This morning I opened my chrome to read the news of the day which has become an increasingly difficult and bewildering experience. I try to read from all kinds of sources and I came across a piece by Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times entitled “Black Lives Matter Is Winning.” And then I saw the video of the head of the Police union in New York yesterday. It got me to thinking about the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II.
For those who aren’t familiar, the Battle of Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942 and lasted until February 2, 1943. It was 5 months, 1 week and 3 days of the most brutal, bloody fighting in history. In many ways, it was a battle of egos. Hitler vs. Stalin and both completely committed to humiliating one another in the battle over a city that held Stalin’s name.
On one side, the Germans committed massive forces and equipment to the siege of this city while the Russians (who were less well equipped) threw people into the fray. They were sent into battle without proper equipment and forced into the fight at gunpoint to defend the city that bore Stalin’s name. There was no way he was ever going to surrender that city and suffer the humiliation of such a loss. By the time the dust settled the casualties on both sides were staggering. It is estimated that German casualties were around 1 million and the Russians suffered about 1.2 million casualties. The equipment losses were also monumental though insignificant compared to the loss of life.
The City of Stalingrad was reduced to rubble. Almost nothing was left standing. In the end, it was just about ego and power. The folly of Stalingrad cost Hitler all momentum in the war and marked a true turning point in World War II. Of course, Hitler and Stalin are two of the most vile and evil tyrants in all of history. Anyone who does anything bad these days finds themselves instantly compared to Hitler even though most people have no concept of what they are saying when they make that comparison.
At any rate, the point of that illustration above is to say that we are having our own Battle of Stalingrad in America. We have the lines drawn and there is absolute commitment to victory at any cost. One side is willing to send people in at gunpoint to achieve their goal while the other is so stubbornly determined to prove they’re right that we’ll just watch everything crumble around us to achieve victory. I wish that weren’t so.
This is our home. The United States of America, for all its warts and ill-conceived pursuits is our country. Sadly, we’re engaged in a process of reducing it to rubble though in the name of so many false narratives and viewpoints because we are unwilling to do the hard thing which is face each other with respect and understanding that while we may not agree on many things, we can still work together to achieve great things. If we still taught history we’d be able to learn from the mistakes of the past. We’d know that a cultural civil war will lead us no where good. We’d know that our country is home to the greatest freedom and opportunity to be found anywhere on this Earth. It’s not perfect but it’s ours and we can solve our problems if we truly want to.
The political parties we vote for aren’t interested in solving problems. They are interested in having them to use as cudgels to beat the crap out of one another for political gain. We all need to start seeing this. We’re the civilians living in Stalingrad while these two tyrannical influences seek to divide and conquer by any means necessary. The best thing you can do is to stop being a pawn and start being an American and engage your brothers and sisters in dialogue to improve our country. We have so many interests seeking power now. None of them have good intentions and the cost is going to be unimaginable in the end. We have to stop now and expose the ill-intentioned interests that are dividing us by race, by religion, by beliefs, by views on freedom and so on. If we don’t, the lesson of Stalingrad will repeat itself.
For those who aren’t familiar, the Battle of Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942 and lasted until February 2, 1943. It was 5 months, 1 week and 3 days of the most brutal, bloody fighting in history. In many ways, it was a battle of egos. Hitler vs. Stalin and both completely committed to humiliating one another in the battle over a city that held Stalin’s name.
On one side, the Germans committed massive forces and equipment to the siege of this city while the Russians (who were less well equipped) threw people into the fray. They were sent into battle without proper equipment and forced into the fight at gunpoint to defend the city that bore Stalin’s name. There was no way he was ever going to surrender that city and suffer the humiliation of such a loss. By the time the dust settled the casualties on both sides were staggering. It is estimated that German casualties were around 1 million and the Russians suffered about 1.2 million casualties. The equipment losses were also monumental though insignificant compared to the loss of life.
The City of Stalingrad was reduced to rubble. Almost nothing was left standing. In the end, it was just about ego and power. The folly of Stalingrad cost Hitler all momentum in the war and marked a true turning point in World War II. Of course, Hitler and Stalin are two of the most vile and evil tyrants in all of history. Anyone who does anything bad these days finds themselves instantly compared to Hitler even though most people have no concept of what they are saying when they make that comparison.
At any rate, the point of that illustration above is to say that we are having our own Battle of Stalingrad in America. We have the lines drawn and there is absolute commitment to victory at any cost. One side is willing to send people in at gunpoint to achieve their goal while the other is so stubbornly determined to prove they’re right that we’ll just watch everything crumble around us to achieve victory. I wish that weren’t so.
This is our home. The United States of America, for all its warts and ill-conceived pursuits is our country. Sadly, we’re engaged in a process of reducing it to rubble though in the name of so many false narratives and viewpoints because we are unwilling to do the hard thing which is face each other with respect and understanding that while we may not agree on many things, we can still work together to achieve great things. If we still taught history we’d be able to learn from the mistakes of the past. We’d know that a cultural civil war will lead us no where good. We’d know that our country is home to the greatest freedom and opportunity to be found anywhere on this Earth. It’s not perfect but it’s ours and we can solve our problems if we truly want to.
The political parties we vote for aren’t interested in solving problems. They are interested in having them to use as cudgels to beat the crap out of one another for political gain. We all need to start seeing this. We’re the civilians living in Stalingrad while these two tyrannical influences seek to divide and conquer by any means necessary. The best thing you can do is to stop being a pawn and start being an American and engage your brothers and sisters in dialogue to improve our country. We have so many interests seeking power now. None of them have good intentions and the cost is going to be unimaginable in the end. We have to stop now and expose the ill-intentioned interests that are dividing us by race, by religion, by beliefs, by views on freedom and so on. If we don’t, the lesson of Stalingrad will repeat itself.
