October 28th, 1944
WASHINGTON (Routers) As this bloody and futile war enters its fourth year, the casualties continue to rise, and while it’s hard to know how many American soldiers have been lost, due to a secretive Roosevelt administration, many analysts think that the number of deaths in brutal battle is now approaching a quarter of a million, with many more millions of civilian casualties in Europe and Asia. Even ignoring all of the innocent loss of life, the loss of American soldiers alone is now almost equivalent to that of the entire population of a medium-sized American city.
This mark is being reached amid growing doubts among the American public about the seemingly endless European and Pacific conflicts, hastily and, some say, thoughtlessly launched in December 1941 to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor by radical Japanese Shintoists.
Here in the nation’s capital, many urged the U.S. Senate to observe a moment of silence in honor of the fallen 250,000.
“We owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their courage, for their valor, for their strength, for their commitment to our country,” said a prominent Democrat leader.
Critics of the war also acknowledged the sacrifice, even as they questioned the policies of those who lead it.
“Our armed forces are serving ably in Europe and the Pacific under enormously difficult circumstances, and the policy of our government must be worthy of their sacrifice. Unfortunately, it is not, and the American people know it,” said a well-known Republican Senator on background.
Another veteran Republican Senator said today that Americans should expect “many more losses to come.”
“Millions of U.S. troops remain overseas. They did not ask to be sent to war, but each day, they carry out their duty while risking their lives. It is only reasonable that the American people, and their elected representatives, ask more questions about what the future holds in Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and how we got into this situation,” he said.
“Anyone who examines the record can see that this president has lied his way into this war. Over the two years before December 7th, while he was telling the nation that we’d never send these boys into a foreign war, he was making backroom deals with the bellicose British government, holding secret talks with them without informing the Congress, supporting them with war material, which could be considered an act of war in itself, providing naval patrols in the north Atlantic and giving orders to fire on German submarines, occupying Iceland, freezing Japanese assets…the list goes on.”
“He knew that the Japanese extremists were going to attack us, and let it happen to get us into his illegal war. It’s time for us to ask why the world hates us, and why they continue to fight against us and kill hundreds of thousands of our soldiers.”
It should be noted that while he disagrees with the characterization of his actions prior to December 7th, President Roosevelt has also warned in one of his fireside chats last year that “…the war is going to last a lot longer than you think. The plans we made for the knocking out of Mussolini and his gang have largely succeeded. But we still have to knock out Hitler and his gang, and Tojo and his gang. No one of us pretends that this will be an easy matter.”
This past summer, he said that we “…shall have to push through a long period of greater effort and fiercer fighting before we get into Germany itself. The Germans have retreated thousands of miles, all the way from the gates of Cairo, through Libya and Tunisia and Sicily and Southern Italy. They have suffered heavy losses, but not great enough yet to cause collapse.”
Unfortunately, the message was lost in the understandable furor over his crude language, referring to the Japanese and German governments as “gangs” and, even more appalling, his unapologetic use of racist language in the same speech, in which he repeatedly referred to the Japanese people and troops as “Japs.”
In cities across the country, anti-war protesters and others concerned about the mounting death toll created tiny, glimmering cemeteries in public places. The anti-war group People for Peace And Justice organized many solemn candlelight ceremonies.
The anti-war movement has rallied around Etta Mae Hanberg, whose son was killed in Italy early this year. She gave a speech prior to the ceremony here last night:
“It is insane that there are so many people living and working in the White House that are responsible for war crimes, high crimes and misdemeanors and other crimes against humanity and they are wandering free to enjoy their lives and live fat off of their war profits. We will probably be arrested for exercising our rights to freedom of speech and freedom to peaceably assemble.”
“Besides asking him for What Noble Cause did he kill 250,000 of our wonderful and brave young people, I would also like to ask Franklin Delanodamngood Roosevelt what he is sacrificing. Is he even sacrificing a good night’s sleep? Is he sacrificing his future with his child? He is not sacrificing anything. He and his cabal of warmongering crooks are asking us Americans to give up our lives and our children’s lives for his lies and mistakes and I am sure the grim milestone is barely causing a blip in their souls. Franklin Delano Rosenfeld, the syphillitic Dutch Jew, and his wealthy buddies don’t even have to pay more taxes for the horror in Europe or to rebuild Houston and Galveston [referring to last year’s devastating hurricane, about which the White House and the War Department have suppressed almost all news], which is another Rosenfeld horror.”
Former military personnel are involved in the protests as well.
“We wanted to show people the immensity of the 250,000 people dead,” said Harvey Whitmeyer, a veteran of the first world war who has spent the past several months with a handful of other veterans making the quarter of a million candles that people have been arranging in a vast circle over the past few weeks on the mall, 200 rows deep. “The Roosevelt administration has done everything in its power not to connect this war with death,” Whitmeyer said. “We will rectify that with this peace display.”
Joe Ferguson, a wounded veteran of the military disaster at Kasserine Pass a couple years ago, told the small, quiet crowd he had trouble looking at the shining monument. “These are my people,” he said, shielding his eyes from the quarter of a million candlepower of intense light.
Anti-war activists, many of them wearing elaborate costumes and giant papier-mache heads fashioned in the likenesses of President Roosevelt and Secretary of War Stimson, danced around the peace inferno and chanted slogans such as, “Hey, hey, FDR, how many kids have you killed so far?”
Sadly, grief and mourning turned to tragedy anew as the radiance of the heat caused the wings of one of the giant Birds Of Peace to catch fire. Its wearer ran around in a panic, ablaze and screaming. The horror was increased as other protestors attempted to help by beating the fires out with cardboard plowshares, further spreading the flames and torment. The grim event seemed a living symbol, a flaming metaphor of what is apparent to many–the heartless callousness and indifference of this administration to human life and dignity.
In unrelated news in the past month, General MacArthur has retaken the Phillippines, many atolls continue to fall to American forces in the Pacific, and General Patton continues to roll through France on to Germany.
[Copyright 2005 by Rand Simberg]