Originally Posted by Warfish
He has, I'm sure, he's as smart a poster as we have.
What it appears he has not studied is history, specificly that of World War II.
First, he is incorrect, Stalin was indeed aggressively seeking to export his rule, in Finland, and in Poland (Molotov Agreement anyone?) and in the regions just north of the middle east, as well as in the Soviet Pacific region.
Second, he is incorrect that it was a binary "Support Stalin = Win, Denounce Stalin = Lose" scenario. That is horribly inaccurate in the facts. Almost as wrong as the claim (not made here) that "The U.S. Won the War". Devil is in the details, not generalizations.
Third, he has apparently never heard nor read that the US was, in fact, aware to some degree of the death camps Germany operated and was more than well aware of the "final solution" itself, as the Nazi were not exactly secretive about it (neuremburg laws, hitlers speaches, etc), and did not push or specificly publicise the details in a way we'd expect today. Motivation of FDR died with him on that front, all we have is speculation.
Fourth, he ignores the costs of inacation against Stalin, before, during or after, led to in the 50 years of Cold (sometimes Hot) War between the Soviet Union and United States, including nuclear proliferation and at least two big wars (Korea and Vietnam) and their subsequent lowering of U.S. prestige and confidence, and the resulting/concurrent social shifts, and it's role as a primary and ongoing source of today's big issue of Islamic Radicalization/Terrorism.
In the end, he cannot be more wrong, in historic, bodycount, terms and in moral terms, when he tries to claim that Hitler and Stalin were not the same. They were, in far more ways than one. And certainly in their moral flexabillity when it came to the value of life and their own personal power and how it was best maintained.
It is exactly this "lesser of two evils is our friend" mindset that has, IMO, been the bane of everything the United States has done since the end of WWI, and continues to bite us in the ass geopolitically to this day.
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