Generals Patton and Eisenhower confer in Tunisia, March 1943. They had alot to worry about. The American soldiers had not done well in the Kasserine Pass battle. They were determined to have the GIs perform better next time. (scanned by HOS Bandit)

Patton and Ike

Two Armies going in Different Directions, literally! One Army travels the Road to Victory, while the other trudges into defeat and an uncertain future. Germany is split apart for 44yrs. for it's trangressions, but decades spent expunging the darkness in their National psyche, and thoroughly renouncing their Nazi past, saw their dreams of reunification come too fruition. The United States, at the wars end,  found itself far removed from it's pre-war seat on the World Stage. And, in what must of been viewed with disbelief, offered it's hand to their vanquished foes,(remember Versailles?) instead of it's boot heel. Well long gone are the days where the U.S. and it's soldiers were hailed as saviors by the Countries it fought along side with those countries very right to exist! Now I'm not saying that we don't deserve, somewhat, the sentiments that some countries have toward the U.S. But I truly believe that the Reason that perhaps, perhaps mind you, the U.S. started too view itself as the Worlds Police, and sole dealer of Justice, is because of WW1 and WW2. Fighting  two wars in under 30 yrs, sending our sons, brothers, and fathers to fight and die on foreign soil probably did something to our National Pysche, giving us what I like to call "The Mighty Mouse" syndrome. "Here I Come to Save the Day" It is not for me to debate our involvement in those two World War's. In fact, I shudder when I think about what  my world today would look like without our involvement in the 2nd. one, and that makes me glad that FDR beat Wendel Wilke in 1940. But I also think about what my world today would look like (for me) if my Country (U.S.A.) hadn't developed that A-Bomb and opened the Pandora's Box that development had as it's price tag. Would the very countries that we sent our boys out to die for, hate us as they do today? Would our Citizens have bulls-eyes on their backs for no other reason then the color of their passport? I don't know. One thing I do know though, I'm just a simple American, one who may have travelled the world a little bit more then most, but all in all, just your average joe, and one who feels that we should stop "helping" the world so much, and start "helping  our own a little more.

Different Paths

Lt Vernon Baker's funeral is being held today. Below is a link to an article from the Washington Post, which includes information about both the delay in his receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the details of the action from which it stemmed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/14/AR2010071405693.html