Hi Norm, Thank you for supplying those figures. In fact, I was just looking at those same figures today, myself, on Wikipedia. These figures show in graphic detail the incredible cost war, both to the soldiers and to the civilians. WWII was very much a multinational effort; that's what it took to finally crush the Axis powers. Attacking the Soviet Union was perhaps Hitler's greatest mistake, as the toll it took on his troops and hard resources was incredibly enormous. It also took a terrible toll on the Soviet soldiers and civilians who fought so hard to stop the onslaught. Another perhaps forgotten piece of history is the fact that the US was involved in WWII in Europe from the very beginning of the war. It was not popular knowledge in the US, nor were the US forces on the ground in Europe, as the official position of the US in 1939 was one of neutrality. However, President Roosevelt refused to ignore the situation, exhausted all diplomatic efforts to convince Hitler and Mussilini to stay within their own borders, and worked hard in congress to remove the arms embargo in order to allow the shipment of arms and equipment to a country at war, and, having succeeded, sent tons of supplies and munitions to England, who were far behind Germany in weaponry at the beginning of WWII. Without those supplies, it's unlikely that England could have withstood its enemy. God bless, Dave

FOR NORM A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a Naval conference which included Admirals from the French, English, Canadian, Australian and American Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a group of half dozen or so officers which included personnel from most of the countries. While everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, a French Admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked: "Why is it we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?" Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: "Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German." ------- (Neil adds, Or Russian.)

Hi Neil, Thank you for your insights and information. It is much appreciated. Please be careful to keep it friendly! We can all benefit from your input as well as the input of everyone else, whether we agree with them or not. At the very least, we will know what others think, which helps us to understand the situations and decisions we see around the world. There is an incredible amount of information available today on virtually any subject anyone can think of. A Google search on any of the subjects we discuss here in the forums will often bring up millions of pages. For example, if you type in the words Iraq war in the Google searchbar, you will find 380,000,000 pages! What I'm saying here is, no one is ever going to have all the information unless they read all 380,000,000 pages, and then they still probably won't get it all. It is certainly not a matter of either great intelligence or stupidity that creates opinions; it is more a reflection of the information that an individual has absorbed, what is at the core of that individual's belief system, and the way that individual's mind has analyzed it. Our friend, Norm, is a well-travelled person who has had the unique opportunity to live in various different cultures at different times, and brings with him a wealth of perspective on cultures that are foreign to many. His views, my views and your views will all differ somewhat, depending on what we're talking about. Have a wonderful 4th of July, and God Bless America. God bless, Dave

Hello David, Mayhap so ONLY I do NOT need to know EVERYTHING there is in all those pages on Iraq. There are 1,530,000,000 google pages on the word "sun" SO WHAT? I KNOW more than enough FACTS on Iraq which PROVE our actions there are FULLY JUSTIFIED. I do NOT deal in MERE OPINION, I deal in FACTS! And while people may be entitled to their own "opinion" they are NOT entitled to their OWN facts! NO ONE HAS SHOWN ME ONE FACT which DISPROVES what I KNOW to be true about Iraq. So I will leave the mere "opinion" of others where it belongs, and that place is far, far below where facts rank. Neil

And Dave, Norm's comment, QUOTE: "For some who appear to have some shakey history, the Soviet Union did actually fight against Hitler" was what set me off as it was uncalled for as NO ONE who had posted in this tread had ever said, or had, in any way even indicated Russia had not fought against Germany. So where does he get this "shakey history" crap? Neil