The Problem with Liberals is that they dispise Education, Training, Skill and Experience

One problem with the Liberal Agenda is that they simple ignore the basic fact that many people who earn lots of money have put in years of hard work, education and training to get the experience to earn that money.

Take this recent comment from liberal economist site Tax Research UK:

It costs £32 to see a GP in Jersey. The shape of things to come under the Tories in the UK? I suspect so. - Tax Research, UK

I left the following comment which was promptly deleted by the blog author since it does not fit with his message.

And just how valuable is a doctor's time? In the US, those with insurance pay a co-pay. Those without insurance get to see a doctor for free when they want their kids to see a doctor. I asked the reception why they are not asked to pay a small $10-$15 fee like everyone else. I was told flatly that if they had to pay anything, they would not bring their kids to see a doctor. It is not about affording the fee. The waiting area was packed with 'poor' children wearing expensive shoes, playing electronic games.

Everyone should pay. Those who cannot afford it get assistance money. Everyone else has to make choices when it come to money. Maybe the poorest are in that situation because they do not have to save for necessities as the state takes care of it... - Fred Fry

Yes, wages are not equal in the modern world. The left's answer to this is to simply tax the hell out of those who spend years learning a trade or getting experience to be experts in their field. They totally ignore the inconvenient detail that the doctor they are demanding to see for free spent eight or more years learning to be a doctor.

Yes, in some countries the doctor's education fees are paid by the state, but still the state is dependent on the student to dedicate years of time to study to become a doctor. No amount of money in the world is going to turn someone into a doctor if they do not want to become one, or are not interested in putting in the time and effort required as part of the education. Simply put, not everyone can be a doctor.

If you could, then why not send all the poor to school to learn trades. But wait, there are already educational opportunities available for poor and minorities. So the opportunity is available, provided people are willing to put in the effort to take advantage of it. Take US Federal Academies. They are 'free' but put students through a very demanding program. Since the Academies have been traditionally under-represented by minorities, it is very easy for them to get accepted, and still they have a hard time finding minority students to take advantage of the opportunity. (Part of the problem is that qualified minority candidates also have many other attractive competing offers available to them.)

At the end of the day, the full price of the products and services offered need to be paid for. Take this comment:

Older Russians invariably recall the Soviet era as a time of stability and social security, if not prosperity, and feel they have suffered unfairly from the social turmoil and repeated economic crises of the past two decades.

"You could buy a loaf of bread for 16 kopeks (cents), and that was a stable price for many, many years," says Alevtina Dimitrieva, a Moscow pensioner. "Now the price is different every day. The authorities promise to raise our pensions, but even when that happens, rising prices gobble up the increase immediately." - Christian Science Monitor

One of the problems of the Soviet Union was that prices almost never reflected the true cost. In the example above, the cost of bread was determined by the central Government. This of course also goes for other things, such as wages. That was another problem of the Soviet System, even if they could get everyone to accept that they were all equal and all earning their 'fair share', people would either not accept it or not be satisfied with what they were being compensated.

Think of it as if everyone agrees to work their hardest so that everyone can have a home, two cars and a boat for their family. It is a great idea until someone decides that they don't want to work hard enough for the boat.

And with that is where the socialist system falls apart. So the system we have includes a level of inequality. But it is not just a level of inequality in terms of wages, but also in terms of work input.

P.S. Do not take this post as dismissal of the notion that some people are in need and need assistance. I am sure that there are people who need public support. My problem is that there are so many people taking advantage of the system, or not taking advantage of ways to escape from poverty (such as moving to where the jobs are) that it is all but impossible to identify who these people are. In addition, many in need are being buried in all sorts of aid programs. Shouldn't one of these cover family expenses? (And if we are going to give 'free' health care to the poor, how about having them use a portion of their unemployment, welfare, whatever payments as a payment for the insurance.)

That said, if the poor have the expectation that they too are expected to pay their fair share, then I am pretty sure that they will adjust their habits and pay when needed.

Unfortunately, the effects of attacking the financial incentive to become a doctor are spreading to the US:

The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.

Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

That shortfall is predicted despite a push by teaching hospitals and medical schools to boost the number of U.S. doctors, which now totals about 954,000. - Wall Street Journal

I simply do not understand the insistence of the left to destroy the concept of cost and value. Not only that, but they also seem to have a very short memory of how horrible typical Government-run 'customer service' really is! It is a shame that we are all being forced down this path for the sake of a painful reminder.

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It was not Western Banks that Enabled Hitler. It was the Soviet Union

Today's news has the latest attempt to shift blame on the West. This time by director Oliver Stone who seems to want to throw the blame of Hitler on us:

BANGKOK, Thailand — Adolf Hitler was a psychopath and a monster but rose to power thanks to big business leaders and other supporters who appreciated his vow to destroy communism and control workers, Hollywood filmmaker Oliver Stone said Monday.

Stone, who is working on a 10-part documentary on the 20th century titled "The Secret History of the United States," said the German dictator was "enabled by Western bankers" and managed to "seduce" Germany's military industrial complex. - The Canadian Press

If Oliver Stone wanted to make a real story about the history behind WWII, then he would toss aside this piece of crap* and concentrate on the story of how the Soviet Union enabled Hitler to attack the rest of Europe. Take the following issues that would be great in a movie, starting with Stalin's assistance in giving Hitler power:

----------Stalin's Intervention to ensure Hitler's Election in Germany:

During the critical 1932 German elections, he forbid the German Communists from collaborating with the Social Democrats. These parties together gained more votes than Hitler and could have prevented him from becoming Chancellor. - Wikipedia

----------

Alliance with Hitler / Nazi Germany

The Soviet Union had Hitler's back at the start of World War II by agreeing to split Europe amongst themselves drawing a line right through Poland. (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) It is common knowledge that Nazi Germany attacked Poland (on 1 September 1939) but not so common knowledge that the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the East. (On 17 September 1939)

----------Support of Nazi Germany

From the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August, 1939 through almost the end of the first half of 1941, Stalin and the USSR fed and equipped Hitler and Germany as Germany invaded Western Europe and then attacked Great Britain by air. - Wikipedia

----------Partially Responsible for World War II

According to the Historian Richard Pipes, the Communist states share some responsibility for World War II. Both Hitler and Mussolini used the Soviet Union as a model for their own totalitarian states and Hitler privately expressed that Stalin was a "genius". In turn, Stalin expressed desire for another great war that would leave his enemies weakened and allow Soviet expansion. He allowed the testing and production of German weapons that were forbidden by the Versailles Treaty to occur on Soviet territory. - Wikipedia

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Soviet Union escorted a Nazi raider disguised as neutral merchant ships to the Pacific so that they could avoid attack by the British:

Breakout into the Pacific - Under the command of Kapitän zur See (later Konteradmiral) Robert Eyssen, HSK7 (German auxiliary cruiser KOMET) departed for her first raiding voyage from Gotenhafen on 3 July 1940. With the consent of the then neutral Soviet Union and with assistance from Soviet Icebreaker Joseph Stalin, KOMET, disguised as the Soviet steamer Dezhnev, passed through the Arctic Ocean north of Russia and entered the Pacific Ocean. - Wiki

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Murmansk Shipyards converted a German ship into an Auxiliary Cruiser

The German motor vessel ILLER was converted into an auxiliary cruiser in the Murmansk shipyards - The Deadly Embrace

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Murmansk was used by the Nazis as a safe haven for their ships at the outbreak of WWII including the:

• German Liner BREMEN
• German Liner ST. LOUIS
• US cargo ship CITY OF FLINT which was taken by the German Battleship DEUTSCHLAND as a prize. The ship and German crew should have been interned by the Soviets but were not.
  

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Soviets provided a Navy base for Nazi Use:

The Soviets also provided Germany with a U-boat base at Basis Nord (Russia) for refueling, maintenance location and a takeoff point for raids and attacks on shipping. In addition, the Soviets provided Germany with access to the Northern Sea Route for both cargo ships and raiders (though only the raider Komet used the route before June of 1941), which forced Britain to protect sea lanes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. - Wikipedia

----------
Circumvented Sanctions against Nazi Germany:

The Soviet Union also bought and shipped other materials to Germany, such as rubber from India. - Wikipedia

----------

Oddly enough, the Soviet Union's assistance to Nazi Germany provided Germany with the raw materials needed to attack the Soviet Union:

Despite fears causing the Soviet Union to enter deals with Germany in 1939, that Germany came so close to destroying the Soviet Union was due, in large part, to Soviet actions taken from 1939 to 1941. Without Soviet imports, German stocks would have run out in several key products by October of 1941, only three and a half months into the invasion. Germany would have already run through their stocks of rubber and grain before the first day of the invasion were it not for Soviet imports.

Without Soviet deliveries of these four major items ( Oil Products, Rubber, Manganese, Grain ), Germany could barely have attacked the Soviet Union, let alone come close to victory, even with more intense rationing. - Wikipedia

----------Stalin attempted to join Hitler's Axis Alliance between Germany and Italy and Japan:

In October and November 1940, German–Soviet Axis talks occurred concerning the Soviet Union's potential entry as a fourth Axis Power. The negotiations included a two day Berlin conference between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop, followed by both countries trading written proposed agreements. Germany never responded to a November 25, 1940, Soviet proposal leaving the negotiations unresolved. Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in June 1941 by invading the Soviet Union. - Wikipedia

----------

It was not Western Bankers that enabled Hitler. He did not need money to wage war. He needed raw materials and fuel. For this need, he found a willing trader in Stalin.

For the longest time, Russia has gotten away with white-washing over it's criminal behavior and assistance to Hitler's Germany during WWII is because the other countries of the world have declined to press them about it. The last thing anyone needs now is a movie that helps Russia in their ongoing efforts to shift blame from them.

One movie Oliver Stone could make would be a 'Secret History of the Soviet Union' giving viewers a full accounting of Soviet crimes.However, don't hold your breath for anything like that. Reason Magazine's Article 'Hollywood's Missing Movies - Why American films have ignored life under communism.' addressed this topic a couple years back:

Never heard of Total Eclipse? It hasn't been produced or even written. In all likelihood, such a film has never even been contemplated, at least in Hollywood. Indeed, in the decade since the Berlin Wall fell, or even the decade before that, no Hollywood film has addressed the actual history of communism, the agony of the millions whose lives were poisoned by it, and the century of international deceit that obscured communist reality. The simple but startling truth is that the major conflict of our time, democracy versus Marxist-Leninist totalitarianism--what The New York Times recently called "the holy war of the 20th century"--is almost entirely missing from American cinema. It is as though since 1945, Hollywood had produced little or nothing about the victory of the Allies and the crimes of National Socialism. This void is all the stranger since the major conflict of our time would seem to be a natural draw for Hollywood. - Reason Magazine

Maybe one day the truth will be told on the movie screen.
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Here is one image from the book 'RED primer for children and diplomats':

In 1939 a wonderful opportunity for world peace came from the most unexpected source. Although the Soviets opposed Fascist dictatorship and imperialism, they saw a means which could be used to further the ultimate triumph of the Communist brand of Socialism. A mutual non-aggression agreement was made with Hitler.

Hitler invaded Poland and the Soviets moved in to prevent the Nazis from taking over the whole country. The Soviets murdered some 11,000 Polish officers and intellectuals at Katyn Forest and peace and order were established in Poland, for a while. - Link

Here is a handy Desktop Wallpaper summarizing the 62 Million Deaths attributed to Soviet Rule:

You can find it here: The New American Myth


* - I am sure the movie will be entertaining, but it will fail as a history piece.

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Walter Duranty - A Most Dangerous 'Useful Idiot'

Walter Duranty was a reporter. He was also one of Stalin's useful idiots.

This reporter probably did more to cover up for Stalin than did any other. Not only did his reporting ignore most all of the terror that was going on in the Soviet Union, but it also refuted reports made by other journalists who were brave enough to report on Stalin's killing spree.

In his New York Times articles (including one published on March 31, 1933), Duranty repeatedly denied the existence of a Ukrainian famine in 1932–33. In an August 24, 1933 article in NYT, he claimed "any report of a famine is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda", but admitted privately to William Strang (in the British Embassy in Moscow on September 26, 1933) that

"it is quite possible that as many as ten million people may have died directly or indirectly from lack of food in the Soviet Union during the past year."

- Wikipedia

As bad as today's reporters are in the tank for Obama and the Democrats, I have to wonder just how far they are willing to go to cover up for their favorite politicians. This reporter was willing to sacrifice a whole population for his career. How successful was he? His reporting helped the Soviet Union gain official recognition from the United States.

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Canada: Stalin = Hitler

On the heels of Europe declaring that Stalin was as big a murderous bastard as Hitler comes Canadian Liberals calling to take the same position:

Liberal MPs Pass Motion To Mark August 23rd As Black Ribbon Day

03.12.2009

OTTAWA - Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic, the Hon. Bob Rae, passed a unanimous Resolution in Parliament today to commemorate the victims of Europe's totalitarian regimes.

"Millions of Canadians of Eastern and Central European descent whose families have been directly affected by either Nazi or Communist crimes have made unique and significant, cultural, economic, social and other contributions to help build the Canada we know today," said Mr. Rae. "We must unequivocally condemn the crimes against humanity committed by totalitarian Nazi and Communist regimes and offer the victims of these crimes and their family members' sympathy, understanding and recognition for their suffering.

"Every victim of any totalitarian regime has the same human dignity and deserves justice, remembrance and recognition by the Parliament and the Government of Canada."

Twenty years after the fall of the totalitarian Communist regimes in Europe, knowledge among Canadians about these regimes, which terrorised their fellow citizens in Central and Eastern Europe for more than 40 years, is still alarmingly superficial and inadequate.

This annual day of remembrance is to be held on August 23rd to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the Nazi and Soviet Communist regimes.

"Called Black Ribbon Day, the establishment of this Day of Remembrance on August 23rd will show Canadians and those around the world that Canada will not stand for crimes against humanity, and we will be counted among those who stand up for victims of systematic and ruthless abuse.

"Canadians must not allow these crimes to go misunderstood and unrecognized." - CommunistCrimes.org

Lets see if the Canadian Government makes this resolution official.

Where is the US on this matter? I have written before that Russia needs to go through what Nazi Germany went through at the end of WWII with an investigation to the crimes of Communism. (Click the 'Soviet Union' tag to find the relevant posts.) Since it has not happened we have to deal with Russia acting like a bully all across Europe as well as having to deal with ongoing admiration for the Soviet Union and even for Stalin himself. This is mad.

One way to get the ball rolling might be for an investigation into US actions or better put American inaction in fighting Soviet crimes going back to the 1930's. For starters, it would be nice to see an investigation into Why the US State Department did nothing to help Americans trapped in the Soviet Union get back to the US, knowing that those going into the Embassy were being picked up as they came out and set to the Gulag, many never to return. This went on for decades.

Take a look at the US State Department's Freedom of Information Act 'Reading Room' list of Topics. 'Communism' and 'Soviet Union' are not even listed. Doing a search for relevant documents does not bring up much interesting information either.

So, what are they hiding? My guess is lots.
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December 7th - Never Forget

Today is the 68th anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

While the attack was done by the Japanese, we in fact have three countries to 'thank' for World War II. Those of course being Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union. To this day, one of those countries has yet to atone for this crime against humanity. Unfortunately, it needs to be stated that the Soviet Union was a leading player in bringing about World War II, because Russia has never really been forced to face that inconvenient detail.

German and Soviet troops at the so-called "Border of Peace", or a demarcation line set up by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; picture taken during the Polish Defense War of 1939. Soviet BT tank visible in the foreground. - Wikipedia

So in order not to forget, we first need to properly remember and recognize the criminal acts of our supposed 'Allie' in that War.

Previous:

• Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Attack (And a Fitting example of the results of dialoging with your enemies who are not acting in Good Faith) - 2006
• Pearl Harbor, December 7 1941 - 2005
• Remembering the Manhattan Project and the end of WWII - August 2005

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Russia: 'No Copenhagen climate deal unless you pay us billions of Dollars'

While the Obama Presidency has been trying to take advantage of the slogan 'never let a good crisis go to waste', leave it to the Russians to show how to do it right.

Take the urgent call to act to prevent disaster from uncontrolled runaway global warming. The Russians are fully willing to 'do their part' to avert global calamity, as long as they profit in the process:

NEW YORK – A long simmering but infrequently discussed issue over carbon credits that Russia has amassed under its Kyoto Protocol obligations threatens to erupt at Copenhagen and possibly scuttle chances for a politically viable agreement to emerge from the talks, American and foeign analysts have said.

The Kremlin has recently begun to apply pressure that it be allowed to hold on to it Kyoto carbon credits in the run up to Copenhagen. But environmentalists insist that allowing this roll over would hobble any treaty by making it far cheaper to buy up surplus Russian credits than to actually undertake efforts in energy efficiency, renewable energy and technologies to abate global warming. - Charles Digges, 01/12-2009, Bellona Foundation

The Russians know a good scam when they see one. 'ClimateGate' is not the only global warming conspiracy out there. There are a couple of green conspiracies floating around and the reward of billions of dollars in carbon credits to Russia is one of them.

Russia's credits of course were due to the combination of the Soviet Union being both a very dirty polluter, setting the bar high for them and the resulting collapse of the Soviet Union which took down much of their dirty industry with them.

The whole point of giving 'carbon credits' based on how much pollution a country was responsible for was to permit each country a non-destructive path from their current industrial situation to one that was greener without causing complete havoc in the process. However, in the case of the Soviet Union, these dirty factories were closed anyway, leaving in their wake a massive pile of permits of pollute, which Russia has been selling to businesses around the world subverting other country's attempts to push industry to greener alternatives.

Simply put, the Kyoto Treaty enabled Russia to profit from the environmental damage the Soviet Union was responsible for. Now that Kyoto is ending, they want to ensure that they can continue to profit, even though Russia's CO2 output is growing like crazy. They have good reason to demand a continuation of the past agreement given how much it was worth to them:

In futures trading for contracts maturing next year in Europe, prices are about €15 per carbon credit, the Financial Times reported earlier this month. One carbon credit offsets one ton of carbon emissions.

At current prices, the total value for Russian carbon credits could be between €30 billion and €45 billion, ($40 billion to $60 billion) said the Financial Times. The downside is that, should Copenhagen talks to devise a replacement agreement for Kyoto, the carbon credits could become a poof of air. - Bellona

Ideally, if any similar process to Kyoto is put in place, then there needs to have a new benchmark to measure each country's emissions from. It makes no sense at all to continue using emission numbers from 1990 which were already inaccurate when Kyoto was signed in the late 1990's.

Even better would be to get rid of the 'cap and trade' system. It actually undoes green activity.

One reason for this is that in many cases when a company does something to make their output 'greener' they have to completely redo their operations which results in a much greater lowering of their greenhouse gas emissions than is required. (i.e., putting in a CO2 scrubber in a smokestack might reduce emissions by 60% but the company only had to reduce by 10%.) So the environment actually gained by the conversion. So it makes no sense to then take that gain and use it as permission for others not to make their companies greener.

Worse, in the case of the Russian Carbon credits, the reduced emissions came free. So every Russian carbon credit sold actually makes the planet a little less green because there is no Russian factory that otherwise would be spewing greenhouse gasses. It would be like me demanding carbon credits for a third child that I decide not to have. After all, it is not like I am going to have the third child if I am not compensated.

What other global warming madness is out there? (Besides the big question of whether the planet actually is warming or not and if so what is the cause for it!)

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Russia's New Gulag - Powered by North Koreans

Remember the Soviet Union's infamous prison system, the Gulag. Well, it appears to be making a comeback with the assistance of Communist North Korea.

At home, North Koreans live under total government control and the watchful eye of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il.

But in the Amur region of Russia, almost 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the border, North Korea has created a home away from home at a series of remote logging camps in which nearly 1,500 workers are employed.

I travelled to one of the camps deep in the forest. A giant monument bearing the words "Our greatest leader Kim Il-sung lives with us forever" stood in the middle. - BBC

As if there are not enough unemployed Russians available to do work, for little money. They need to import North Koreans to work as slave labor.

Although reluctant to speak, one told me that he earned the equivalent of $200 per month. Another said that he earned $1 for each truck he loaded and that he could load up to nine per day, but he had not been paid since May. - BBC

As for vacation, forget it. I bet Stalin gave more his victims more time off that the North Koreans get now.

"The Koreans work year round with two days off per year," he told me. "All the other days are working days no matter what the weather conditions, they always work.

"The Koreans work for the government and their communist party, they've got production targets," he said. "If the quota is filled then everything is ok. If it is not fulfilled, well then they've got their Communist Party of North Korea, and everybody gets punished from the managers down to the worker who didn't fulfil the quota." - BBC

Despite the wonderful treatment, the report notes that thousands have escaped the camps and are living in hiding in Russia.

Go read the whole sad story and watch the video report. This is how Russia treats their friends. It should be a warning to us all.

N Koreans toiling in Russia's timber camps - BBC

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Is Russia Still Holding American Servicemen Captive?

Is Russia Still Holding American Servicemen Captive? This was one question that a joint US-Russia Team was set up to try and answer back in the 90's after the fall of the Soviet Union.

US-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs

In March 1992, the Presidents of the United States and Russian Federation joined together to establish the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs (USRJC). The work of the Commission focuses on three primary objectives:

• - To determine if any American POW/MIAs are being held against their will on the territory of the former Soviet Union and, if so, to secure their immediate release and repatriation;
• - To determine the fate of unaccounted-for members of the U.S. Armed Forces who were located on the territory of the former Soviet Union or about whom the Russian Government may have information; and
• - To clarify facts pertaining to Soviet personnel missing from their their war in Afghanistan, from Cold War-era loss incidents, and from World War II.

To this day the Russians have failed to respond to requests for clear information on American POWs taken by or transfer to the Soviet Union.

The work of the U.S. Side of the Commission to resolve the transfer issue continues. Hopefully, at some point, circumstances will change to allow for a thorough, bilateral inquiry into this elusive question. In the meanwhile, we proceed with our efforts to examine the data we have, pursue new leads, and make our findings known through reports such as this. In a sense, we are not unlike the thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Russian citizens who have embarked on a similar quest to learn the facts about their own relatives who disappeared in the gulag. Ultimately, for them as for us, it is persistence which will shape the outcome of this often frustrating, occasionally promising, and always daunting enterprise.

President Obama was recently in Russia praising the Soviet Union. Perhaps his time might have been better spent bringing up unresolved issues such as this one. After all, in order to press the 'reset button' we either need to resolve issues like this one or just forget about them. Unfortunately, the President seems more eager to take the latter route, which will do nothing in terms of bringing out a better Russia as we move forward towards a modern peaceful future together.

I personally do not think that there are any living American POWs in the former Soviet Union, however Russia needs to come clean on the past and provide whatever information it has on Americans that were kidnapped (for lack of a better word) and whose lives ended in the Gulag. Russia is the sole holder of this information. If there was nothing to hide then why haven't they said so?

And just to keep in mind the potential size of the problem, take these two comments:

WWII:

Stalin learned what was happening and retaliated. He permanently "retained" the American and British soldiers whom he still held as bargaining chips. What did he do with them? He carted them to the Soviet Union where they lived the rest of their lives in the Russian gulags. How many American and British soldiers? Over 20,000 Americans and over 30,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers! In fact, as the authors of Soldiers of Misfortune point out: "Starting in 1945, the Soviet Union became the second-largest employer of American servicemen in the world." - fff.Org

Korea:

More than 8,100 American servicemen were never accounted for. Many of them presumably died in battle and their bodies were never recovered. For others, especially P.O.W.s that never came home, there has been speculation, based on documents later found in the Kremlin archives, that hundreds of U.S. servicemen were secretly held against their will. They were to be used as political pawns by the Chinese or Soviets or to be used for medical experiments, according to a report in Newsweek magazine. - SPTimes

As Americans we should demand and answer to this question.

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Nazism/Stalinism Remembrance Day - 23 August

Earlier this year, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has come out and condemned both Nazism and Stalinism as being equally bad:

OSCE condemnes both Nazism and Stalinism

05.07.2009 - On Friday the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution that equates the Nazi regime with Soviet Stalinism. The resolution, titled “Reunification of divided Europe” and put forward by Lithuania and Slovenia, states that Europe has suffered from two totalitarian regimes: the Nazi and the Stalinist. Both brought about genocide and crimes against humanity. For a final and Europe-wide condemnation of totalitarianism, the OSCE resolution offered to set a Nazism/Stalinism remembrance day on August 23 . On 23. August 1939 Europe-dividing Molotov-Ribbentrop was signed by Germany and Soviet Union, dividing Europe between two dictators and paving way to the start of II World War. The resolution states so that both Stalin and Hitler were responsible for the start of this most devastating war. I can only agree to this point of view. - CommunistCrimes.Org

This resolution called for today, 23 August, the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, to be a day of Remembrance of all the victims of Hitler and Stalin.

As you can imagine, the Russians were not amused, and responded in typical fashion by threatening Europe:

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian lawmakers threatened the OSCE with "harsh" consequences on Saturday after the European security body's parliamentary arm condemned both Stalinism and fascism for starting World War Two.

Russia's delegates stormed out of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's annual parliamentary meeting after members passed the resolution, drafted by a delegate from the host nation Lithuania, a former Soviet satellite.

"This is nothing but an attempt to re-write the history of World War Two," Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the foreign relations committee of Russia's lower house of parliament, told Interfax news agency.

"The reaction of the parliament to this document will be immediate and it will be harsh." - CommunistCrimes.Org

The Russian's response back home to questions about Russia's actions during World War II has been to criminalize the discussion of how Russia enslaved Eastern Europe at the end of the war.

Along with the calls to remember the victims of the joining of Nazism and Stalinism on this August 23rd, this his whole issue is yet another reminder that Russia has yet to go through an accounting of the Crimes of the Soviet Union like Nazi Germany went through. It is good that Europe has made this step. However, until Russia makes an honest accounting of it's Soviet past, we will not see any change in Russia's current behavior.

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Here is one image from the book 'RED primer for children and diplomats':

In 1939 a wonderful opportunity for world peace came from the most unexpected source. Although the Soviets opposed Fascist dictatorship and imperialism, they saw a means which could be used to further the ultimate triumph of the Communist brand of Socialism. A mutual non-aggression agreement was made with Hitler.

Hitler invaded Poland and the Soviets moved in to prevent the Nazis from taking over the whole country. The Soviets murdered some 11,000 Polish officers and intellectuals at Katyn Forest and peace and order were established in Poland, for a while. - Link

The Soviet Union was busy killing people well before Stalin made a deal with Hitler and was killing long after World War II. Here is a handy Desktop Wallpaper summarizing the 62 Million Deaths attributed to Soviet Rule:

You can find it here: The New American Myth

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Russia Seeks to Outlaw Inconvenient Truth About Their Criminal Past

One of the greatest feats of World War Two was how the Soviet Union managed to escape accountability for their actions in helping Hitler take half of Europe. (Not to mention the fact that at the end fo the War they did take half of Europe!)

One of the greatest feats during the breakup of the Soviet Union is how the Russian Government never had to face up to their country's complicity in Helping Hitler and managed to keep the truth from the Russian people.

Now, as information becomes more free and as Russia's neighbors push back with inconvenient facts, Russia is planning to outlaw questioning The Soviet Union's victory over the Nazis in WWII:

And in the lead-up to the country's annual Victory Day celebrations, the Kremlin has made a move that it touts as yet another display of Russia's patriotism and pride: the government has announced that it is considering passing a law to criminalize statements and acts that deny the Soviets won World War II, or claim it used poor tactics in battle or did not liberate Eastern Europe. - Time

and:

Valery Ryazansky, a United Russia Duma MP and a chief supporter of the bill, said on Thursday he hoped the law would appear before the Duma before June 22 — Russia's Day of Remembrance and Mourning. "Those who attempt to interpret the outcome of World War II, to turn everything upside down, to represent those who liberated countries from the Nazi invaders as subjugators" will be punished, he said.

Violators of the new addition to the criminal code would face a fine of up to around $9,200 or up to three years in prison. If the perpetrator is a government official and uses his status to break the law, the fine is increased to more than $15,300, a five-year term in prison and the deprivation of the right to occupy certain government positions, said Ryazansky. - Time

Yes, it might get pretty damn uncomfortable if the Russian Government would have to explain the following: (This is by no means a complete list of collusion between the Soviets and Nazis)

----------Stalin's Intervention to ensure Hitler's Election in Germany:

During the critical 1932 German elections, he forbid the German Communists from collaborating with the Social Democrats. These parties together gained more votes than Hitler and could have prevented him from becoming Chancellor. - Wikipedia

----------Removal of Jews from the Diplomatic Corps:

Stalin purged his diplomatic apparatus of Jews in preparation for signing his “non-aggression” pact with Hitler. - National Review

----------Alliance with Hitler / Nazi Germany

The Soviet Union had Hitler's back at the start of World War II by agreeing to split Europe amongst themselves drawing a line right through Poland. (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) It is common knowledge that Nazi Germany attacked Poland (on 1 September 1939) but not so common knowledge that the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the East. (On 17 September 1939)

----------Support of Nazi Germany

From the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August, 1939 through almost the end of the first half of 1941, Stalin and the USSR fed and equipped Hitler and Germany as Germany invaded Western Europe and then attacked Great Britain by air. - Wikipedia

----------Partially Responsible for World War II

According to the Historian Richard Pipes, the Communist states share some responsibility for World War II. Both Hitler and Mussolini used the Soviet Union as a model for their own totalitarian states and Hitler privately expressed that Stalin was a "genius". In turn, Stalin expressed desire for another great war that would leave his enemies weakened and allow Soviet expansion. He allowed the testing and production of German weapons that were forbidden by the Versailles Treaty to occur on Soviet territory. - Wikipedia

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Soviet-Finnish Winter War

The Soviet Union attacked Finland to take land that the Finns declined to cede to the Soviets voluntarily.

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Soviet Union escorted a Nazi raider disguised as neutral merchant ships to the Pacific so that they could avoid attack by the British:

Breakout into the Pacific - Under the command of Kapitän zur See (later Konteradmiral) Robert Eyssen, HSK7 (German auxiliary cruiser KOMET) departed for her first raiding voyage from Gotenhafen on 3 July 1940. With the consent of the then neutral Soviet Union and with assistance from Soviet Icebreaker Joseph Stalin, KOMET, disguised as the Soviet steamer Dezhnev, passed through the Arctic Ocean north of Russia and entered the Pacific Ocean. - Wiki

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Murmansk Shipyards converted a German ship into an Auxiliary Cruiser

The German motor vessel ILLER was converted into an auxiliary cruiser in the Murmansk shipyards - The Deadly Embrace

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Murmansk was used by the Nazis as a safe haven for their ships at the outbreak of WWII including the:

• German Liner BREMEN
• German Liner ST. LOUIS
• US cargo ship CITY OF FLINT which was taken by the German Battleship DEUTSCHLAND as a prize. The ship and German crew should have been interned by the Soviets but were not.
  

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Soviets provided a Navy base for Nazi Use:

The Soviets also provided Germany with a U-boat base at Basis Nord (Russia) for refueling, maintenance location and a takeoff point for raids and attacks on shipping. In addition, the Soviets provided Germany with access to the Northern Sea Route for both cargo ships and raiders (though only the raider Komet used the route before June of 1941), which forced Britain to protect sea lanes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. - Wikipedia

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Circumvented Sanctions against Nazi Germany:

The Soviet Union also bought and shipped other materials to Germany, such as rubber from India. - Wikipedia

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Oddly enough, the Soviet Union's assistance to Nazi Germany provided Germany with the raw materials needed to attack the Soviet Union:

Despite fears causing the Soviet Union to enter deals with Germany in 1939, that Germany came so close to destroying the Soviet Union was due, in large part, to Soviet actions taken from 1939 to 1941. Without Soviet imports, German stocks would have run out in several key products by October of 1941, only three and a half months into the invasion. Germany would have already run through their stocks of rubber and grain before the first day of the invasion were it not for Soviet imports.

Without Soviet deliveries of these four major items ( Oil Products, Rubber, Manganese, Grain ), Germany could barely have attacked the Soviet Union, let alone come close to victory, even with more intense rationing. - Wikipedia

----------Stalin attempted to join Hitler's Axis Alliance between Germany and Italy and Japan:

In October and November 1940, German–Soviet Axis talks occurred concerning the Soviet Union's potential entry as a fourth Axis Power. The negotiations included a two day Berlin conference between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop, followed by both countries trading written proposed agreements. Germany never responded to a November 25, 1940, Soviet proposal leaving the negotiations unresolved. Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in June 1941 by invading the Soviet Union. - Wikipedia

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As for being allied against Hitler for the second-half of WWII, they were not exactly the best allie for the US either:

How Russians copied captured B-29

By 1946, Tupolev had produced the Tu-4, a fully working version of the B-29, plugging a gap in Stalin's arsenal. Mr Hardesty said: "The British and the Americans were flabbergasted when Stalin rolled this out at an air show in the West in 1947 and they hurried to find out how it had been produced."

MI6 and the American CIA obtained information about the three missing B-29s, but full details of how the Russians had copied the Superfortress were not known until Mr Hardesty published an article on the subject this week after being shown top secret Kremlin documents by Russian historians.

The dismantled B-29 and two others made emergency landings near Vladivostok after attacking Japanese targets in Manchuria exactly 12 months before another B-29, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Unable or unwilling to fly back to their bases on the Chinese mainland, the crews chose to land in the Soviet Union, reasoning that Stalin was an ally.

"This was a bad choice, because they were imprisoned for up to 12 months near Tashkent." The pillaging of the B-29s had immense significance after the war when, with the help of atom spies such as Klaus Fuchs, the Russians stole enough British and American nuclear secrets to build their own atomic bomb.

"Having the Tu-4 meant he had some way of delivering it to America. Suddenly he had a strategic bombing force and was going to be able to stand up to America in the Cold War." - Telegraph, UK

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The only reason Russia is getting away with white-washing over it's criminal behavior during WWII is because the other countries of the world have declined to press them about it. And yet Bush is still one of the greatest monsters of all times, all the while Putin plays old Soviet games such as turning off the pipelines to Western europe and chipping away bits off Georgia.

It is not fair to simply declare this ancient history either. Look at the international incident Russia forced when Estonia decided to move a Soviet statue from the center of their capital. The Russians claimed that the Soviet Union 'liberated' Estonia from the Nazis. Yes, it is true that the Nazis had control of Estonia when the Red Army arrived. What the Russians refuse to say is that the Nazis took Estonia from the Soviets who had invaded first.

Modern Russia will not alter it's aggressive ways until there is a full accounting of Soviet crimes. ----------
Link:
"Falsifiers of History" Targeted by the Kremlin - Jamestown Foundation

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Estonia's Other Statue

Everyone knows about the Soviet 'Bronze Soldier' memorial that was moved in Tallinn a while back. This was a memorial erected in Estonia's Capital by the Soviet Union to remember the Soviet soldiers who died during fighting to take the Estonian State from the Nazis (for incorporation into Stalin's Soviet Union).

Of course, idiotic Russians claim that the memorial is to honor those who 'liberated' Estonia from the Nazis. One could say that the Soviet Union did do that. The only problem was that the Soviets then failed to give the Estonians their country back.

However, you have probably never heard about this other memorial located in Tallinn, which also happened to be unceremoniously removed. This would be:

The Memorial for Teachers and Students Perished
during the War of Independence

A sculpture commemorating the teachers and students who gave their lives in the War of Independence. This was one of the first monuments that the Soviets removed after occupying Estonia in 1940. Students of Tallinn kept honoring it by laying flowers where it had stood. Many of these students were arrested and never seen again. All monuments honoring the heroes of the War of Independence were either destroyed or removed by the Soviets. This particular one was returned to its place of honor in a slightly damaged condition after the end of the first Soviet occupation. It was again removed immediately after the Soviet invasion in 1944. - ESTONIA, A Nation Unconquered, by Aarand Roos

The statue in the photo is not the original one. That one was destroyed by the Soviets. This one was rebuilt in the 1990's after they finally managed to take back their freedom from Soviet domination.

P.S.

All this happened well after the 1920 Peace Treaty signed between Russia and Estonia, which included the following statement:

Article II

In consequence of the right of all peoples to self-determination, to the point of seceding completely from the State of which they form part, a right proclaimed by the Socialist and Federal Russian Republic of the Soviets, Russia unreservedly recognises the independence and sovereignty of the State of Estonia, and renounces voluntarily and for ever all sovereign rights possessed by Russia over the Estonian people and territory whether these rights be based on the juridical position that formerly existed in public law, or in the international treaties which, in the sense here indicated, lose their validity in future. - Treaty of Tartu

The Estonians would be good to demand that Russia re-confirm their intent to honor this Treaty, for whatever good it will do. With that, this whole issue is another reminder that Russia has yet to go through an accounting of the Crimes of the Soviet Union like Nazi Germany went through.

Previous:
Russian Actions against Estonia a Reminder that the Crimes of Communism Still Need to be Investigated

Europe's Lingering Scar of Communism

Link:
They were Soviets, right? - CDR Salamander which has the following joke:

Reminds me of the one Estonian joke I know. In the 1980s DC you head into a bar and sit next to some drunk old man with a funny accent. You strike up a conversation, note his accent, and ask him where he is from. He stands up straight and says;

I am from Estonia; the world's most powerful nation!

Funny, you think to yourself - never heard of it. He continues;

Our government is in North America, our land is in Europe and most of our population is in Siberia!

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Remembering the Soviet Union v.1
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Books Read - 2008

Here are the books that I managed to finish reading during 2008.

FAREWELL MILAG
SHIP OF MIRACLES
THE FORGOTTEN HEROS
MERCY SHIPS
SOUTH FROM CORREGIDOR
EXCHANGE SHIP
DISMANTLING UTOPIA
GUESTS OF THE AYATOLLAH

All of the books are maritime related except for the last two which cover the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iran hostage crisis. They were all good reads. I flew through most of the books except DISMANTLING UTOPIA, which at least in parts was a hard slog. It was very interesting, just that I had to force my way through a couple parts that I was not very interested in. Still, the book was the inspiration for two posts here. (The Soviet Union Couldn't Handle Milk Production Either and Putin's Inconvenient Memorial)

Currently I am reading THE DEADLY EMBRACE which is about the alliance between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.

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Russia to Replace Victims of Communism Memorial with Statue of Soviet Secret Police founder

Seems that a couple of members of the Russian Duma are calling for the statue of the founder of the infamous Soviet Secret Police to be returned to its former spot outside the now former headquarters of the KGB.

The removal of the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret police, from in front of KGB headquarters in Moscow was an iconic moment in the collapse of communism there in 1991, a step that many saw as a guarantee that the kind of repression he sponsored would never return.

But yesterday, members of a Duma committee applauded a proposal by the country's former deputy procurator general to restore the statue of the first Chekist to its former place of honor, yet another indication of the way in which the political pendulum is swinging in the Russian Federation at the present time. - CommunistCrimes.Org

Photo from AP Photo by ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO
This guy was a real character and director of the murder of thousands:

Tens of thousands of political opponents were shot without trial in the basements of prisons and public places throughout Russia — and not only opponents. People who happened to be intellectuals, capitalists and priests were shot simply for who they were.

Dzerzhinsky himself boasted that: "We represent in ourselves organized terror -- this must be said very clearly." and “[The Red Terror involves] the terrorization, arrests and extermination of enemies of the revolution on the basis of their class affiliation or of their pre-revolutionary roles.” - Wikipedia

As if this development is not bad enough, it gets worse as currently in the general former (future) location of this statue currently stands a Memorial commemorating the victims of the political oppression in the USSR.

Memorial [Note: an NGO] had finally won permission to establish the monument it had first petitioned for in 1987: a large chunk of grey granite from the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, site of the first large-scale camps for political prisoners after the Bolshevik Revolution. The granite had been unloaded in the little park of spruces on one side of Dzerzhinsky Square, about equidistant from the statue of Iron Felix and the Lubyanka doors. The Politburo had approved the idea of a memorial to the "thousands" of victims of the repression "of the 1930's, 1940's and early 1950's." But the inscription on the granite, as thousands of people filed past and laid down their roses or carnations, quietly insisted on two facts: that the victims could not be counted in the thousands, and that the repression did not begin in the 1930's nor end in the 1950's. "To the Memory" the inscription read "of the millions of Victims of the Totalitarian Regime." - Dismantling Utopia by Scott Shane, Pages 143-144

A couple months ago it was mentioned that the stone memorial was going to be 'temporarily' removed due to a construction project in the area. As I noted before here (Putin's Inconvenient Memorial) if the statue is removed, it might be the last time it is ever seen. Well, that would be more likely if the space where it is/was located is made unavailable by replacing a statue to one of the persons most responsible for creating all those victims.

Once again, Russia gets to play these silly/dangerous games because they were never forced to face the crimes that were committed by the country under the banner of the Soviet Union.

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