Speaking of human fallibility, some people are still under the illusion that human beings are capable of carrying out any flawless endeavor--especially one involving millions of people--and, on this VE Day, one of them laments the “tainted triumph” of World War Two.
[W]e would do well, this V-E Day, to face some harsh realities about the nature of the Allied victory — if only to remind ourselves about the nature of all wars. To win World War II, we joined forces with a despot who was every bit as brutal a tyrant as Hitler; we adopted tactics that we ourselves had said were depraved; and we left too many of those we set out to liberate firmly in the grip of totalitarianism.Armed Liberal isn’t surprised.
The first question - as compared to what? - is a critical one. I genuinely think that some people somehow believe that the world is a lab where perfect wars can be fought, or perfect legal cases made - or perfect businesses run, or perfect marriages maintained, or children can be perfectly raised. And if you can't - if in retrospect, your parents damaged you, or the business execution was clumsy, or if a war was fought by soldiers who were on occasion brutal or if decisions were made in weakness, fear or anger that were - again in light of historical omniscience, bad - then the whole enterprise is certainly subject to question and certainly shouldn't be celebrated.I have a question for any World War Two naysayers (!) out there: after realizing that they should have slapped him down earlier, what should the Allies have done in the face of Hitler’s aggression in Europe? Another way of asking: what strategic move(s) should have been taken that wasn't or vice versa?
(Thanks to Austin Bay)
