I'm watching The history channel right now.
Just something I've always thought about in our history. Is how we always won by teamwork and the united cause.
In WWII The axis had stronger equipment like the Tiger verses the Sherman, or the Zero verse the Wildcats. We always won our battles by working in pairs. In the beginning our equipment was so out classed, it was the teamwork, and our sheer numbers that took the allies to victory.


Like in the Pacific Major(I think) Thatch invented the Thatch weave to down the Zeros. Because one on one they kicked our azz.
In Europe, our Sherman tanks were death traps to their crews, because the guns on the tigers were killer. The USA needs the patriotism and unification we had then.
It just seems now, everything is the bottom line profit, and no loyalty and camaraderie that is in our general public. Our Soldiers are doing their job. But here at home, is there the united front we've had in History, or have we become a nation where it is just everyone for themselves?

 

Stalin also beat the Germans, and even got to Berlin before we did. His version of a united front was to murder his opponents or send them to the Gulag.

Hitler and Emperor Hirohito also had populations that supported them. They lost.

Bascially, a united front is not the be all and end all you make it out to be.

 

I think that the generation that lived in that era, people believed in American exceptionalism. I don't think that anyone would say that ours is a perfect country, now or then, but we were innovative and industrious. We believed that there wasn't anything that our country couldn't overcome.

That's no longer the case. Now, we are a nation of consumers. We don't invent much and we don't produce much. We no longer believe that we are exceptional, rather we've been led to believe that we are the cause of most of the worlds problems.

During WWII, there was something absent form the country that consumes us now. Political correctness. Back then we weren't concerned about being offensive, we told it the way we saw it. We could identify our enemies and target them. There were grave mistakes made that allowed the ignorance of our country to show through. We learn though. This country has learned from it's ignorance, and will hopefully continue to do so.

Things are different now. We can't identify our enemies because if we call them such it migh be offensive to them. We can't call a radical islamic terrorist a radical ismalic terrorists, because some people who are not terrorists might be offended, when they should be offended by the people who use thier religion as an excuse to kill. Instead of identifying our enemies and doing what it takes to eliminate the threat they pose, we sypathize with them. We try to understant them. We try to figure our what we did to make them hate us so much.

It's hard to imagine our country returning to the mindset that our parents and grand parents had during that time in our country. America was exceptional then. Not so much now. We could rally and work together, but some people believe that bank bailouts, "stimulous" spending, a government takeover of health care, cap and trade, trillions in debt/deficite, expanded entitlement programs, and the many other aspects of the governemnt agenda are accomplishments. Though it was in the process of changing then, it was a more of the "we the people" type country then. The progressive movement planted it's seeds at the turn of the century, and now the progressives are reaping what they've sewn, at the peril of our country.

American exceptionalism, pride, innovation and industry don't fit the current agenda. If we can bring these things back, we can have a country that works together, and believes that there isn't anything that we cannot overcome. Our current elected representatives are telling us that we cannot overcome the complications of today without their "wisdom". I beg to differ. We can overcome the difficulties of today, if they'd do what they've been elected to do: be representatives of the people.

 

Yes Wittom, that's kind of the area I was talking about.
Now we think we need to apologize for our forefathers mistakes. But in the end, it was the Europeans that wanted us in that war . Just to save them from fascism. Now it's Yankee go home.
If they get in that kind of situation again, we'll see who they turn to. It won't be China

 

Well, talking about WWII... we had many things that were better than what the Germans had as well. Our small arms were better, fighters, bombers, bombs, logistics, ect. The german tiger tank was actually a very crappy tank that broke down all the time and it was a slow/easy moving target. So I would not say we had crummy stuff and I would not say the Germans had the best of everything.

Talking about the country... there as always been lazy and conformist people around. Even back before we were actually a country. Did you know that only 3% of the Americans actually took any action against the British in the Revolution? Even a smaller percent of that actually took up guns against them.

The problem now is that we reward crime, laziness, and immorality through government.

 

The teamwork used to fight the Jap Zeros was an inspiration of Claire Lee Chennault of the Flying Tigers. He was grossly out gunned and the P-40's were antiques by comparison. He devised the wing man concept and for the lead fighter not to follow the Zero but to ambush it and then a follow up with the wing man. If they shot it down- fine. If not, hauling butt was the better part of valor.If you study the tactics and equipment of WWII, you'll find quickly that we and the rest of the Allies were out numbered and were facing far superior equipment. We should have never beat the Japanese Navy but we did. We should have never beat the Japanese army because of the shear numbers. We should have never beat the German Army because of equipment and tactics developed by the German military. Few people even know that the absolute best best tank General to ever take the field was a man named Balack. An obscure General in the German army that with less than 100 tanks, took out numerous Russian Divisions via tactics. The T-34 tank was equal to any German tank with the exception of the King Tiger tank which was far too heavy at nearly 70 tons and only had a cruising speed of 12 mph. The King Tiger was all but useless. If you look at the statistics generated from WWII, the best offense the allies had was artillery. Accounting for over 60% of Axis casualties in Europe. The same was true in the Pacific with the casualty rate even higher.

 

Ding, ding, ding, ding..... You win a prize.

Then an now there was corruption, but now it's at least 100x worse.

 

Very true we had good stuff,
Who do we own the
Electron micro scope
Night vision
Mach up of the modern stealth fighter
The jet turbine engine
The invention of heavy water before the Manhattan project
And countless other things the Brits and we never even thought of
It kind of funny how the US and Russians come out with all this Supposed new stuff when the USSR and US where then ones to look around in the labs and test facilities first before any other country.

 

The show I was watching this morning was about Shermans, and how they were outclassed by the Tigers. So it didn't talk about the Tiger's reliability. It just mentioned the high velosity of it's gun could crumple the Sherman Tank.

 

Witton, I've got news for you. Most Americans still believe there isn't anything our country can't overcome and we have a leader who knows this more than anyone and he isn't afraid to let others know how much faith he has in our country.

If you've lost the faith in our country then it's time to find a better place to live. I, for one, will continue to support the country I love. You are on the path to becoming a bitter old man and yet you are still too young to have real wisdom.

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Yes, like the McCarthy Era communist scare?

You are just plain wrong about that. Even the mainstream media and our Presidential and Congressional leaders openly refer to radical Islamic terrorists as "radical Islamic terrorists". There is nothing in our country that prevents calling a spade a spade. But of course it would not make sense to lump all Islamics into the terror group anymore than it would be to lump all Christians in with domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh just because the Bible has passages that could misinterpreted to support violence (an eye for an eye, etc. etc. etc.). Why do you believe it is somehow politically incorrect to refer to "radical Islamic terrorists"? I think you have been reading the extreme right-wing propoganda complainers and whiners.



I've been a proud American who believes in innovation and the industriousness of my fellow countrymen for my entire life. Who are you to be a naysayer and claim we are shameful and lazy? That is not how I define my country. I can tell you are a much younger American than myself and have not seen as much as I have. But if you don't like it here you should definitely renounce your citizenship and find a better place to live.

I'm going to continue to work to better my country and move forward from the greed and deregulation of the last decade that left our economy and reputation in shambles. You shouldn't let a few greedy bastards define your country for you. For the most part Americans are hard-working and fair and civic minded people and this has not changed. Don't let yourself fall into the bitter old man trap.

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

 

You may be correct about that, but in the history books. Thack got the credit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thach_Weave

 

I believe the biggest problem we have now is the media, During WWII all the coverage about the war was good. They had every American wanting to win the war. Since Vietnam there has been media coverage giving every person a view of what is actually happening. There are something's people just shouldn't know about war.

 

Big factors for Allied victory in WWII were these:

US had a huge industrial capacity,
US was largely energy independent,
US could successfully deliver war materials around the globe via a merchant marine that was friendly to the US.
US was not dependent on other countries for food or other consumer products

Now, not so much.

 

Just be happy you are not Canadian. We were known a tough then and now as pothead hippies. We have a history of taking enemy positions no one else could.

 

Speaking along those lines. Ya Know, that was the beginning of the meth problem we have now.

Hitler used ephedrine on his troops to give them the energy to be driven harder. After the war it was then put to use as a sinus control medication, than led on to crystal meth. So I guess that is another thing to thank the third rich for