Tag Archives: WWII

national news

GOP silence speaks volumes

Republicans’ stone-cold silence in response to Donald Trump’s lies continues to boggle my noggin … such as what he said the other day about the potential end to the Iran war.

You cannot make this stuff up!

He started the war with Iran. Trump is now working to end it. If he succeeds and the Iranians stop firing back at us and Israel, he’ll take credit for ending that war. Yes? Of course he will!

But then he said the other day that no previous president in U.S. history has ended a war. He has ended eight of ’em, or so he said. Hold on a second, Mr. Ignoramus in Chief.

In 1941, we were drawn into World War II when the Japanese bombed our fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Roosevelt asked Congress the next day to declare war against Japan, which it did. Then the Nazi Germans declared war on us and we responded by declaring war on them.

Nearly four years later, FDR died of a stroke, up stepped Vice President Harry Truman to take over as commander in chief. On May 7, 1945, President Truman accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender. WWII in Europe ended … on Truman’s watch. Give ’em Hell Harry wasn’t done. We dropped two A-bombs on Japan in August 1945. The Japanese surrendered on Aug. 14 and on Sept. 2, 1945, Japanese military leaders signed the surrender documents aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

I learned of that historical sequence when I was a little boy.

He keeps blathering about his “landslide” election as POTUS; it was nothing of the sort. How he won more Electoral College votes than any POTUS since President Reagan; another provable lie.

And through all of this, the Republican conference in Congress sits silently on its hands, saying nothing to correct the record.

These GOP officials disgrace themselves, the government they are elected to run and the once-great political party they supposedly represent.

International news

Avoiding comparison to Hitler

Readers of this blog will not find a direct comparison between the man who runs the U.S.A. to the worst despot ever to darken the world’s history.

I just won’t go there. You see, as much as I despise Donald Trump and his effort to turn the United States into some kind of tinhorn dictatorship, i simply cannot make the leap to compare him to Hitler, the father of the “thousand-year-old Third Reich” of Nazi Germany … tha lasted in fact from 1933 until 1945.

I’ve already taken one big leap by suggesting that Trump has gone mad, reversing an earlier vow to avoid diagnosing the imbecile in chief from afar. I am safe in suggesting it, given what the whole world is witnessing.

Let’s be real about Hitler. He killed 7 million Jews in effort to eradicate them from Earth. The Nazi army stormed across Europe from 1939 to 1945 and killed an estimated 20 million people along its murderous rampage.

At the end of the Third Reich, Hitler married his longtime mistress, Eva Braun, and then on his wedding night watched her kill herself before he blew his brains out in the subterranean Berlin bunker where he hid from the advancing Red Army.

Donald Trump is a lot of things. He is evil. He has malice in his heart. He lacks any semblance of human compassion.

Adolf Hitler, though, wallows alone in history’s cesspool.

national news, national security

War then is different from war now

I have just binge-watched a Netflix documentary on World War II, thinking it would offer a poignant reminder of how a nation can be drawn into war, dedicate itself to defeating a determined enemy and then rebuild itself and the enemy it has just destroyed.

WWII, of course, produced the Greatest Generation of Americans, some 16 million of whom signed up to get into the fight for the nation’s life. My father was one of those 16 million, enlisting on Dec. 7, 1941, the very day we were attacked by Japanese air and naval forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Dad is long gone now, as are most of those patriots.

The multi-part series showed remarkable footage from the worldwide battlefield fought on four continents: North America, Asia and Africa. I was struck by a quote delivered to our enemies by President Franklin Roosevelt, speaking on the eve of our nation’s full entry into the fight against the tyrants who sought to conquer the world. “Our enemies asked for it,” FDR said, “and now they are about to get it.”

And so they did get it. Full force.

If we fast-forward about 85 years to the present day we find ourselves in a war that we started. A succeeding president decided to engage in an act of war against Iran. Unlike FDR, who responded by asking Congress to “declare that a state of war exists,” Donald Trump has decided to flout the constitutional requirement that presidents should follow if they are to commit young Americans to combat. We have commenced a war that few Americans want, even fewer of us know the game plan. But we’re in a war. Make no mistake.

I watched this documentary expecting to draw these comparisons. I’m glad I did. Watching this film from start to finish reminds me that the U.S.A.’s founders knew how to limit a president’s power to take this nation to war. If only the current commander in chief was smart enough to grasp it.

local news

Frozen in time at museum

My friend and I today toured the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, which is within a chip shot of Dealey Plaza in the city’s downtown district.

We got near the end of our tour when suddenly I froze, transfixed by the images being shown and by the voice attributed to one of the death camp survivors who had been freed by Allied soldiers near the end of World War II.

My friend asked if I was OK. I shook my head “no.” Did I want to leave. Again, I said “no.” I wanted to stay and listen to the voice tell me of the unimaginable deprivation inflicted on millions of Jews. My reaction to it all caught me by surprise.

Yes, I know all about the Holocaust. I know all about the extermination of 6 million human beings who happened to be Jewish. I had toured Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam with my bride in 2016 and knew of the suffering she endured after being turned over to the Nazis by her fellow Dutch citizens. In 2009, I had the high honor of visiting the famed Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. So, none of what I learned today was a surprise.

Maybe it all just caught me in a moment of weakness. The exhibit reminded me of the depths that the human heart can plunge. And it surely plunged beyond what anyone could predict when Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933. He formed the Third Reich, which he said would last 1,000 years.

In April 1945, Hitler married his mistress Evan Braun and on their wedding night they committed suicide … ending the Third Reich after 12 of the most miserable years possible.

The museum in downtown Dallas reminded me of why the world must hold fast to its solemn pledge: Never again.

military news

For the love of country …

Of all the lessons my dear ol’ Dad taught me before he died tragically in 1980, the one that stands out is to love one’s country and be ready to fight to the death for it.

I am thinking of Dad today as the nation remembers the event that exploded over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on this date in 1941. Dad was a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Portland when the Japanese attacked our military forces that day. Dad was the oldest of seven siblings born to my grandparents, who were living in Portland when the attack occurred.

I didn’t learn until much later — after Dad had been gone for nearly 40 years — about what he did on that day. The youngest of his two brothers told my wife and me that on the afternoon of the “Day of Infamy,” the kids were gathered around a radio in my grandparents’ house listening to the events of that tragic day. Dad got up, walked out of the house and made his way downtown to the armed forces recruiting station. He intended in that moment to enlist in the Marine Corps; the USMC office was closed that Sunday morning. Across the hall, Dad noticed the Navy office was open so, he joined the Navy at that moment.

He wanted to get into the fight against the tyrants who sought to conquer the world.

And, oh brother, did he ever.

He never boasted about the decision to enlist on the very day our nation went to war. Indeed, he never even mentioned it to me. My uncle Tino, though, remembered that moment vividly. “I was 9 years old and I remember it to this day,” Tino told us.

Therein is the lesson my favorite veteran taught me. Even without saying so out loud, Dad imbued in me the belief that if falls on each of us to do what we can do individually to protect our nation against forces that seek to destroy it.

military news

Recalling the ‘day of infamy’

I feel like visiting for a moment on this blog the date that President Roosevelt said would “live … in infamy.”

FDR stood before Congress on Dec. 8, 1941 to seek a declaration of war against Japan, which the day before had attacked our fleet and Army Air Force in Hawaii. That day occurred 84 years ago.

The United States mobilized immediately and before World War II ended, this country would suit up 16 million of its young men and women to defeat the Axis Powers, who were the embodiment of evil.

I remind myself of a quote attributed to a Hawaii teenager, Daniel Inouye. The Japanese-American boy watched the fighter aircraft overhead flying low over his house. He could see the red ball painted on the wings. Young Dan reportedly said, “Those goddamn Japs.” He would enlist later in the Army, suffer grievous wounds in battle in Italy and would receive the Medal of Honor for his heroism. Oh, Inouye also served in the U.S. Senate for decades.

The Americans who enlisted after the “date which will live in infamy” rose to the challenge. They defeated tyranny. They came home to start families. They are dying off now. Only a few thousand of them are still with us.

I also have heard about aging Japanese men visiting Pearl Harbor to this day. They fought our forces during the war. Yet they feel shame for the sneak attack. Many of those old men are returning to seek forgiveness for the deeds they committed on that quiet Sunday morning in Hawaii.

As the son of an American patriot who answered FDR’s call to join the fight, I am willing to forgive them.

Uncategorized

Vets get overdue respect

High Plains Blogger has called attention over the years to my favorite veteran … that would be my Dad, a World War II Navy vet who saw his share of hell on Earth during his years fighting fascists.

I occasionally speak a bit about my own military experience, which pales in comparison to what Dad endured.

Today, I want to discuss the growing up of the nation, which this week celebrates the millions of men and women who have served in the military. It took a war that we didn’t win on the battlefield for Americans to stoop to new lows in the way it treated its veterans. Many of my colleagues came home to actual scorn from Americans because they followed lawful orders and committed — in the uneducated eyes of their fellow citizens — crimes against humanity.

Baby killers? My ass …

This year veterans are bound to feel love and respect they were denied when we came home from the Vietnam War. I won’t dwell on what happened in the bad old days. Instead, I will call attention to the respect coming from TV commentators who, two generations ago, likely would be leading the jeers intended for the returning veterans.

Whatever. We’ve all grown up. We are more mature these days. I will accept whatever thanks that could come my way as we celebrate those who suit up to defend this nation and protect the rights we all enjoy.

military news

Museum honors men of honor

As a rule, I don’t do reviews of sites I see on this blog, but I visited an exhibit in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend that clearly deserves a mention and a few words of the highest praise I can deliver.

My brother-in-law and I toured the National Medal of Honor Museum across the way from AT&T Stadium. To say it was an experience the likes of which were new to me would do it a terrible injustice. The museum grounds are spectacular, but more importantly the stories they tell visitors are gripping beyond measure.

The museum honors all 3,600-plus recipients of the nation’s highest award for military valor. It is resplendent in pictures of the recipients, some of the pictures showing them in combat. There is a limited amount of text accompanying the photos, and if I had one criticism of the disiplay, I would prefer to read more about the events that resulted in these men being honored with the Medal of Honor.

A quote attributed to one of the recipients tells how he was honored for taking action “on the worst day of my life.” I have seen countless quotes from men who, when asked what propelled them to act with such mind-blowing valor, would say, “I just knew I was going to die so I acted to save the lives of my friends.”

The museum has a virtual reality exhibit in which visitors can sit in a UH-1 Huey helicopter simulator, don glasses and be placed in a medical evacuation mission, or “dust off” flight, to rescue personnel wounded in action in Vietnam.

I am proud to have made the acquaintance of two Medal of Honor recipients, Navy SEAL Mike Thornton and Army Ranger Bob Howard. Their exploits are the stuff of legend. And one of the recipients, Army Lt. Audie Murphy, indeed achieved legendary for his exploits in saving a French village from Nazi troops near the end of the World War II. I mention Murphy because Farmersville, where I work on occasion as a freelance reporter, honors its “favorite son” Murphy every year with a day commemorating his untold heroism.

I was thrilled to see the exhibit and to honor the men who fought so valiantly on so many battlefields to defend our democratic way of life.

Wow!

International news

Germans have it pegged

I don’t know many Germans well, as I have only two actual friends: a husband and wife who live in Nuremberg with their three children.

Yes, I have shaken the hands of other Germans during two visits there, one in 2016 with my bride, Kathy Anne, and the other in 2024. When the subject of Donald Trump comes up, they all sing off the same page: They tell me that the onset of authoritarian rule comes in dribs and drabs, that the individual who seeks power gathers it up in bite-sized pieces. Before long — presto! — he’s acquired all the power he needs to affect serious change in the country he seeks to lead.

My friends tell me that is what they are witnessing in this country. Yes, it’s from some distance away. However, my friends are both well-educated, well-versed in government and public policy and know a dictator-in-waiting when they see him.

Many observers in Europe are wondering the same thing as well. Why are we Americans allowing this to happen?

I also have made friends in countries affected directly by Adolf Hitler’s megalomaniacism. Several live in The Netherlands, a few more live in Greece and I have shaken hands with a couple of Danes in Copenhagen and some Brits in the UK. They understand what can happen when a madman takes control of the levers of power.

I am going to cling to my faith that Americans will never tolerate what so many around the world suggest is happening here. It is all outrageous, enraging, despicable and poses an existential threat to the principles upon which the founders created what would become the world’s indispensable nation.

Yes, I have referred to Trump as a madman. I do not believe he is capable of committing the level of genocide we saw in the 1930s and ’40s. The rest of it? I’ll need to wait for him to be vanquished.

military news

This bomb was … huge!

Americans are on the verge of commemorating a huge event in our national military history … but it’s nothing to celebrate.

Eighty years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, a U.S. Army Air Force bomber took off from Tinian Island in the Pacific loaded with a single bomb. The Enola Gay would drop that bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, and it would kill tens of thousands of people in an instant. Three days later, a second B-29 flew to Nagasaki, Japan, and would do the same thing, killing tens of thousands more human beings.

Japan surrendered on Aug. 14, 1945. World War II had ended … finally!

These events mean a great deal to me. It’s a visceral feeling, given that Peter John Kanelis, a boatswain mate in the U.S. Navy, was stationed in the Philippines, preparing to take part in the invasion of Japan by U.S. and Allied forces. He was my Dad. I don’t know what he would have done during that campaign. I thank God in heaven I’ll never have to know.

I do believe that the newly sworn in president of the United States, Harry Truman, might have saved Dad’s life by making the most terrifying decision of his presidency: to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Truman took office in April 1945 upon the death of President Franklin Roosevelt. The VP was a little-known U.S. senator from Missouri when FDR chose him to run with him in the 1944 election. There was little that Truman knew about war strategy when he became commander in chief. One of the secrets kept from him was the Manhattan Project underway in New Mexico to develop the A-bomb. As Truman was getting his presidential footing settled in, the brass informed him of the weapon they had.

I’m sure Truman blinked a few times while hearing about all this. But when the time came to deploy these weapons, he acted like the leader he became. He gave the go-ahead. He knew the political costs would be high, but in his mind, using this weapon would ultimately save many more lives than it would take.

One of those lives well might have been a sailor from Portland, Ore., who enlisted in the Navy on the very day the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and who would return home, marry a beautiful young woman and produce a family that included little ol’ me.

We won’t celebrate this event as a nation. Nor should we. It is an event we should commemorate nonetheless and pray to the Almighty that we never will experience it again.

However, I can say with metaphysical certitude that I well could owe my existence to a man who was willing and ready to lead a nation when it needed him the most.