finally I got to reply all to one of those RW mass emails

[ProgressiveFool]

I've seen others post their responses to these things and had always wanted to get a shot of my own. My brother, who's a Ron Paul libertardian sort of repub, usually doesn't send me this sort of crap, but recently he did send me this one, titled "How the D-Day invasion would be reported by today's press":

NORMANDY , FRANCE (June 6, 1944)

Three hundred French civilians were killed and thousands more were wounded today in the first hours of America 's invasion of continental Europe . Casualties were heaviest among women and children. Most of the French casualties were the result of artillery fire from American ships attempting to knock out German fortifications prior to the landing of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops.. Reports from a makeshift hospital in the French town of Sainte-Mère-Église said the carnage was far worse than the French had anticipated, and that reaction against the American invasion was running high. "We are dying for no reason, "said a Frenchman speaking on condition of anonymity. "Americans can't even shoot straight. I never thought I'd say this, but life was better under Adolph Hitler."

The invasion also caused severe environmental damage. American troops, tanks, trucks and machinery destroyed miles of pristine shoreline and thousands of acres of ecologically sensitive wetlands. It was believed that the habitat of the spineless French crab was completely wiped out, thus threatening the species with extinction. A representative of Greenpeace said his organization, which had tried to stall the invasion for over a year, was appalled at the destruction, but not surprised. "This is just another example of how the military destroys the environment without a second thought," said Christine Moanmore. "And it's all about corporate greed."

Contacted at his Manhattan condo, a member of the French government-in-exile who abandoned Paris when Hitler invaded, said the invasion was based solely on American financial interests. "Everyone knows that President Roosevelt has ties to ' big beer'," said Pierre LeWimp. "Once the German beer industry is conquered, Roosevelt ' s beer cronies will control the world market and make a fortune."

Administration supporters said America 's aggressive actions were based in part on the assertions of controversial scientist Albert Einstein, who sent a letter to Roosevelt speculating that the Germans were developing a secret weapon -- a so-called "atomic bomb". Such a weapon could produce casualties on a scale never seen before, and cause environmental damage that could last for thousands of years. Hitler has denied having such a weapon and international inspectors were unable to locate such weapons even after spending two long weekends in Germany .

Shortly after the invasion began, reports surfaced that German prisoners had been abused by American soldiers. Mistreatment of Jews by Germans at their so-called "concentration camps" has been rumored, but so far this remains unproven. Several thousand Americans died during the first hours of the invasion, and French officials are concerned that the uncollected corpses will pose a public-health risk. "The Americans should have planned for this in advance," they said. "It's their mess, and we don't intend to help clean it up."

Here was my reponse:

Unfortunately, "today's press" reported nothing about the invasion of Iraq except what the Bush administration wanted them to, due to a combination of their own spinelessness, their obsequious desire to please the administration for continued access to high-level sources, and a misguided sense of rah-rah patriotism.

The concerns of environmental groups, the people being invaded, people who wanted to give diplomacy and other measures more time, and people who were against the war on principle were either completely filtered out of the discussion in the run up to the war, or were given short-shrift, back-pages only coverage, even by the "liberal" bastion, the New York Times (it was in fact articles by Judith Miller, Michael Gordon and other administration cheerleaders at the NYT that got so many otherwise skeptical people on board with the invasion). If our press actually did it's fucking job and questioned what it was spoon-fed by the war hawks, we might not be in this mess.

I have to wonder about what sort of American can say "Well, they're committing atrocities, so we can, too." We're supposed to be better than that, that's why we're the good guys.

Also, it's spelled "Adolf", and Greenpeace was founded in 1971, so you might want to fix those errors before sending this out again.

[unpossibles]

1. also, D Day was a response to someone who really was a Hitler

Hitler, namely. He had already invaded other countries, so we really were liberating someone that time.

I wonder how today's right wing press would report the American Revolution...?

Today, shots were fired by terrorist insurgents in one of His Majesty's colonies, as local rabble ignored trade sanctions in a surprise armed uprising. "This is a blatant disregard for authority," exclaimed one Reginald D. Limbaugh, a supporter of law and order. "We must never contradict the King, and all who do so should be hanged for treason!" he continued.

[baldguy]

2. People who spread these emails don't care that they're not true.

It's sad really. A love of truth used to be part conservative idiology.

[ljm2002]

4. "conservative idiology"...

...looks like you've coined a real zinger there, mind if I borrow it?

:-)

[ck4829]

3. It's like comparing apples to oranges

This war is in no way like WWII, and no amount of spinning by RW'ers will make that true.

Hitler and his allies dreamed of world conquest and mass genocide, failing to stop them would have made the Communists look like schoolyard bullies in the long run.

We also had a plan for postwar Europe, which Bush did not have for Iraq. The Nazis actually wanted to wage an insurgency campaign in case someone invaded Germany, these insurgents would have been called Werwolfs. Because we had a plan however, the Werwolf plan pretty much failed.

[Lex]

5. heh

that was awesome :thumbsup:

[Turbineguy]

6. The most egregious part

is to use the D-Day invasions as a backdrop for this type of propaganda. Over 9000 Americans died in the invasion. This makes fun of that.

The Europeans have always been grateful to the United States for their role in liberating Europe from Hitler. That has never been an issue.

If someone came to my door with this crap he'd be nursing a broken jaw and in a soprano voice. I'm sorry, but I feel very strongly about this.

On edit: Change of title. It is not "Perhaps the most egregious part". It is "The most most egregious part".

More:

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/2004_dday_deaths.html

It is estimated that Allied casualties on D-Day totalled around 10,000, including 2,500 dead. German casualties are thought to have been between 4,000 and 9,000.

According to the D-Day Museum at Portsmouth, US casualties totalled 6,603; the Canadians suffered 946 casualties, including 340 dead; and British casualties were approximately 2,700. The British suffered about 1,000 casualties on Gold Beach and a similar number on Sword Beach. The US casualties included 1,465 dead, 3,184 wounded, 1,928 missing and 26 captured, most of them at Utah Beach, where German resistance was particularly fierce.

Altogether, more than 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. Allied casualties totalled around 209,000, including 37,000 dead from the ground forces and almost 17,000 from the airborne forces.

The Allied casualties included 83,045 from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces) and 125,847 from the US ground forces. Around 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded and a similar number captured. Normandy's war cemeteries contain the graves of some 110,000 soldiers, including 77,866 Germans, 9,386 Americans, 17,769 British, 5,002 Canadians and 650 Poles. Additionally, an estimated 15-20,000 French civilians were killed, mainly by Allied bombing.

[lunatica]

7. Great response!

In WWII the Allies didn't invade France. They sent troops to France to liberate it from the Germans who invaded France. The attempt to justify the German like atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the killing of tens of thousands of civilians and the oil grab is pretty pathetic. They are reaching and no one really believes this anymore. Except those who are too stupid to mean much. These crazies are a minority who seem to be a large group but really, they're just loud screamers in an echo chamber. They're on the wrong side of history and they'll soon shut up and pretend they were against the war all along.

[gratuitous]

8. Very good response

My response would have been a bit shorter: So, it's all the media's fault that Bush's imperial oil grab has lasted longer than World War II? My, oh my, it seems that the military has become such a bunch of pansies under Bush if they can be stymied this badly just by someone writing a column in East Paducah.