DGS49
Diamond Member
What does it mean, anyway? When was America great? Describe it to me.
By a process that I don't understand, my YouTube feed recently has featured videos about POW's from Germany, Italy, and Japan who were brought to POW camps throughout the U.S. during the last three-plus years of WWII. Here is one of them:
American thinking at the time was that we wanted to treat POW's well - according to the applicable Geneva Conventions - and allow them to communicate with their relatives back home, in the hope that our adversaries would be incentivized to treat our own POW's as well in captivity. It turns out that it didn't work as hoped.
But the experiences of these POW's illustrate many of the things that MADE America great at the time. Even though they in many cases had been shooting and killing Americans before they were captured, they were treated with respect and compassion. They were adequately fed, clothed, housed, and treated for their injuries, diseases, and other medical problems. Cases of cruelty and brutality by American guards are almost nonexistent. POW's were permitted certain forms of recreation, productive work, and learning. In many cases they were allowed to work productively on farms and in factories if they wanted to do so, and to practice their trades if applicable.
Many of them also witnessed, personally, the industrial might of America, its prodigious factories, farms, orchards, roads, and other infrastructure. They saw a country minus millions and millions of productive men that was coming together to get an overwhelming job done.
That's it. America was great. We showed our national compassion, might, and spirit in a way that was unprecedented in history.
Could America mobilize like that again? Very doubtful. Would we all pull together to fight a common foe? Doubtful. Did half the country recoil at the thought of being deemed "patriotic"? Not on your life.
Yeah, we want to make America great again. Sorry.
By a process that I don't understand, my YouTube feed recently has featured videos about POW's from Germany, Italy, and Japan who were brought to POW camps throughout the U.S. during the last three-plus years of WWII. Here is one of them:
American thinking at the time was that we wanted to treat POW's well - according to the applicable Geneva Conventions - and allow them to communicate with their relatives back home, in the hope that our adversaries would be incentivized to treat our own POW's as well in captivity. It turns out that it didn't work as hoped.
But the experiences of these POW's illustrate many of the things that MADE America great at the time. Even though they in many cases had been shooting and killing Americans before they were captured, they were treated with respect and compassion. They were adequately fed, clothed, housed, and treated for their injuries, diseases, and other medical problems. Cases of cruelty and brutality by American guards are almost nonexistent. POW's were permitted certain forms of recreation, productive work, and learning. In many cases they were allowed to work productively on farms and in factories if they wanted to do so, and to practice their trades if applicable.
Many of them also witnessed, personally, the industrial might of America, its prodigious factories, farms, orchards, roads, and other infrastructure. They saw a country minus millions and millions of productive men that was coming together to get an overwhelming job done.
That's it. America was great. We showed our national compassion, might, and spirit in a way that was unprecedented in history.
Could America mobilize like that again? Very doubtful. Would we all pull together to fight a common foe? Doubtful. Did half the country recoil at the thought of being deemed "patriotic"? Not on your life.
Yeah, we want to make America great again. Sorry.
