Why America is an Exceptional Nation: Reason two of 77

History is replete with examples of multiple times when nations have failed to come to the aid of a neighbor in mortal danger from aggressors who wish to conquer them.  When the Muslim Turks conquered what remained of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 no European country raised a hand to help.  One noble individual from Genoa, Giovanni Giustiniani,  led a small army of 700 private soldiers to help the Byzantines defend Constantinople.  Such small numbers were destined to be ineffective.  Giustiniani himself was severely wounded in the battle and could not continue; his forces and those of the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, were crushed by the superior Turkish forces. The rest of Europe failed to act.

In modern day, the Turks attacked the Island of Cyprus in 1974 and captured half of it, which they still hold.  No one came to the aid of the helpless Cypriots.  In 2014 Russia invades and captures the Crimea from Ukraine.  No one came to their aid.  Russia invades eastern Ukraine and no one comes to their aid.  To this day, the Turks and the Russians hold these territories.  Where are the Europeans? They only care about getting their oil and gas from Russia, naked aggression does not bother them. The Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, expressed his admiration for Vladimir Putin, the Russian despot. Click here to read more.

In 1939 Hitler invaded and took part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, and no one came to their aid. In the now famous appeasement speech by the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, he made an agreement with Hitler that if he stopped with the Sudetenland he would accept this naked aggression against a helpless country.  Where were the rest of the Europeans?  Asleep at the wheel. Hitler, proceeded to take the rest of Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium, Holland and then he went after the UK and Russia. Europe was saved by American intervention, again.

Now lets look at America.  For the past 100 plus years, America has come to the aid of many countries.  In World War I it went to war to help the Europeans against German aggression.  In World War II it repeated the action.  Certainly, without American help Europe would have failed in both wars.  In modern day, we have the American examples of helping Korea from Chinese aggression in 1950-53, Vietnam in 1959-75, the Balkans in the 1990s to stop a genocide in Bosnia-Bosnia-Herzagovina; the Gulf war of 1991 to liberate Kuwait; Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003.  The list goes on and on.  What other nation in the world has a record of helping other nations from aggression like America? America is an exceptional nation. No one can match its record.  In all these cases, not one was done for American gain of territory.  Can you say it again, America is an exceptional nation.

Why America is an Exceptional Nation: Reason One of 77

I remember being glued to the TV in 1973 when they released a series on the history of World War II called "The World at War."  The documentary was narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, the British actor with the fantastic voice.  Here is a clip from this legendary documentary. This documentary is still available on four DVDs, click here. What captured my imagination was the desperate human tragedy that unfolded on the screen.  Men, women and children who were hopelessly condemned to die in Russia, France and all of Europe. The Siege of Stalingrad, for example, was not only poignant for the immense loss of life, but for the sheer brutality.  It was the most heartbreaking scene on earth.  German soldiers dying for a worthless cause.   When the German cause was hopelessly lost in Stalingrad, Hitler refused to let his commanders retreat.  Win or die he told them.  This is the epitome of the mindless, insane case for war, for scenes like this have been repeated throughout history in all wars.

The brutality of war did not end with killing on the battlefield. If you were taken prisoner, chances were you did not survive to return home.  Certainly this was the case in Russia for German prisoners of war (POW). It is estimated that over three million German soldiers were taken captive in Russia.  According the the Wikipedea page of German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, 381,000 died.  This is according to Soviet estimates which can be very unreliable.  Some German historians estimate that over one million died in captivity.  The Soviets are not known for their kindness to humanity.  All you have to do is read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn or about Stalin's Great Purge of his people in the 1930s to see the savagery of the Russians.  After the end of The Siege of Stalingrad, it is estimated that 170,000 German soldiers were taken captive by the Soviets; less than 6,000 survived. The Russians used them as slave labor, maltreated them and failed to properly feed them or treat them for war wounds and other health issues.

In the French Indochina War of 1945-54, it is estimated that over 40,000 French forces were taken prisoner, most did not survive.  Case in point:  After the final battle of the war, the Siege of Dien Bien Phu, when French forces were defeated, 10,000 French prisoner were taken.  After two months of intense battle where men could not even sleep or were so malnourished that they could hardly stand, the Viet Minh marched them on foot for a 500 mile trek to POW camps; most did not make it.  It is estimated that only 3,900 survived.  A very fine piece in The Weekly Standard magazine appeared in 2010, called "Theirs to do and Die," about the Siege of Dien Bien Phu and the hopeless struggle of the men there was captured by this piece.  Click here to read it.

At the end of World War I, between 1919-22, The new nation of Turkey fought another war with the Greece in which they crushed them and drove them back into the Mediterranean.  When the Turks took  the City of Smyrna (modern day Izmir) in 1922, they commenced the most horrific rape, killing and pillaging imaginable.  The Greek Orthodox leader of Smyrna, Metropolitan Chrysostom was taken and handed over to a murderous mob of local Turks.  The Turkish General Noureddin announced to the mob: "If he has done good to you, do good to him.  If he has done harm to you, do harm to him." The mob proceeded to torture him by cutting his body piece by piece while alive. This is detailed in the fine book about the burning of Smyrna in 1922, "Paradise Lost,"  by Giles Milton, 2008, Basic Books. 

 As many as 200,000 Greeks, Armenians and Christians were marched into the interior of the Anatolean desert, on foot, to die.  This was after the Turks slaughtered about 250,000 Christians, Greeks and Armenian in Smyrna and burned the city to the ground. Most deportees died from exhaustion, starvation or were bayoneted or shot on the way.  Here is a short article which appeared in the monthly magazine First Things which describes the horrendous scene.  Click here to read it.  On a positive note, an American Christian pastor by the name of Asa Jennings, on his own, rescued over 250,000 Christians before the murderous Turks could kill them.  Click here to read this story.  Another terrific book on the destruction of Smyrna is "The Great Fire" by Lou Ureneck, 2015, Harper Collins.  Certainly, these stories of brutality against unarmed, non-resisting prisoners show the depravity and moral broken compass of the nations who perpetrated such atrocities.

On the other hand we have the example of the United States.  In World War II, many German and Italian POWs were not only treated well, but they were brought to the United States; many of them chose to stay after release.  German soldiers preferred being captured by the Americans rather than the savage Russians because they knew what would happened to them in Russia vs America.  Click here for more info on this.  Fast forward to the situation today with Al Qaeda, Isis and other terrorists in American POW camps such as Guantanamo, Cuba.  Every prisoner is treated with the greatest respect.  He is allowed to dress, eat and worship as he wants.  He has all the rights of any person except his freedom of course. Compare this to the torture chambers of the Hanoi Hilton, for instance during the American Vietnam War, the treatment of prisoners by Russia in WWII and Turkey as described earlier.

Here is my point:  A country will be known by its fruit.  This is especially true when handling enemy prisoners.  Have you ever heard of any atrocities committed by any Americans against POWs?  Have you ever heard of Americans marching prisoners on foot to POW camps?  This is just one of the many reasons why the United States is not only exceptional but the greatest country in the world.  Can you name one other country that could match its moral compass?  In the First Gulf War of 1991 there is the poignant video of Iraqi soldiers surrendering to American troops. This 40 second clip will bring tears to your eyes.  Iraqi soldiers begging for their life and an American soldier trying to calm them and telling them they will be "well treated, we're Americans."