From Hiroshima to Fukushima, Vietnam to Fallujah

Started by drunkenshoe, March 12, 2014, 11:40:50 AM

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Gawdzilla Sama

 And you can only quote one post? Or am I missing something? 
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

wolf39us

Quote from: Gawdzilla SamaAnd you can only quote one post? Or am I missing something? 
You can quote multiple... but they appear as a single quote.  I'm gonna work on breaking them up.

There's a mod out there that allows you to quote highlighted text if you guys want that one

wolf39us

okay so I added the quoting mod... but it doesn't play well with the full editor.  I'll have to find a way around it.

With this mod all you have to do is highlight the text that you want to quote... should fill in the rest for you.

Gawdzilla Sama

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SilentFutility

Quote from: Moriarty on March 15, 2014, 10:20:36 AM
From a pure military point of view absolutely. What I learned in school and even university is that the Soviets would have been incapable of defending themselves, let alone push back without massive material support from the U.S.


Aircraft 14,795
Tanks 7,056
Jeeps 51,503
Trucks 375,883
Motorcycles 35,170
Tractors 8,071
Guns 8,218
Machine guns 131,633
Explosives 345,735 tons
Building equipment valued $10,910,000
Railroad freight cars 11,155
Locomotives 1,981
Cargo ships 90
Submarine hunters 105
Torpedo boats 197
Ship engines 7,784
Food supplies 4,478,000 tons
Machines and equipment $1,078,965,000
Non-ferrous metals 802,000 tons
Petroleum products 2,670,000 tons
Chemicals 842,000 tons
Cotton 106,893,000 tons
Leather 49,860 tons
Tires 3,786,000
Army boots 15,417,001 pairs

Yes...the USA helped a LOT, and the allies all won WW2 together, and without any of the major allies the war would likely have been lost.
You are further proving my point.

I'm NOT saying the US didn't have a pivotal role in WW2, they had a vital role. I'm saying the balance of power was so delicate and WW2 was so closely tipped in the favour of the allies that to claim any of them as the primary winner is simply wrong.

Gawdzilla Sama

I agree, SilentFutility. The reason the US had fewer causalities than the other major powers was because that's how we worked it. Blood-and-Guts Patton said he'd sooner expend a million shells than one soldier. It is interesting that the major power with the second shortest combat time, the USSR, also had one of the highest casualty rates.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SilentFutility

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on March 16, 2014, 02:18:56 PM
I agree, SilentFutility. The reason the US had fewer causalities than the other major powers was because that's how we worked it. Blood-and-Guts Patton said he'd sooner expend a million shells than one soldier. It is interesting that the major power with the second shortest combat time, the USSR, also had one of the highest casualty rates.
The Germans invaded soviet territory and many russians fought to the death rather than surrendering, with the Red Army very much in disarray in the period following the initial invasion. In protracted sieges/battles like Stalingrad starvation and exposure also killed many, which didn't happen nearly as much on the western front.
Also their tactics in many cases were the polar opposite of those you just mentioned, and in fact they still utilised very outdated infantry and cavalry charges in some cases which, as I'm sure you can imagine, incurred huge amounts of casualties.

Gawdzilla Sama

Yep, 850,000 civilians reported dead or missiong at Leningrad alone.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

josephpalazzo

There was also an order from Hitler that any Russian who was a card-carrying communist, or worked for the government had to be shot on site - no mercy, no trial. It was brutal, and most historians have wondered how German officers, many among had university education, could have carried such a horrendous order.

Plu

I'm guessing something along the lines of "you can either stand on the side of the guys holding the guns or on the side of the guys staring down the guns, take your pick" would do the trick quite well.

Shol'va

It was the same in the Japanese lines, through their fighting ranks there were soldiers unwilling to go to the lengths that their leadership demanded of their dedication/honor/whatever. It's true because I saw it in a movie named Letters from Iwo Jima!

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: josephpalazzo on March 17, 2014, 05:50:12 PM
There was also an order from Hitler that any Russian who was a card-carrying communist, or worked for the government had to be shot on site - no mercy, no trial. It was brutal, and most historians have wondered how German officers, many among had university education, could have carried such a horrendous order.

They had sworn an oath to obey Hitler. It was extremely difficult to break that oath.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers