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."

Chasing the Wind: An Example of the Insanity of War

Whenever I visit my cousin Giovanni in Rome, Italy, we always discuss childhood stories from my home town of Geraci Siculo, Sicily.  Such stories are full of nostalgia, laughter and one of the best ways I know of having a great time.  One of the most poignant stories that Giovanni recalls is that of a young man ordered to war in 1940, at the start of World War II.  This young man, I'll call him Cesarè, has just been called into the Italian military and must leave Geraci, his family, his farm and his goat herd.  He  approaches Giovanni's father and ask him to take his herd while he leaves for war.  Not having the resources to take care of an additional herd of goats, Giovanni's father turns Cesarè down.  Unable to find anyone else, he knocks on Giovanni's father's door at 4:00 AM to beg him to take his heard, since he must leave that day.  Having pity on the young man Giovanni's father asks his 13 year-old son, Giovanni, if he would be willing to take on Cesarè's herd.  Giovanni says he can and the problem is solved.

Recently, a good friend asked me to read a book he had just read, The Red Horse, the tragic story of the Italian Army in Russia during World War II.  In 1941 the Italians committed 235,000 soldiers to the Russian campaign to aid the German invasion of Russia.  The Italians were joined by 200,000 Romanian and another 200,000 Hungarian troops.  This allied force protected the east flank for the Siege of Stalingrad.  All three armies were destroyed by vastly superior Russian forces, aided to a large extent, by the brutal Russian winter that killed more troops than did bullets.  Again, the Europeans failed to learn from history.  Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 with 500,000 troops and was defeated by the Russians, aided by the brutal Russian winter.  Only 5,000 of Napoleon's French troops survived. The same exact thing happened to the Germans, Italians, Romanians and Hungarians armies.  All of these men were basically condemned to death by incompetent and foolhardy despots at home who wanted personal glory at their expense. There never was any hope of military victory given the circumstances.

The Italian troops, and the Romanian and Hungarians were ill equipped, ill trained and ill led.  The Russians had tanks and Katyusha rockets.  The Italian and allied forces had nothing close to this.  They fought tanks with rifles and ineffective cannons.  The coup de grace was the Russian winter.  Italian and allied forces suffered from inadequate equipment such as vehicles, arms and fuel, with no hope of reinforcements.  The common soldier slept wherever he could in -26 C degree weather where your hands and feet would freeze if you exposed them to the weather.  Many battles took place at night where the Russian forces had the decided advantage.  If you were not killed by gunfire or by artillery, you were killed by starvation or the brutal winter weather. Wounded soldiers could not be aided and if they did not die from their wounds, they died from the immediate freezing of their bodies.  The Red Horse is a compelling story of men at war and men who were thrown into a war without any preparation, plans or the needed resources; in other words they were condemned to die as if you had lined them up against a wall and shot them.  Theirs was a hopeless cause.

This is the insanity and total futility of war. Here was a young farmer who just wanted to work his farm and feed his family.  All of the sudden, he's in Russia with people hunting him down as he were a rabid dog.  Additionally, he goes from a mild weather area, where the temperature never goes below 45 degrees to an area where the winters are the coldest in the world and where you not only have to worry about being killed by a bullet but also by the weather.  What were they fighting for?  Russia never attacked Italy.  They were sent there by the folly and insanity of their political leaders.  In the Italian case Benito Mussolini.  In the German case, the insanity of Adolf Hitler.

For those who feel like you want to praise soldiers or armies for their accomplishments, that is fine and fair, but to make jokes about an army that lost a war they could never win, no matter what?  That is a different matter.  Being Italian by birth, I was subjected to many ethnic jokes and especially jokes about the performance of the Italian Army in World War II. People I knew would tell me such sick jokes to my face.  If you are one of these naive people, I ask you to read The Red Horse and then see if the joke applies.  I expounded on this situation in my last post on this blog.