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Originally Posted by chewie_nz heres where the difference is, WWII was incontravertaly "just" war, bad people started it and did bad things. |
I'm not so sure that is the case. You have to remember that president FDR couldn't get America to fight Germany even as the Nazis stormed across Europe. It was through the 'lend lease act' that FDR was able to bypass laws and regulations that kept American arms from being sent to English and Russian forces, these acts where considered "warmongering" by the oposing politicians. The American public's rallying cry up until December 6th, 1942 was "No foreign entanglements." Now imagine if "lend lease" was on Hannity and Colems or in the 'Crossfire' on CNN and had 'exposes' by New York Times journalists into why FDR 'really' was creating lend lease or how FDR 'sexed up the dossiers' to make Germany look worse than it really was.
Keep in mind that no one knew of the holocaust until the war's end, it was never used as a justification for the war until after the fact.
Even more, as a person who knows a deal about millitary history you know how F*ed up the DDay operation was and how the plan went to hell and many young men from a number of countries, but mostly American, lost their lives to plans that fell apart. Imagine how the modern media would pounce on that, or the german counter offensive that later was called the "battle of the buldge"? Imagine for a second what the press would call the battle of the buldge if a one day stop to resupply in iraq is a 'quagmire'.
And the thrust of all this is that in democracies, politicians are at the mercy of voters. With a modern media (the primary system by which voters learn about how they should vote) that is so critical and sensational, can democratic systems defend themselves when its public is so easily manipulated?