Quote from d08:
Russians (that includes the government) still think Stalin was a great man and celebrate him - this is a guy who in fact killed more civilians than Hitler.
To this day, most Russians think they "liberated" Europe from evil Germans when in fact what they did is rape and pillage when it comes to Eastern Europe (excluding the obvious, German soldiers were respectful toward the ordinary civilian).
Oddly enough, while your parents suffered - what about the thousands of American Japanese civilians who were sent to internment camps on US soil simply for being Japanese (many died or were killed there consequently).
Stalin was a thoroughly despicable man, no doubt. The Russians think they did the job perhaps because they paid the heaviest price.
http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/world-war-2-statistics.asp
I am aware of that travesty of justice that occurred when the Japanese Americans were interned.
In war there really are no winners, only varying degrees of losers, but old men start wars and send young men to die so they need them to believe they are dying for a noble cause. Standing up to the likes of Hitler was a noble cause. Going to war over some crappy little islands in East Asia is not, never mind how much oil and gas you have there.
Oldtime referred to an Eisenhower quote. I have three Eisenhower quotes that are relevant to this discussion;
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.
War settles nothing.