Aby The Liberal

Captain Sasha May 14th, 2011

If I got a dollar everytime an American told me how they saved my ass from the Nazis, I’d have made enough to buy off McDonalds and convert it to a chain of bliny outlets. I wonder what Americans are going to come up with next, perhaps they invented vodka and designed the Eiffel Tower as well? Before I hear this silly chant again from a YAAI (Yet Another American Idiot), I might clear this up once and for all.

Soviet victory flag on the Reichstag building. Do you see any stars and stripes around?

Contrary to what a lot of Americans seem to believe, the Allied victory in European theater didn’t begin with the Normandy landings (or D-Day, as the Americans call it). If Americans could overlook their grandoise self-serving claims for a while and look at the cold hard facts, the D-Day had a rather minor significance or impact to the outcome of the World War 2. By June 1944, the World War 2 in Europe was wrapping up. 93% of the Nazi forces have already been wiped out or labouring away in Soviet prison camps. The ‘Uruk Hai’ of the Nazi war machine - the SS Waffen and SS Wehrmarcht were no longer around. What Americans experienced in D-Day and afters was a breeze compared to the storm that transpired just a few months back. [BBC News: Who Won World War 2?]

The biggest and most decisive battles in World War 2 were the Battle of Kursk and Stalingrad. It was in these two battle zones that Hitler met his most overwhelming defeats and the utter failure of his most ambitious plan, the Operation Barbarossa. This defeat saw not only the largest military surrender in human history but also a mass attrition of Wehrmarcht troops, along with their tanks and planes. Before Hitler realised what hit him, Germans were in a crisis situation, trying to stop the advance of  the Soviet troops into Nazi territory. [Historynet.com: Battle of Kursk]. Eventually, it was the Red Army who stormed the Reichstag, after winning what was known as the most fierce urban battle in human history - the Battle of Berlin. In this decisive battle, the Germans surrendered the city to General Vasily Chuikov of the Red Army - not to some Smith, Hank or Brenda.

But of course, given that the average American gets all his/her ‘education’ from TV shows and films like Saving Private Ryan, he doesn’t know anything about that. He thinks it was troops led by John Bon Jovi and Tom Hanks that saved the world. For Americans, this is more convenient and inspires more self-important pride than the (gasp!) idea that those dastardly Russkies could have anything to do with winning the World War 2. I actually had a bewildered (patriotic) American ask me, “So what DID Russians DO in World War 2?”. The guy later proclaimed that it was Russians who got defeated by Americans in World War 2. Which is not surprising, considering that the average American thinks Communism and Nazism are interchangeable terms.

All in all, no country can lay stake to the claim that they won the World War 2 singlehanded, since it was a joint effort by all of us - Russians, British, Greeks, Chinese and yes, Americans. I have utmost respect for all those who fought against fascism in the World War 2 and all those who supported them through those hard times. If you have any respect for those people, please get a decent book (or DVD) on World War 2 history and don’t insult everyone by being so loud and boastful with your ignorance.

And please, no calling the French ’surrender monkeys’ either. If you faced half of what they did in the World Wars, you’d be peeing your pants and run screaming to the nearest McDonalds outlet for cover. Playing soldier in Call of Duty doesn’t make you a brave military hero.

• America , Europe , Humour , Internationalism , Military , Russia , Satire , World Politics
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Aby December 3rd, 2008

According to a top Russian counter-terrorism expert, the recent terror attacks that took place in Mumbai and claimed over 130 human victims, has an indirect past American contribution to it. In the words of the former “Vympel” Afghan War veteran, Vladimir Klyukin:

The handwriting and character of the Mumbai events demonstrates that they were not ordinary terrorists. Behind this terrorist attack there are ‘Green Flag’ special operations forces, which were created by the Americans in Pakistan, just an year before the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, and in the initial period were under full US control. For such guerilla operations, at least two-three years of preparatory work with the involvement of experienced instructors is required. People from the streets, without any planning and training are simply not able to hold four big complexes in a city so long…

 

The report was made in the Indian newspaper, The Times of India via an Interfax release from Moscow on 30th November, 2008. Delving into this statement, it becomes clear why the United States and Pakistan are so eager to help Indian authorities in investigating this attack. The Cold War allies have a good reason not to want any third party close scrutiny of these terror attacks, in case something unsavoury comes up.

A short documentary on the CIA-Mujahideen nexus during the Soviet-Afghan war of 1980s. Short term ‘gains’ for long term horrors.

While the American association with radical Islamists during Cold War era is widely known and well documented, both the US government and intelligence agencies repeatedly deny their involvement with the Islamic mujahiden. Unfortunately for the CIA, the “plausible deniability” doesn’t sell well among a lot of internationalist Americans, as is evident by their criticism of the 9/11 commission report.

The rest of the general American populace is either disinterested or unable to believe that their own governments helped radicalize, motivate, arm, and deploy the various groups of ‘Mujahedin’ that now plague South Asia. Perhaps they have more faith in the claims of “intelligence failure” by the their government, which is more of an insult to the intelligence of the American people.

• Internationalism , Military , Violence , World Politics
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