The 8th Army Air Force: Cool, collected, calmness under fire.

The following excerpts come from famed journalist and eventual war casualty
Ernie Pyle.  They describe the experience of seeing and hearing the 8th Army
Air Force approach an enemy target and then unleash its fire power upon its tar-
get.   More specifically, they come from the journalist's account of the July 25,
1944 bombing of the Panzer Lehr Division near St. Lo, France.  At the time of
the air raid, American troops were approximately 1,500 yards from the targeted
Panzer Lehr troops, making the air raid a surgical military operation:

...  "And then a new sound gradually droned into our ears.   The sound 

     was deep and all encompassing, with no notes in it --- just a gigantic 

     far away surge of doom-like sound.   It was the heavies." ...

...  "I've never known a storm or a machine or any resolve of man that
       had about it the aura of such ghastly relentlessness." ... 

... "The Germans began to shoot heavy, high ack-ack (88mm canon fire).

      Great black puffs of it by the score speckled the sky until it was hard

      to distinguish the smoke puffs from the planes.   And then, someone

      shouted that one of the planes was smoking.  Yes, we could all see it." ...

... "But before it was done there were more cries of 'There's another one 

      smoking, and there's a third one now!'  Chutes came out of some of 

      the planes, and out of some came no chutes at all." ... 

... "And all that time the great flat ceiling of the sky was roofed by all

     the others that didn't go down,  plowing their way forward,  as if

     there were no turmoil in the world.   Nothing deviated them by the 

     slightest.   They stalked on slowly,  with a dreadful pall of sound, 

     as though they were seeing only something at a great distance and 

    (as if) nothing existed in between."   ...

..."and then the bombs came.   They began ahead of us as a crackle 

     of popcorn and almost instantly swelled into a monstrous fury of 

    noise that seemed surely to destroy all the world ahead of us.  From   

    then on, for an hour and a half that had in it the agonies of the cen-

    turies, the bombs came down." ...

..."By now everything was an indescribable cauldron of sound.   Indi-

    vidual noises did not exist.  The thundering of motors in the sky and

    the roar of the bombs ahead filled all the space (spatial capacity) for 
    noise on earth.   Our own artillery was crashing all around us,  yet 
    we could hardly hear it."

  A narration of the same event, as was seen by General Fritz Bayerlein,

  the commanding Nazi officer caught in the middle of it, goes as follows: 

"The entrenched infantry was either smashed by the heavy bombs while 

  in their foxholes and dugouts or else they were killed and buried by the 

  blast.   Infantry and artillery positions were blown up.  The bombed-out

  area was entirely transformed into a field covered with craters, where no 

  human was left alive.   Tanks and guns were destroyed and overturned, 

  unable to be recovered, because all roads and passages were blocked." 

  General Bayerlein also wrote: 

"The shock effect was nearly as strong the physical effect" ... "Some of the 

   men got crazy and were unable to carry out anything.   I was personally 
   in the center of the bombardment and could experience the tremendous 
   effect.  For me, one who, during this war, was at every theater of opera-
   tion, and who had been assigned to the places of the main efforts,  this
   was the worst thing I ever saw." 

   Bayerlein summarized the aftermath in the following way:        

  "My front lines looked like the face of the moon, and at least 70%          

    of my troops were out of action - dead, wounded, crazed, or numb."
  ___________________________________________________________________ 

The airmen of the 8th Army Air Force enlisted for the entire duration of the war that
was started by Adolph Hitler and his war machine.   These airmen were literally in
it till death  ...  of either themselves or their heavily equipped enemy.  During their
tours of duty, there were multiple occasions when 88, 108, and 128 mm canon fire
would barrage them so intensely that the surviving airmen would wonder how they
made through it the high speed metal hailstorms.   They would return to British air
bases, only to be impressed by the amount of battle damage that their B-17 Flying
Fortresses and B-24 Liberators endured in flight.

During WWII, if you were in Germany during daylight hours and heard a thunder-
ous roar of airplane engines approaching you, it was always the Americans in all
their audacity, coming in plain sight, in order to have a better chance at hitting the
Nazi industrial war machine.  This included V1 rocket sites, Luftwaffe air bases,
Tiger Tank factories, warplane assembly lines, truck assembly lines, military rail
yards, chemical plants, fuel depots, buzz bomb sites, gun positions, and even the
Panzer Lehr Division which, within one ninety minute span of time, was no longer
the Fatherland's impenetrable armored division.  When compared to the strategic
8th Army Air Force, and even the tactical 9th, the mighty Panzer Lehr Division
was no stronger than cardboard boxes and coastline sand castles.

In a nutshell, if the 8th Army Air Force didn't knock out the Nazi German war in-
dustry, World War II would have endured much longer than it did, resulting in far
more casualties than it did.   In fact, if the 8th AAF didn't make a dedicated effort
in bombing Nazi rail yards in France, the allied invaders of Normandy would have
been met with far more resistance than they did.

As a general rule, the easiest missions where those made to submarine bull pens
and V1 Rocket sites.   Close encounters with death often occurred during those
missions that targeted the various Nazi marshaling yards, tank factories, and war-
plane assembly plants.  A marshaling yard, incidentally, was a railway staging area
that sent Nazi troops, supplies, and ordnance rolling.   The 8th Army Air Force
stopped the rolling, but only at a heavy price, being that the Nazi marshaling yards
were so heavily defended.

The 8th Army Air Force carried on its bombers men as iconic as Jimmy Stewart,
Walter Cronkite, Clark Gable, and the famous 60 Minutes Tour de Farce master,
Andy Rooney.  In performing its missions during daylight hours, it was a corps
of sitting ducks in the sky. 

The Presence of the 8th Army Air Force
in the European Theater of Operation
_________________________________ 

Of the 115,332 casualties sustained by the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII, 41%

of them were Eighth Army Air Force casualties.  Of the 47,483 casualties sustained

by the Eighth Army Air Force in WWII, over 26,000 were fatalities.   This exceed-

ed the 19,733 combat deaths and 24,511 total deaths that the U.S. Marine Corps

sustained during the same war.

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"We didn't get any flak until we got to the I.P.   Over the target, it 

 was a barrage. (Very intense.)   Twenty-six ships in all went down."

__________________________________________________________________

Over 28,000 airmen of the Eighth Army Air Force became prisoners of war in Eur-

ope.   Other airmen who bailed out over Nazi airspace were rescued by French,

Belgian, or Dutch underground networks.   Other airmen, upon parachuting to the

earth, were lynched by German civilians.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"Over this target, I saw one ship go down in a ball of fire.   At the 

   coast, I saw another one go into a tight spin.   It blew up when it

   hit the ground.   I only saw five chutes come out of this one."

__________________________________________________________________

As the war in Europe progressed, the ratio of flak-induced casualties to the fighter-

induced ones increased significantly.   During the months June, July, and August,
in 1944, 86.2% of the Eighth Army Air Force's casualties were due to flak.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"The flak over the target was terrific;  very heavy and very accurate. 

  We lost one plane in our group.   It was burning as it headed toward 

  the earth.   We saw three chutes come out of it."

__________________________________________________________________

The First and Third Air Divisions of the 8th Army Air Force operated B-17 Flying

Fortresses. The Second Air Division operated the B-24 Liberators.  The number of

B-24 Liberators lost in combat by the Second Air Division was 1,458.

__________________________________________________________________

"As we peeled away from the target, I saw a B-24 blow up in mid-air.   

  No chutes came out of it."

__________________________________________________________________

The phrase that American airmen used to describe the act of bailing out of a fall-
ing war plane was "Hit the silk(s)."   American parachutes were made of silk, and
a number of wedding gowns were made from American parachutes.

_________________________________________________________________ 

"We were ready to bail out when the pilot finally stabilized things."

_________________________________________________________________

A bombing run that encountered very little enemy resistance was called "a milk
run."   However, milk runs were not worthless. Some of them inflicted pivotal
damage upon the Nazi War Machine.

         "Our target for today was a buzz bomb site in the Pas-de-Calais

            area.   This mission, I believe, has been the easiest one so far.

            The bombing was visual, and the target was well smashed." ...
 

None the less, one crew's
milk run was another crew's 
disaster.

"While going in, a flak gun 
at the Siegfried Line shot 
down one of our planes."

________________________________________________________________

Shortly after the Liberation of Paris, the Second Air Division delivered tons of
food to Orleans, France.   These flights were called "grocery runs."   They were
were also called mercy missions.

________________________________________________________________

"We saw many, many tanks and vehicles along the roads and in the fields, 
  all wrecked and burnt.   I must have seen at least a million bomb craters 
  and foxholes.  I saw a lot of wrecked planes.  Dead cows and horses were 
  laying in the fields.    There was evidence of a battle everywhere along 

  our route."

______________________________________________________________

Bomber crewmen called fighter pilots "little buddies."

___________________________________________________________________

"As we were falling back (out of formation), fighter escorts stayed 

  with us despite the heavy flak and German interceptors."

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Marshaling yards, (repeatedly mentioned throughout the missions log), were railway

staging centers through which Nazi ordnance, supplies, and troops were transported.

Some of them were heavily guarded by Nazi flak guns.

Marshaling yards were so strategically important that the allied strategy, leading up

to D-day, was that of bombing German marshaling yards.   This was done, in order

to prevent the Nazis from being able to quickly send reinforcements to Normandy

Beach.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"The railroad cars at the marshaling yards were a mass of wreckage."

__________________________________________________________________

The I.P., also mentioned throughout the missions log, was the Initial Point.  It was

the spot in the sky where a mission's bombing phase began.   This was the coordi-

nate where each remaining bomber crew was to lock in on the target and fly in a

straight line, making neither turns nor evasive maneuvers until its bomb load was

released.   This phase was one in which American bomber crews were extremely

vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.

________________________________________________________________

"We flew to the I.P. and got some more flak.   As we were making our

   bombing run, from the I.P. to the target, we got even more flak.   We 

   released our bombs on the target and they were still shooting at us."

________________________________________________________________

Individual crews would have an engine shot out over the target more than one.

"We lost altitude so fast that we made for the nearest level strip."

The Initial Point was usually five minutes from the target.

"The flak was really heavy all the way from the IP to the target, 

and even past the target.   I was sweating it out, because a four

gun enemy battery was barely missing our left wing."

________________________________________________________________

The Ruhr Valley was called Flak Valley by American airmen, on account of the
number of flak guns in the region.

_________________________________________________________________

"Long before we dropped the bombs, (though after the I.P.), flak 

  was hitting all around us.  We dropped the bombs and made a left-

  hand turn.   The flak was so close that I could see the red flashes 

  as it burst."

__________________________________________________________________

Mentioned in a few of the mission log entries from where came the quotes appear-
ing on this page are readings such as "10/10 cloud cover." In as much, 10/10 stood
for 100% cloud cover, while 9/10 stood for 90% cloud cover, so on and so forth.

___________________________________________________________________

"We had about 6/10 cloud cover all the way."

____________________________________________________________________

The United States Army Air Force flew its missions during daylight hours in the Eur-

opean Theater of Operation, while the British RAF flew its missions at night.   An ex-

ception for American air units was the 801st/492nd Bomb Group. The airmen who

served in that bomb group were known as the Carpetbaggers.

The Carpetbaggers included American airmen who flew behind enemy lines at night,

delivering supplies to resistance forces, evacuating downed allied airmen, scattering

leaflets throughout the night sky, and transporting allied spies.   The Carpetbaggers

even delivered skis and sleighs to Norwegian resistance forces.

The Carpetbaggers had a clandestine airfield in Ain, France.

__________________________________________________________________

The C-1 auto-pilot would be activated as soon as a crew entered into the bombing

phase of a mission.   It was during the actual bombing phase when the bombardier

would assume complete command of the bomber.  Bombardiers were the ones hit

the most often by flak, along with navigators.  In fact, before the bombing phase of

a mission, the bombardier would be in charge of the nose gun.

The instrument used by bombardiers by 1944,  whenever radio-guided Pathfinder

Force Technology (P.F.F.) was not present, was the Norden Bombsight.   The

Norden Bombsight was an analog computer comprised of gyros, gears, mirrors,

bubble levels, and a small telescope.

Having replaced the Sperry S-1 Bombsight in 1943, it was preferable to P.F.F.

technology.   It was even preferable to the rarely used Azon radioguided bombs.

In fact, updated versions of the Norden Bombsight were used in Korea and Vi-

etnam.

     "Our target for today was a German airfield at Laon, France.

              The bombing was visual and results looked good."

In the event that a bomber began to fall out of the sky, it was the bombardier's duty

to destroy the Norden Bombsite before he bailed out, if of course, the bomber were

equipped with one.

The bombsight's necessity consisted in the fact that a degree of bombing accuracy

was needed by the 8th Army Air Force in Europe, due to the nature of the targets

assigned to it.

                                 "Our target was a concentration

                                    of enemy stronghold positions

                                  about three miles west of St. Lo." ...

                                  ... "enemy troops were about

                                       1,500 yds from our troops." ...

                       ... "The Field Artillery signaled us with flares.

                          There were also white markers on the ground

                         to direct us in the air.   The targets were all hit."

__________________________________________________________________

The previous quotes came from an airman's account of the July 25, 1944 bombing

of the Panzer Lehr Division near St. Lo, France.   Known as Operation Cobra, the

mission's outcome marked the breakout of allied ground forces from their coastal

confinements.   In fact, the successful outcome of Operation Cobra marked the be-

ginning of Germany's retreat from France.  Ironically, after the successful air raid,

allied ground force moved south and than west, before moving east, to Germany.

The day when the Panzer Lehr Division was decimated by the Eighth and Ninth

Army Air Forces was the day when Nazi troops learned that Germany's heavy

armored divisions were as vulnerable to America's bombers and attack aircraft

as cardboard boxes are vulnerable to sledge hammers.

This reality was evident on D-day, when medium sized B-26 Marauders of the 9th

Army Air Force destroyed a number of German tanks during tactical support mis-

sions.

General Omar Bradley was quoted as having said that Operation Cobra "struck a 

more deadly blow than any of us dared imagine."  A remarkable aspect of the

St. Lo Air Raid was that 20 lb fragmentation bombs, 100 lb demolition bombs, and

260 lb fragmentation bombs were all that were taken into battle by the 8th Army Air

Force, in order to decimate a Nazi armored division.

Neither the 2,000 lb demolition bomb, nor the 1,000 lb demolition bomb, nor even

the 500 lb incendiary bomb made an appearance at St. Lo, on July 25.  In fact, the

napalm incendiary bomb which made its debut eight days prior, during a P-38 raid

over France, was not used at St. Lo, either.

On July 25, a portion of the 8th Army Air Force bomber crews carried 20 lb frag-

mentation bombs @ 240 bombs per bomber, while other ones were equipped with

100 lb demolition bombs @ 38 bombs per bomber, while yet other crews went to

St. Lo with a load of 260 lb fragmentation bombs @ 20 bombs per bomber.

During Operation Cobra, the Panzer Lehr Division was more than fragged.  It had

troops who were literally vaporized.  The impact of the July 25th raid was recount-

ed by attending Nazi officer, Lieutenant-General Fritz Bayerlein.  The following was

posted at the introduction of this expose.  It's posted here again, for the reader's con-

venience.  Within his account is the phrase, "heavy bombs."   This refers to the bomb

loads that were dropped from each heavy bomber, as opposed to the weight of the

individual bombs themselves:

"The entrenched infantry was either smashed by the heavy bombs while 
  in their foxholes and dugouts or else they were killed and buried by the 
  blast.   Infantry and artillery positions were blown up.  The bombed-out
  area was entirely transformed into a field covered with craters, where no 
  human was left alive.   Tanks and guns were destroyed and overturned, 
  unable to be recovered, because all roads and passages were blocked."

General Bayerlein also wrote:

"The shock effect was nearly as strong the physical effect" ... "Some of the 
  men got crazy and were unable to carry out anything.   I was personally in 
  the center of the bombardment and could experience the tremendous effect.   
  For me, one who, during this war, was at every theater of operation, and 
  who had been assigned to the places of the main efforts,  this was the worst 

  thing I ever saw."

Bayerlein summarized the aftermath in the following way:

"My front lines looked like the face of the moon, and at least 70% 

  of my troops were out of action - dead, wounded, crazed, or numb."

The July 25th bombing raid proved erroneous the documentary makers' claim that

the allied invasion force of June 1944 would have been pushed back into the Eng-

lish Channel if all available Panzer divisions had immediately responded to Nor-
mandy Beach.   The truth is that Nazi armored units would have been decimated
near the Normandy shoreline the same way in which the Panzer Lehr Division
was decimated near the town of St. Lo.  

If the Panzer tanks started rolling on that day, the 8th Army Air Force would have

been flying a double shift, along with the tactical Ninth AAF which probably would

have responded to the scene much quicker than the 8th AAF.  Now, the morning

of June 6th was accompanied by low cloud cover and the inability to perform sight

bombing.   However, the skies began to clear in the afternoon.   In addition, the re-

peated bombing of Nazi marshaling yards prior to D-day prevented the rapid de-

ployment of Nazi infantry divisions to the west coast of France.  The Nazis often

traveled by rail.  The 8th Army Air Force kept demolishing its travel routes.

That which the 8th Army Air Force did not have the technology to decimate were

the concrete-reinforced gun positions known as pillboxes and the accompanying

bunkers that were lined along the French coastline.

The number of American troops killed by friendly fire during the St. Lo Raid was

111.   The number of American troops injured by friendly fire during the same raid

was 490.   Forty-two B-26 Marauders of the 9th Army Air Force "short bombed."

This resulted in the 30th Infantry Division sustaining 64 soldiers being killed in ac-

tion, 60 ending up missing in action (presumed to be buried under the blasts), and

374 gettingwounded.   If that hadn't happened, friendly fire casualties would have

been 47 killed and 126 wounded, in unintentional collateral damage.

During the St. Lo Air Raid, Nazi German anti-craft batteries fired upon oncoming

American bomb groups with accuracy.  

                        "The flak was rather intense and accurate.

                         Our right wing ship went down in flames."

__________________________________________________________________

Concerning the bombing of Dresden, it was the 8th Army Air Force's First Air Di-
vision who participated in that bombing, and even at that, the participating Ameri-
can bomb groups only bombed the Dresden rail system.   The RAF was the entity
who deliberately bombed civilian targets as a matter of policy, and the Americans
and British conducted their own operations independent of each other.  The 1st Air
Division's bombing of the Dresden rail system had the strategic effect of impeding
the Nazis from sending reinforcements to the Eastern Front.

Furthermore, the Feuersturm of Hamburg (known as Operation Gomorrah and the

Hiroshima of Germany) took place during the summer of 1943.   It was RAF night

raids which placed that time span in infamy, as it was a deliberate act of revenge for

the bombing of London.

__________________________________________________________________

In 1944, Strategic Bombing, as opposed to Area Bombing, was the operative mode

of the Eighth Army Air Force so much so that, during the same year, its name was

changed to the U.S. Strategic Air Forces (USSAF).  The carpet bombing of civilian

areas was NOT the assigned objective of the 8th Army Air Force.  Rather, the de-

struction of the Nazi War Machine was.  This included military hardware in produc-

tion and in the field, as well as transportation routes, storage areas, airfields, and

enemy troop strong points such as the Nazi gun positions in Metz, France.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"Our target for today was a Heinkel aircraft plant in Rostock, Germany.  
  The plant was one of the largest in Germany, but now it is no more.  Our 
  target was previously hit, but more damage needed to be done to it.   We 
  smashed the target flat this time.   The bombing was visual, and I could 
  see the bombs hit, blowing the place sky high. "

__________________________________________________________________

The official phrase, Precision Bombing, was employed in Europe by United States

bomber command, in order to define the targets as being precisely designated and
precisely limited to those of military significance.   The phrase was intended to con-
trast Area Bombing, the practice employed by RAF bomber command by which en-
tire civilian areas were targeted and indiscriminately bombed.

___________________________________________________________________

American squadrons were also given secondary and tertiary targets before each

bombing mission, along with primary target and targets of opportunity. 

"... we went to our secondary target, which was a chemical and high ex-
  plosives plant at Clausthal-Zellerfeld. We dropped our bombs and then 
  circled the target, to see what we did.   By the looks of the place, it isn't 
  any good to the Germans anymore.  The target was blazing, as smoke was 
  coming up to about 5,000 to 6,000 feet."

The documentary makers' claim that a thousand bombers would be sent to the same

one bombing target per mission is a falsehood.  The truth is that 300 to 1,500 bomb-

ers would be sent out to bomb four, eight, twelve, eighteen or so targets during the

same one outing.   Designated targets would be in the same general geographic re-

gion, and the various bomb groups would eventually separate into a number of dif-

ferent formations en route to the multiple targets.

There were occasions where only 4 to 13 bombers would attack an individual target.

There were even instances when a solitary bomber attacked a solitary target of op-

portunity.   However, the general trend was that the typical Nazi target was attacked

by 1 to 300 bombers, with 25 to 175 being the more frequently observed numerical

range, if not the exact statistical median.   It was even more common for 55 to 135

American bombers to attack a primary target.

                    "There were about 50 bombers at our target."

An exception was the day when the Leuna synthetic oil refinery at Merseberg was

attacked by 383 bombers during one raid and then 210 bombers later in the same

day.   There were other exceptions.  Only on rare occasion would a thousand or

more bombers be sent to one target.  The St. Lo Raid was one example, and even

at that, it was a joint effort between the Tactical 9th Army Air Force and the stra-

tegic 8th Army Air Force.

_________________________________________________________________

The October 1944 attack on Hamm, Germany, was the exception to the precision

bombing rule, even though the first two Autumn raids on Hamm targeted its mar-
shaling yards.  The mission which designated all of Hamm as the primary target
coincided with the recently failed Operation Market Garden which was once por-
trayed on Screen in, A Bridge Too Far, and in the TV serial, A Band  of Brothers.

   - The first autumn mission to Hamm occurred the day after the British

     1st Airborne Division in Holland was ordered to withdraw across the

     Rhine. In fact, takeoff time was a few hours after Operation Market

     Garden was officially declared halted. This was Tuesday, September

     26, 1944. 
                    "Our target for today was one of Germany's larg-

                      est rail centers that support troops in Holland."

  - There was a vested interest in shielding allied troops in Holland from

     a Nazi counteroffensive which would have had its supply line anchored

     at the Hamm marshaling yards. There was also a vested interest in safe-

    guarding Dutch Resistance personnel from Nazi retaliation.   There was

    the additional need to prevent the Germans from turning the western bor-

    der of Holland into a scaled ver ion of the Atlantic Wall (or a replica of

    the Siegfried Line).   In light of this, the allies were in need of establish-

    ing strongholds in the Holland that they invaded ten days prior. 

             "We were to hit the rail depot at the rail center of 

               Hamm, Germany.   The whole 8th Army Air Corps 

               was bombing in this area today."

 - The second autumn mission to Hamm occurred four days after the first

    mission, on September 30th.   Then, on the following Monday, Hamm's

    ability to export the Nazi War Machine to Holland was significantly dis-

    rupted.

 - The bombing mission was successful enough to enable the 1st Canadian

   Army to maintain a position near Groesbeek, Holland.   This resulted in

   the Operation Veritable that began in February 1945.

          "This is the largest rail center in Germany, and I don't 

            think that we will have to go back there again.  I could 

            see the bombs hit right into the target."

 - Crews of the 578th Bomb Group had already been briefed for a mission
    to Stuttgart on the morning of the Second of October. They then found
    themselves in a briefing room once again, being briefed on the Hamm mis-
    sion shortly before takeoff time. Thus, there was a sense of urgency in the
    third Hamm mission, as opposed to a premeditated plan.

         "After we peeled away from the target, I saw three more

           groups drop their bombs.   They smashed Hamm flat."

 - The Hamm marshaling yards were attacked before the three autumn raids,

    during the end of summer, on the 19th of September.  This occurred while

    Operation Market Garden was still in progress.  Hamm's marshaling yards

    would then be attacked again, on November 26, 1944.   But, the mission

    which made all of Hamm the primary target was October 2, 1944.

_________________________________________________________________

As was previously mentioned, the RAF engaged in Area Bombing as a matter of

policy.   British high command asserted that destroying German civilian neighbor-

hoods would destroy the German workforce and the Nazis' ability to manufacture

its weaponry.  In fact, Winston Churchill ordered the RAF to perform "terror raids"

upon civilian populations.

British high command was proven wrong.   History showed that Area Bombing did

not destroy the Nazi war industry.   Nor did it demoralize Germany to the point of

surrendering.   If anything, the bombing of civilian venues inspires an enemy to fight

even more vehemently against you with the military hardware that was untouched

while you were bombing his civilian neighborhoods.

The Nazi's defeat at Leningrad was attributed to the fact that civilian venues through-

out that city were intentionally bombed by the Luftwaffe, giving Russian snipers free

reign throughout a fortress of rubble.

The systematic bombing of civilian areas is strategically detrimental, as well as a
crime against humanity.   The bombing of merely one truck assembly plant did more
to defeat the Nazis than did the killing of a multitude of German civilians.

____________________________________________________________________ 

"Our target was a truck plant in Cologne, Germany.   This was a very im-

  portant mission, because the Germans were using the trucks to carry sup-
  plies to the front lines at Aachen and other places."

____________________________________________________________________

On occasion, an American bomber squadron would make the error of missing its
assigned target and then hitting a Swiss town or a German municipality.

There were varying degrees of collateral damage for almost any bombing raid that

did not target a submarine bullpen, a Nazi airfield, a remote railway viaduct, a buzz

bomb site, or a recessed gun position.   The amount of collateral damage depend-

ed on a few variables, including the target's proximity to civilian areas, the percen-

tage of cloud cover, the intensity of flak being fired near the target, the flammable

nature of the target, the year in which the air raid took place, and the type of radio

guidance system or bombsight used in the bombing.

Even at that, there were times when the Eighth Army Air Force declined to release

its bombs over Nazi-held territory, due to the presence of too much cloud cover

and the accompanying inability to locate a specific target.

Also keep in mind that a falling American airship (especially one that had not yet

released its bomb load), as well as a plummeting fighter plane, had the potential to

cause collateral damage, also.

__________________________________________________________________

In the European Theater of Operation, there were American bomber crews who be-

came the victims of friendly fire while in the air.

"We lost two ships in our group due

to our own bombs dropping on them."

Fatal bomber accidents were not limited to training venues.   There was the tragedy

of American bombers collidsinf into each other upon their return to Britain, as well

as cases of bombers being lost in the English Channel. 

"As we got back to our base, two of the planes in our group  crashed into 
  each other and blew up.   It was an unbelievable sight.  I saw the planes 
  explode right off our left wing and then hit the ground.   No one got out 
  alive.   The weather was plenty rough when coming in.   We lost another 
  plane in the channel."

__________________________________________________________________

The Nazis acquired radar technology and used it in its anti-aircraft tactics.  The ra-

dar countermeasure employed by the Americans was that of dispersing bundles of

aluminized paper strips throughout the sky.   Known as chaff, the strips were dis-

persed through trap doors by each crew's waist gunners.

The strips served the function of decoys, causing multiple returns to appear on an

enemy's radar screens.  Despite this countermeasure, American bombers were still

being shot down over Nazi airspace, while a significant number of them were re-

turning to England noticeably shot-up.

                 "About 40 bombers were lost.   I now know how a duck

                 feels during hunting season.  One ship in our group was

                 lost.   Plenty of them were pretty well shot up."

Even after the allied invasion of France and the establishment of allied air superior-

ity, American airmen continued to be in peril throughout parts of the European skies.

As an initial example,  three hundred and seventy-three B-24 liberators were sent to

bomb Nazi German oil refineries and aircraft assembly plants thirty-two days after

D-day.   One hundred and twenty-seven of the bombers returned to England with

battle damage, while thirty-seven of them never returned.  Six U.S. fighter planes

were also lost in combat. 
                                          "The flak was heavy and accurate.

                                               Also, plenty of enemy fighters;

                                          (JU-88, Me-109, Me-410, FW-190.)"

As another example, the July 12, 1944 mission to Munich resulted in battle damage

being inflicted upon 301 heavy bombers.  Twenty-six of the bombers were shot

down over the target.  The target was the Munich marshaling yards.

                             "The mission was long and tiresome."

The tragic Kassel Mission occurred 16 weeks after D-day, on September 27, 1944.

Twenty-five of the thirty-five participating airships of the 445th Bomb Group were

shot down in a 15 minute time span.  The intended target was a Tiger Tank factory. 

                           "This bomber group's losses were heavy

                                in spite of heavy fighter support."

As a final example, on the last day of November, in 1944, 29 heavy bombers were

shot down, while 612 other ones sustained battle damage while in Nazi airspace, at-

tacking four synthetic oil refineries, two marshaling yards, and several targets of op-

portunity.

___________________________________________________________________

During their grocery runs to Orleans, American bombers crews did not travel to 

French airports with full crews.

___________________________________________________________________ 

"Only the pilot, co-pilot, navigator, engineer, and radio operator were on 
  board.   I don't know what we would have done if we had been attacked 
  by fighters.   We were so low that we could see the French people wave 
  at us.   Also a few GIs."

__________________________________________________________________

Even though Switzerland was a neutral nation throughout World War II, the Swiss
captured and interned American aviators who bailed out over Switzerland.   Even
though the America prisoners of war were interned at Swiss ski resorts they were
subject to marginal diets of 1,500 calories daily and the gnaw of very poorly heat-
ed quarters.   None the less, Switzerland proved to be a lifesaver for over a 1,700
American aviators.

The United States government received hotel bills from the Swiss, on account

of American airmen interned at the Swiss ski lodges.  In addition, over 100,000
soldiers of various nations and branches of service made their ways to Switzer-
land, along with 200,000+ civilian refugees.

___________________________________________________________________

"Gerry really had our number.   I didn't see any ships go down, but one 
  crew in our barracks was shot up so badly that it had to go to Switzer-
  land."

____________________________________________________________________

If a bomber crew failed to drop its bomb load on a Nazi target during a mission, yet
flew through airspace under attack by enemy flak guns or fighter planes, it would still
receive credit for having performed a combat mission.

_____________________________________________________________________ 

The United States Air Force did not become an independent branch of the American
military until 1947.   Until then, it operated under United States Army command.   It
originally carried the title, Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Signal Corps, followed
chronologically by Aviation Section  (of the Signal Corps), the Division of Military
Aeronautics, and the U.S. Army Air Service.   Then, in 1926, congress changed its
name to the United States Army Air Corps.

In 1941, the United States Army Air Force was established, and the Office of the

Chief of the Army Air Corps was disbanded.   However, throughout World War II,

the phrase Army Air Corps was often used when speaking of the newly formed Ar-

my Air Force.   This was done even by the press and government officials, as well

as by members of the Army Air Force. 

__________________________________________________________________

The Eighth Army Air Force was founded in 1942, and was originally called VIII

Bomber Command.   Its name was then changed to the U.S. Strategic Air Forces,

during February of 1944.   However, consecutive years of familiarity with the phrase,

Army Air Corps, even at the recruiting office, is the reason why the USSAF was of-

ten referred to as the 8th Army Air Corps, even by its own airmen.

____________________________________________________________________ 

"Our group did not lose any planes, but the 8th Army Air Corps lost 51 
  heavy bombers. "

____________________________________________________________________

The airmen saw things as scenic as the White Cliffs of Dover and "the peaks of the
Alps protruding through the clouds."   This is contrasted by the sight of airships go-
ing down in balls of fire, as well as the devastation that was seen in France, during
the grocery runs which occurred after the Liberation of Paris.  The Eighth Army Air
Force, in traveling behind enemy lines, was pivotal in the Liberation of France, the
Netherlands, and Belgium.

___________________________________________________________________ 

"When we left the target, we could see the peaks of the Alps protruding

 through the clouds.   They looked very pretty, but I did not want to hang

 around and look at them. "

____________________________________________________________________ 

For more on an American daylight crew's tour of duty in Nazi airspace, 
refer to the following:

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/combat-missions-1-to-9.html

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/combat-missions-10-to-18.html

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/orleans-france.html

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/combat-missions-19-to-27.html

Jimmy Carter and NOT John Paul II saved Poland from invasion. (According to a former US intelligence analyst & declassified info.)

  Below:  Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski

 If you recognize this face, then you had a security clearance during the Carter administration.  I was in college at the time.  So, don't look at me.  None the less, the event surrounding that Soviet gentleman was literally Jimmy's last hurrah.

In December of 1980, the Soviet Union was poised to invade all of Poland, under the guise of a military training exercise with East Germany and Czechoslavkia.  John Paul II did NOTHING to stop that which Jimmy Carter succeeded at getting accomplished, through his diplomatic channels AND optical technology.  The false praise given to that cleric who allowed altar-boy molestation to run rampant is always unacceptable.  None the less, an intelligence analyst and I sat down one afternoon and talked and talked.  The near-invasion of Poland came up in the conversation.  So . . .

None the less,  Carter did mention that time in his memoirs:   

”I sent Brezhnev a direct message warning of the serious consequences of a Soviet move into Poland, and let him know more indirectly that we would move to transfer advanced weaponry to China. I asked Prime Minister [Indira] Gandhi to pressure Brezhnev (who was about to visit New Delhi), and warned the opposition leaders in Poland so that they would not be taken by surprise. I and other administration officials also made public statements about the growing threat to European stability”.                                 

 Introduction

On May 1, 2011, an act of cronyism was used in canonization process.  John
Paul II was beatified, and for the first time in church history a pope beatified
his immediate successor.  This amounted to the pope beatifying his former
boss.  This amounted to conflict of Interest.  None the less, the beatification
was construed to have been a diversionary tactic, intended to deflect attention
and away from John Paul II's sins of accessory in the long-term sex abuse out-
rage of the Vatican II Church.  It came to be discovered that John Paul II was
very much current on the topic, fully aware of the sex abuse epidemic.

If he weren't beatified, it would perhaps arouse the suspicions of law enforce-
ment authorities as to John Paul's culpability ... and therefore the cupability of
John Paul's employees, such as Ratzinger, Bertone, and Sodano.

Concerning John Paul, Benedict XVI should have recused himself from the
case and left the decision to approve or deny beatification to a successor, sole-
ly on the grounds of conflict of interest and cronyism.   Before approving the
beatification, the Vatican should have interviewed at least two dozen sex abuse
victims and three dozen retaliation victims.  Even as recently as April 30, 2012,
a witness to modern church corruption feared coming forth, and this individual
was a nun.

Now that the canonization process for John Paul is complete, will he be made
the patron saint of altar boys or the priests who molested them?  He did far
more for the molesters than the molested.

The insult of the beatification would result in 20,000 pages of documentary evi-
dence and an official petition being filed at the Hague's international criminal
court, during the same year.  In fact, this filing occurred on April 11, weeks be-
fore the scheduled beatification.  It meant nothing to the modern Vatican.  In
fact, according to Ireland's Prime Minister your pain means nothing to the nar-
cissists who hijacked the Vatican.  Moreover, during the same year when John
Paul was beatified, Ireland's prime minister sent a mandate to the Vatican, on
account of the crimes of clergy members in Ireland which were repeatedly ig-
nored by John Paul II.

Those who were the principle accomplices of the crimes of the modern church
are still in power at the very Vatican where they engaged in the crimes.  None
the less, the praise of John Paul constituted teenie bopper idolatry.  He was
credited with having crushed Communism, despite the fact that Communist
China now owns over $1.4 trillion worth of America's debt, and despite the
fact that the same Maoist dictatorship became an oppressive economic world
power during John Paul's reign.  The present regimes of China, Cuba, Vietnam,
North Korea, and Laos show that over a billion people are still locked in Com-
munist tyranny.

Add to this all of the other sweatshop nations which equally constitute dictator-
ships which rob people of their civil rights.  Don't forget the military junta na-
tions, such as Burma (Myanmar), and nations in chaos.  Plus, keep in mind
that many dictatorships falsely title themselves the people's republic of this,
that, and the other thing.  In addition, the Russian election of 2011 resulted
in the Communist Party taking possession of 92 seats in the Duma (Russian
Parliament.)

John Paul did little more than make vain stage appearances and curtain calls.
He succeeded in crushing the spirits of devout Catholics more effectively than
Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Czech Revolu-
tion of 1968.

Concerning John Paul II, the bottom line is that he did not make his world a better
place as did Saint Patrick in Ireland and St. Francis in Assisi Italy.  Yet, in the pre-
dictable Orwellian con game, we were being told for years, was that the world was
now a better place.  It was a far worse place.  The economic crisis of 2008 and all
that was uncovered during it proved otherwise.  The wave of terrorism since 2001
also prove otherwise, and economic conditions which resulted in the worldwide
OWS Movement proved the same.  Yet, John Paul was praised as a one-man lib-
erator of Poland.  In as much, the truth concerning Poland needs to be made known,
simply to take people out of their hypnotic trance, concerning the media marketing
campaign of John Paul II:

Jimmy Carter is the one who Saved Poland from Invasion

It was Jimmy Carter who ordered the tactic that prevented Poland from being invaded
by Russian armored units, and it was the citizens of Moscow, along with Russian mili-
tary personnel, in their refusal to fire on their own Russian people, who brought Soviet
satellite statesmanship to an end.  Proof of this exists in what happened the very year
Carter left office.

For those unfamiliar, Russia almost rolled into Poland in 1979 and 1980, but were
deterred by one simple Jimmy Carter tactic.  Carter then left office in 1981.

Reagan's first year in office: 

Jaruzelski suddenly declared martial law, in December of 1981.  This shows that he
saw Reagan as enough of a bumbler and a paper tiger that he would test Reagan.
Therefore, it was former military officer James Earl Carter who was the one hold-
ing the Communists at bay. 

The Source for the Following:

The confirmation source of the following information is a former Washington D.C.
intelligence analyst.  For the record, nothing below is classified.

Background

In 1968, the Soviets were already halfway into Czechoslovakia before anyone knew
they invaded.   Therefore, the Soviet crackdown on Czechoslovakia was guaranteed.
However, during the John Paul years, American technology kept the West current on
Soviet troop movement.   This included the movement of Soviet armored and infantry
divisions during the near-invasion of Poland.

The Polish Crisis During the Carter Years

Being that American technology had Russia's number, President James Earl Carter
kept declassifying intelligence on current Russia troop movements and released it to
the public.  Jimmy was telling the Russians that NATO knew where they were in re-
lation to Poland's topography.  The Russians, in turn, knew that they didn't have the
benefit of stealth, as they were forced to entertain the possibility that NATO would
be their welcoming party, if they decided to roll into Poland.  It's that simple.

There is another logical reason for Russia to have declined to invade Poland.  Russia
was already in Afghanistan, as of Christmas season 1979.  It had enough on its plate.
In as much, there was no type of religious conversion going on with the Soviets in the
Year 1980.  Their consciences weren't being enlightened and their hearts weren't be-
ing moved.  They would have invaded Poland if they knew they could get away with
doing so.  Jimmy Carter made sure that they wouldn't risk invading Poland.  Thus, no
speech of John Paul had any effect on the Russians. 

The Following is Standard History:

The Iran hostage crisis was in progress, and Russia was waiting to see if it would have
an excuse to roll into Iran.  If America rolled in, Russia would have followed.  So, do
not be deceived into thinking that the Russians would have cowered so close to their
own terrain.

For those not taught well in school, know this:  Russia's greatest quest was long since
understood by Western analysts to be the acquisition of a warm weather port.  Invad-
ing Iran would have given the Russians the opportunity to achieve that goal.  Invading
Poland wouldn't have given them any warm water port.  Therefore, the Russians elect-
ed to forgo Poland out of logistics ... not by moral conversion.  Oil-producing Iran was
more valuable than non-petroleum Poland.  After all, Russia still had a hold on White
Russia, aka Belarus.  Therefore, Poland was expendable.

                                The Way Jimmy Carter Really Was

The following anecdote about Carter came via the Pentagon:  Shortly before Jimmy
was to be sworn-in, he was being given a detailed tour of the Department of Defense.
There came the point when he was being told that a helicopter would always be on a
pad, ready to take him to command headquarters within 15 minutes, in the event of a
military emergency.  Jimmy asked, "Is this true?"  His tour guide: "Yes sir.  Within 
15 minutes."  Jimmy then looked at his wrist watch and said, "Okay.  Go!"  "Sir?"
While looking at his wrist watch Jimmy once again said, "Go!"  He wanted to test the
procedure on the spot.  Such was former navy officer Jimmy Carter.

Incidentally, Jimmy Carter was the first military officer in history to head the clean-
up of a nuclear power plant leak.  Chernobyl wasn't the first one in history and Three
Mile Island wasn't the first nuclear crisis in the Western Hemisphere  The Chalk River
Plant in Canada was.  It occurred on December 12, 1952.  Twenty-seven years later,
Jimmy saved Poland from its pending crisis.  Who gives him the credit for having done
so?  This is ingratitude for you.
________________________________________________________________

Boadicea was a war criminal who targeted unarmed civilians for death

The following refers to the Battle of Watlings Street, fought in 60 or 61 A.D.

Queen Boadicea didn't know how to control her temper, and being the personifi-
cation of your own rage will result in you swinging wildly and missing your target.
Meanwhile, you'll get hit so hard that you'll get knocked out, while fighting angry.
This is what happened to the Queen Boadicea who didn't differentiate soldier from
civilian.  When she attacked civilian neighborhoods, she committed war crimes, per
se.  Therefore, she was destined to quickly fall.

Filled with blood thirsty vengeance, Boadicea attacked a heavily outnumbered Roman
legion that was perfectly placed in a defensive position.  The first wave of Boadicea's
attack was easily repelled.  So too was the second and third one.  Now, when you fail
repeatedly in your battle plan, you must change it or you will get annihilated.  This is
what happened to Boadicea's army.

Then, the Romans marched forward and became the attackers.  They killed everyone
in sight.  They kept moving forward, and in short order, they were no longer the heavi-
ly outnumbered ones.  Boadicea, in all of her toughguyness fled.  She wasn't as tough
as she was made out to be.

Boudicea's outrage was caused by one Roman tax collector who fled England, rather
than stand his ground.  After all, what he did to Boadicea's two daughters was crimi-
nal.  But Boadicea had to revenge every other Roman in sight, for the crime of one,
and that was her downfall.

Someone with a vengeful temper as wild as Boadicea should never be the leader of
anything.  It came to the point where she became the leader of nothing.  She caused
her own fall.  Now, when you hear someone immortalizing of Boudicca, they are do-
ing nothing more immortalizing a murderer.  She killed unarmed civilians.  She then
led her maniacal soldiers into the jaws of a very mechanical lion.  Her military foolish-
ness killed her own people.

Great military leaders plan to have their soldiers defend themselves, in anticipation
of the worse-case scenario.  Boudicea didn't do that.  Therefore, she really didn't care
about her people.  Whenever a leader doesn't care about his/her people, the people are
guaranteed to die.  Hitler was a prime example.  Even Berlin was turned into rubble.

When you attack, your first move must be one defensive one.  Thus, the U.S. military
policy is to first demolish the enemies eyes & ears, as well as its surface-to-air missile
systems.  You need to put the SAM's out of commission before you send your fighters
and bombers into the heart of enemy territory.

All in all, Queen Boadicea makes for a worthless and even detrimental mentor.  There
is nothing of value in her.  At the most, her example can teach what to never do in life.
In as much, if you encounter a person who starts praising her, part company with that
person.  Go elsewhere.  Make new friends.  Boudicea was a friend of no one.

U.S. military spending in the 21st Century

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on the Subject of Military Spending

Before all else, keep in mind that the ridiculously high price of U.S.miitary spend-
ing is nothng more than a jobs program and income sources for the utterly worth-
less and uncreative politicians who happens to be Souther Democrats in Republi-
can clothing.  Interestingly enough, before the racist South made an egress from
the Democratic Party, shortly after all of the Civil Rights Enactments, the true
Republican Party Platform was LOW MILITARY SPENDING.  This was even
Richard Nixon's platform.

As well, keep in mind that the reason was Dwight Eisenhower choose Nixon as
his running mate was that Ike knew the tragedy of war and Nixon was a Quaker.
The Quaker religions, aka the Society of Friends consolidated in William Penn's
Woods, is the most anti-war religion to the Western European mindset.  In as
much, today's Republican Party and the Republicans of the 1950s and 1960s
is entirely unrecognizable to each other.  The older version of the Republican
Party described itself as the Loyal Opposition.  Today's Republican Party is
sheer lynch mobbery.  I was once a Republican.  No more ... and never again.
-------------------------

It is important to once again take to heart what was spoken by President Dwight
D. Eisenhower, the man most experienced in war and its tragic aftermath.  In
1953, fifty years before Bush II began his course of taking the US to the brink
of its own economic destruction, Ike said the following:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, and every rocket fired signi-
fies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed;  those 
who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money,
solely.  It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and
the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this:  A modern brick school in more 
than 30 cities.  It's two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000
in population.  It's two fine, fully equipped hospitals.  It's some fifty miles of 
concrete highway.  We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of 
wheat.  We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed 
more than 8,000 people.

This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has 
been taking.  This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense.  Under the 
cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Actually, it's cross of depleted uranium.

Take note that Ike's 1953 Iron Cross speech isn't his famous January 1961 Military
Industrial Complex speech.  He knew the devastation of war.  He was aware that
exorbitant military spending is assault and battery on the nation doing the spend-
ing.  American military spending of the 1950s was proportionally higher than it is
today, in as far as concerns spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.

 However, in the 1950s, America was a manufacturing nation that was erasing
its post war debt, on account of the many well paid taxpayers.  Furthermore, the
outrage of the $695+ billion per year military budget consists in that the U.S.
has spent, in one recent year, as much as the next 23 highest spending nations
combined.  Plus, there is the matter of environmental red flags in this era of de-
pleted uranium ordnance.  This means that conventional warfare is no longer
conventional.

Of course, it is true that the American military budget is merely a jobs programs.
Circumstantial evidence consists in the fact that there was the congressional push
to place more tanks in the U.S. arsenal, despite the fact that the Pentagon already
stated that it needs no more cavalry tanks.  Thus, there would be the maintenance
cost of something viewed as a burden on the military.

Years ago, in a political science class, the professor informed us that Southern con-
gressmen, as a matter of course, use the military budget to get taxpayer dollars into
their low income constituencies.  Therefore, this disingenuous habit of Southerns
was recognized decades ago.  All in all, the military budget was a way to get money
into the economically backward South.  This budget has little to do with "patriotism."

As a qualifying statement for the right winged paranoid, a $480 to $520 billion milit-
ary budget or so would be rational, if the United States congress would put a stop to
the runaway Trade Balance Deficit that empowered a ruthless Maoist China via the
by slave labor profiteering of the Walton clan of Arkansas and numerous other self-
seekers.  It's when the budget exceeds $550, $600, and $650 billion that such spend-
ing becomes a future count in a future Nuremberg-type trial.  Such spending literally
becomes criminal, especially depending on the medical verdict of depleted uranium
upon health and the environment.

The fatal error of Southern politicians is that they think that they will be immune for
the privation they have caused America.  This includes the Obstructionist 112th Con-
gress which was the most do-nothing congress in U.S. history.  Republicans need to
study history, as in the Cromwell Regicide trials, Andersonville, Nuremberg, Tokyo,
and even the recent trial of African war criminal Charles Taylor.  So, think.  Reading
Ayn Rand is not the answer.  Reading on how Atlanta was burnt by northerners who
were be undercut economically by the South's no-wage workforce would help too.
If the Republicans insist on remaining functionally illiterate, they who relive history,
as opposed to make history.  Even as the DowJones rises, one can't but help to notice
further diversionary tactics on the part of the Republicans on air and in congress.

Overspending results in too much rust. 

Republicans display chicken hawk contempt toward youths who don't help increase
the United States' run-away national debt which is augmented via exorbitant military
spending.  The irony today is that the newly enlisted youths who take the oath to de-
fend this nation are helping to destroy it with the amount of military spending that
a heavily indebted and non-manufacturing-based United States is forced to accrue,
on account of the stereotypical Republican Gun-toting TEA Party supporter.

It's predictable to see chicken hawks such as Limbaugh, Boehner, O'Reilley, Gingrich,
Beck, Cantor, Hannity, and Dr. "I'm Banned in England" (who never spent a minute
in boot camp) get on the megaphone and then badger America's youth to do what the
chicken hawks avoided doing.  Those youths are merely pawns in a money making
scheme.  This brings us back to Ike's fatherly warning to America, as in the warning
about the Military Industrial Complex.  Ironically, he was a Republican.  Yet, the Re-
publicans ignore him.  Of course, they only ignore him because they are Souhern
Democrats at heart.

The oxymoron is that, when enlisting to protect the United States, an American youth
ends up financially pounding the final nail in America's coffin.  Due to George WMD
Bush and his Republican cohorts, America can no longer afford GI Joe.  The Republi-
cans weakened a nation by acting tough with the blood of others for consecutive years
at a time.  Soldiers of the National Guard were being forced into foreign tours of duty,
a couple of continental plates away.  However, the National Guard is designed to al-
ways stay home and be the last line of defense for a nation.  It shouldn't be traveling
over an ocean.  In fact, the National Guard is that well formed militia mentioned in
the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, so designed to prevent the government
from becoming a tyranny.  It didn't work.  The tyrant George Bush sent the National
Guard packing to a desert far far away.

In addition, American soldiers of the regular armed forces were forced into two and
three tours of duty thousands of miles from home.  This was ruthless, and as a result,
Corporate Bailout Bush drained and weakened the United States by playing the role
of Mr. Bring-it-on.  Eight and ten years of wasted time were spent on two theaters
of war, along with $1.6 trillion spent.  Yet, there was not a single tank battle or naval
encounter throughout that entire time.  There wasn't even a single aerial dog fight.  In
fact, the Aussies and Americans ended up finding Iraqi aircraft in poor condition, on
the ground and even under the ground, buried.  So, why was all the money spent?

Despite this fact, those two wars accounted for one quarter of the national debt that
has accumulated since 2001 ... according to the Christian Science Monitor.  Iraq has
accounted for 4,487 American deaths, while Afghanistan accounted for 1,863.

Then comes wounded military personnel.  Even in December of 2011, casualties in Af-
ghanistan were mounting.  In the Year 2010, while America was watching TV house-
wives and certain celebrities of no particular talent, 700 United States soldiers died in
Afghanistan.  Americans act as if they don't even care.  Maybe it's because they don't.
In the same time span and at the same theater of war, 5,000 U.S. troops were wound-
ed.  Young men of America, listen:  Don't die for ungrateful people who obsess them-
selves with Botox Barbies.  And don't die for the sake of someone's war profiteers. 

The Enduring Cost of a Freedom that Didn't Endure

Then there is the cost of the aftermath of war, for years to come.  The same Christian
Science Monitor stated that $600 to $900 billion in long-term medical care and disa-
bility compensation is already owed by the United States to the veterans of both pro-
longed wars.  In 2008, U.S. Medicine reported that 600,000 Americans were treat-
ed at Veteran hospitals.

In the failure of the George Bush War years, one needs to be reminded that he and his
staff violated every premise of Sun Tzu's Art of  War.  Sun Tzu would never have wat-
er boarded anyone, in the first place.  Secondly, the terrorists were criminals and NOT
soldiers.  This is because, if they were soldiers, then they violated the Rules of Engage-
ment and became criminals in the process.  They let civilians be targeted.  Stated for
the record, you're not permitted to target civilians, including those in New York sky-
scrapers.

There was another costly after-effect of the Reagan Close-down-industry Complex.
Reagan manipulated the economy in such a way that the only way in which a number
of young Americans could get a job was to join the military.  This now translates in-
to highest of all government price tags ... the pension ... both government and military.
the bills which sent America's manufacturing base to Sweatshopville were the United
States' suicide notes.  American manufacturing employees paid much more tax and
spent more on multiplier-effect enhancing products than do coffee shop barristers
absorbed in college loan debt.

Why was so much taxpayer money wasted on the military industrial mind set?  The
Bible which used to be read in America stated, "Blessed are the peace makers;" not
the war makers.  Yet, Reagan had the audacity to call a nuclear missile a peace mak-
er.  Well, it didn't make peace.  It merely delayed a more concentrated and devastat-
ing series of wars in the future.  Meanwhile, Chicken Hawk Reagan let many neglect-
ed things eventually blow up in the face of society.  He left behind a land mine of so-
cial ills.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0908/US-response-to-9-11-contributed-to-causes-of-current-debt-crisis

At present, the United States is in need of research engineers and environmental ex-
perts who can benefit health and daily civilian life, in the States and American terri-
tories.  If there's no appreciable life for millions of indebted civilians, then what is
there left to defend?  It's the 1% who destroyed the American Dream.  Giving your
military service toward those greed-stricken people would translate into a nightmare
for you.  Ask the three-tour Iraq/Afghan vets.

When military expert Wesley Clark said "re-deploy" to a place outside of Iraq, pushy
Chicken Hawks of gutless wonder called him a sissy.  You need to be reminded that
General Clark was the commander of the NATO alliance, and unlike chicken hawks,
he did attend boot camp.  He knows what thousands of chicken hawks don't know.
However, he was ever so coincidentally a democrat.  Thus, he was bashed, despite
the fact that he had the money-saving and life-saving answer at the moment of chaos.

America needed to save its ordnance and dollars for a real war.  The Bush II years
were the ones that were slowly making the United States defenseless, in the name
of Patriotism and "free market" economics.  The Bush version of  "free market eco-
nomics" resulted in a lot of people losing their freedom in foreign labor camps.  In
the process, he elevated military spending via two wars, all the while lowering the
tax rate for those rich made their money through the ultimate form of parasitic con-
duct ... namely, of off sweatshop laborers cheated of the rightfully due wages.  Thus,
Bush did what it took for America to be unable to pay for war against an enemy
that had zero navies, zero air forces, zero armored divisions, zero paratroopers,
etc.

So, where is Bush now?  In Paraguay?  In Uruguay?  Actually, he didn't act like the
Nazis, as much as the Tammany Hall crowd.  For war criminal George WMD Bush,
it would be the Tammany Hell crowd.  Yet, Dick 'the Waterboarder' Cheney insists
that America had a valid reason for invading an Iraq which no longer tolerates any
type of Christianity.

You need to know that Iraqi Christianity was NOT the Ann Coulter-type thereof.  For
those of you who don't care ... or who are clueless ... Iraqi Christianity is known as the
Chaldeon Rite of Catholicisim.

Oh oh.  I said Catholicism, and I have endured soooooo much anti-Catholic hatred, to
the point of psychotic/delusional conspiracy theories, dating back to 200 and 300 AD.
Well, it's time to grow up.  Mother Theresa was a devout Catholicism.  So, curb your
hatred and/or distrust of Catholicism for the sake of a Mother Theresa who opened
hospices for AIDS patients.  I'm Italian (and Danish/Irish).  You would be surprised
how non-judgmental we 'Italians' are once disaster struck a person's life.  If you have
AIDS, it doesn't matter how you got it.  We have the moral obligation to come to your
aid, no pun intended.  The operative motto is --- Kill pain and NOT people.  The bot-
tom line here is that the Johnny Reb, Southern Baptist, Moonshine still, white hood
variety of Christianity is a farce.  Thus, never equate Christianity will the white trash
of humanity.

All that the Republicans accomplished by invading Iraq was to have true Christians
on this earth persecuted to literal car-bombing death.  Incidentally, the authenticity
of Iraq's Chaldean Christianity comes from the fact that it can be traced to the origi-
nal apostles who were NOT money-grabbing TV evangelists whose ancestors saw
many a black man left hanging deader than death on tree branches located near lead
infested moonshine stills of brain damaging fame.

The Similarities Between
the Territory-grabbing Nazi Party and Money-grabbing Republican Party

There are further parallels between the Nazi Germans and the American Republicans.
Whereas the Nazi Germans sought to take the infirm to concentration camps, the Re-
publicans seek to take them off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.   Whereas
the Nazi Germans sought to dumb-down its citizens by book burning, the Republicans
seek to do so by cutting education and even by deleting the Department of Education
itself.  This is typical for a party whose candidates include those who were unable to
name one Supreme Court case, who could not remember the cabinet positions desig-
nated for axing, and who could not refrain from cutting a State fire fighting budget dur-
ing a drought of Biblical proportions which torched a landmass larger than the entire
State of Connecticut.

Finally, whereas the Nazi Germans used the radio to spread its lying propaganda, the
Republican Party uses the radio to spread its one-line slogans and multiple diatribes.
In sequence, whereas the Nazi Germans sought to eliminate all opposing radio voices,
the American Republicans cut off National Public Radio from government funding.
The only thing that has kept the Republicans from entirely destroying this nation is a
few remaining checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution. Even at that, there is the
Florida case where a person testing the voting machines found that his votes for dem-
ocratic candidates registered as votes for Republicans.

As far as goes the socialist element, it was the Republicans under Bush II who gave
$700 billion to the corporate cronies known for donating money to Republican poli-
ticians.  In fact, the Republicans were actually bailing themselves out.  Now, as far
as goes the word Socialist in Nazi German title, there is nothing social about taking
the disabled to gas chambers.  Nazi Germany wasn't very socialist.

The Napoleon Maneuver

The Nazi Germans were draining their nation's economy through military spending.
The game plan was to steal the wealth of the nations that its troops would conquer.
This included the oil fields of Ploesti Romania and the art of Europe.  In as much,
the road that Republican America has been traveling is the same one that Nazi Ger-
many traveled.  The United States was on the brink of bankruptcy during the years
of Bring-it-on Bush, when two wars were being waged and when unneeded tax cuts
were enforced for the very greedy who caused an elevation in the chronic trade bal-
ance deficit that continues to drain American money into a Communist dictatorship.
This ensured that there would not be the revenue needed to pay for two wars which
endured twice as long as the Second World War.  When an army's congress stops
delivering it paychecks, what does that army do?  Throughout history, pillage and
plunder was the modus operandi of armies.  Napoleon was infamous for it.

When the marching band music begins to echo off the buildings of Main Street, and
when the majorettes start to twirl their batons, you can rest assured that in very close
proximity will be a Republican politician equipped with warmongering diatribes that
we in America can recite in our sleep.   You can also rest assured that lobbyists will
be equally near the Republican politician, waving his flag on Main Street for him.  So,
if the Fuhrer's black boot fits and if his propaganda minister's monocle shines like fine
crystal in the book-burning moonlight ... 
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