October 12, 2019

 

Doug Bandow - The American Conservative

.. Without seeking congressional approval, the Obama administration embarked on a multi-faceted campaign: oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who had not attacked or threatened America; find, train, and empower moderate insurgents to create a liberal democracy in Syria ... It was the plan of a madman – or an arrogant, officious, ignorant social engineer with no understanding of human nature, the Middle East, or America. Predictably, the result was almost complete failure ... In spite of all that, today, Assad is still in power, and aided by the Iranians and Russians ... Moreover, the mission remains entirely illegal, without congressional or international warrant.

Daniel L. Davis (Lt. Col., ret.) – The Hill

... This entire episode, however, graphically highlights why the United States should have long ago withdrawn all troops from Syria – and why Trump should do so now. At the heart of the bipartisan criticism being leveled against the president is an appalling lack of understanding about America’s interests in Syria ... Conventional wisdom says that our Kurdish partners in Syria did America a huge favor in routing ISIS from their so-called capital of Raqqa, and without their help, we would still be at risk from ISIS. Therefore, the thought goes, the Kurds deserve – and we owe them – our continued support. The premise, however, is flawed from the start, and thus the conclusion that we “owe them” is also wrong.

Scott Ritter

... In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front ... In doing so, China has gained the strategic advantage over the U.S. when it comes to competing power projection in the Pacific.

Ron Unz

... Although my knowledge of the history of the Second World War was quite rudimentary back in 2008, over the decade that followed I embarked upon a great deal of reading in the history of that momentous era ... I gradually began to recognize that our own history had been marked by an ideological Great Purge just as significant if less sanguinary than its Soviet counterpart. The parallels seemed eerie ... John T. Flynn, Harry Elmer Barnes, Charles Beard, William Henry Chamberlin, Russell Grenfell, Sisley Huddleston, and numerous other scholars and journalists of the highest caliber and reputation all told a rather consistent story of the Second World War but one at total variance with that of today’s established narrative, and they did so at the cost of destroying their careers.

Harry Elmer Barnes -- Book Available from IHR

An outstanding American historian is at his best in these passionate and well-reasoned essays and reviews on the Second World War, and on the “Cold War” with the Soviet Union that soon followed. Professor Barnes takes aim at the writings of “establishment” historians on the causes, conduct, and results of America's “crusade” against Germany and Japan. He presents stern assessments of the widely accepted accounts of Williams Shirer, Walter Millis and others, which laid the groundwork for today's wrongheaded history. Barnes also brilliantly reviews such revisionist writings as A. J. P. Taylor's Origins of the Second World War and David Hoggan’s Forced War.

William Henry Chamberlin – Book available from IHR

An award-wining American journalist and historian takes a close, critical look at the origins, course and consequences of the US role in World War II. In this lucid and well-researched survey, he examines President Roosevelt’s illegal efforts to push the US into war, the hidden background story of the Pearl Harbor attack, United States betrayal of its proclaimed principles, America’s wartime alliance with the Stalinist Russia, the British-American stab in the back of Poland, the hypocrisy and injustice of the Nuremberg trials, and more. With bibliography and index. The great American historian Harry Elmer Barnes praised this book as “the ablest revisionist study of the background, course and results of the Second World War. It will long remain the best survey for the general reader."

Video

British Pathé newsreel report, with narration in English, on the first visit to Germany by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Sept. 15, 1938. Runtime: 2:02 mins. After arriving from England by plane at Munich airport, the British statesman travels by car and train to the home of the German Chancellor in the Bavarian mountains. The two leaders arranged this meeting to discuss the Czechoslovakia crisis. Hitler firmly supported the demand for freedom and self-determination by the three million ethnic Germans in the country’s “Sudetenland” region. Hitler greets the British statesman as he arrives at the mountain home. Chamberlain returns to England the next day, and speaks at the airport about his frank and friendly talk with the German leader.