someone sent me this article and i thought that it would make for a good discussion here in the forum......it has some good points....here it is........

http://www.theabsurdreport.com/2006/...-significance/

[quote=Alan Tibbetts]
This article is so full of historical inaccuracies I would be embarrassed to send it to 5th graders, much less college students.

A few of the many inaccuracies:

“Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, which had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.”

1. Congress did NOT declare war unanimously on December 7th 1941. On December 8th COngress voted to declare war on Japan and one member of Congress, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, voted against it.

2. Germany and Italy declared war on the US on December 11th, the US then (afterwards) declared war on them.

3. The same day that the US declared war on Japan the following countries did the same: Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Free France, the Netherlands, the Netherlands East Indies, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Panama. On Dec 9th China, Cuba and South Africa declared war on Japan (even though China had been fighting Japan for years). December 11th Nicaragua and the Polish government in exile declare war on Japan; Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Nicaragua declare war on Germany and Italy. December 12th Haiti, Honduras and Panama declared war on Germany and Italy. Let’s not forget Australia, S. Africa, Canada, the Free French, exile governments from Pland, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands among others were already at war with Germany, and India was part of the British Empire. The Soviet Union was at war with Germany but did not declare war on Japan until 1945. The list of American allies grew longer as the war proceeded, countries like Mexico and Brazil contributed forces to fight against Germany.

“Actually, Belgium surrendered on one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.”

Belgium fought Germany from 10 May 1940 until 28 May 1940. The Germans bombed Rotterdam (Netherlands) on 14 May 1940, shortly after the the Dutch government agreed to lay down arms, destroying 20,000 buildings and killing 980 people. The Dutch government fled to Britain rather than surrender. The Germans did not bomb Brussels into rubble.

“Russia lost something like 24 million people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone… 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a MILLION soldiers.”

Er, that was Leningrad and Stalingrad. The Germans never besieged Moscow. The Soviet Union might have lost as many as 24 million - during the entire war, not in two battles. Perhaps 35% were civilians.

If this is a “history lesson” it is history from an alternate reality. The rest of this article is as wrong as the “known common facts” quoted by Mr Kraft.
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