Almost a hundred years after the beginning of the “Great War”... and after having committed American forces in both that war, World War II and several regional conflicts around the globe, we now find our country having embarked on another “great” military campaign, which seems destined to once again gather all the great powers…along with their historic and post-Cold War allies…into a new era of global destruction, the likes of which the combined atrocities of the two previous World Wars will pale in comparison.
As part of the neo-con’s Trotskyite campaign to export the revolution throughout the world, “liberating” any and all countries of their national sovereignty while delivering them up to the glories of democracy, the United States and Britton have invaded and occupied both Afghanistan and Iraq and now appear intent on attacking the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Just this month, Israel sent out a travelers advisory* for their citizens to leave several Islamic countries, ASAP, a sign that hostilities may be imminent, while at about the same time Russian President Putin was telling an audience of surprised U.S. and European leaders that “Nobody feels secure anymore.” As Mr. Putin controls thousands of nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them anywhere in the world, I’m not really sure that I want him feeling too insecure.
Obviously, if Israel attacks Iran and/or Syria, the United States will also engage militarily {as President Bush has promised}…and just as obviously, Russia will not infinitely stand by and allow the West to continue its encroachment upon their historical allies and other countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. Attacking Iran may not bring an immediate retaliatory response from Russia but it will certainly be a defining moment that should leave no remaining doubt in the Kremlin, as to our future intentions.
The fact is, while Congressional Democrats are paying lip service to their constituents with the developing of a bill of limitations for the Iraq War, Senator Pelosi actually removed the provision forcing the President to consult with Congress before launching a war with Iran, effectively “green-lighting” such a war. Unfortunately, it will not stop with Iran, as we also have plans to move on former Soviet, Central Asian countries, as well as other resource-rich, opposition countries in the Middle East and around the world.
At what point the Russians will say “enough”, I don’t know…but when they do, we will be at war with a great conventional and nuclear power that will not go quietly onto the night. If we allow ourselves to push Russia into a toe-to-toe war with the West, we all will surely rue the day. I, for one am not willing to trade New York City for Iran, Uzbekistan or Georgia…and a win with 20 million domestic casualties is no win, at all.
Now, every time I see Vice President Cheney {who as Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration attempted to convince his president that we could win a nuclear war with the Soviet Union}, I am reminded of the character Colonel Kurtz, from the 1979 Francis Coppola movie “Apocalypse Now”, who had hand written over his typed assessments of that war, “DROP THE BOMB EXTERMINATE THEM ALL!”
Is this the only choices we have left… exterminate or be exterminated? Is this coming world war necessary to preserve the freedom…or a dastardly pretext for destroying our own? Whatever it is, it goes on tonight... and it will go on tomorrow.
*{Updated Travel Warnings
Israel’s National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Division presents the following updated travel warnings for Israelis traveling abroad. It is advised that travelers should avoid visiting and leave the area as soon as possible in the following high to very high-threat countries: Algeria, Afghanistan, Chechenya, (southern Russia) Djabouti, Egypt, (especially the Sinai peninsula), Jordan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kashimir (northern India), Lebanon Malaysia, Mindanao, (southern Philippines) Northern Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia Southern Thailand, Syria & Yemen. Travelers should postpone non essential travel to: Bangladesh, Bangkok, Libya, Oman, Nigeria & southeastern Turkey (borders with Iraq and Iran). Travelers in general, should avoid visiting the following countries: Bahrain, Chad, Kenya, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia. Israeli citizens are called upon to be especially cautious when visiting: Philippines, Turkey, Thailand, & Uzbekistan. (Sources: National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Division, GP}
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