Eminent Domain Stuff
New London Update (2/24/06)
Bad NLDC!
Coverage of the Rally at New London's City Hall (w/ pics)
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
After War
The things that so many people have lately lamented following the official End of Hostilities in Iraq pale in comparison to post WWII woes. Due to limited personal time I have not gone back to find accounts of what life was like in Europe after WWII. My generation (20-somethings) know of the period following WWII mostly from the black and white footage on the History Channel. Mostly it's tickertape parades in NYC with young GIs kissing every girl in sight.
Unfortunately for the World, there is a general amnesia about what actually happened following the capitulation of Germany on May 8th 1945. The Command Post has posted a great collection of articles from that time period. I highly suggest reading all of them. I'd say we stack up pretty well in Iraq, all things considered.
Here's a bit:
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Unfortunately for the World, there is a general amnesia about what actually happened following the capitulation of Germany on May 8th 1945. The Command Post has posted a great collection of articles from that time period. I highly suggest reading all of them. I'd say we stack up pretty well in Iraq, all things considered.
Here's a bit:
At first the Germans seemed too stunned and, as the summer wore on, too preoccupied with day-to-day existence to think about the future. When the harvest was in and the daily ration barely above 1,200 calories, when the weather turned cold and there was no coal, when the farmers and other producers became increasingly unwilling to part with their products for money, the people, as the Wuerttemberg-Baden Office of Military Government reported, sank “deeper and deeper into despair as they saw a cruel, cold, hungry winter ahead.” 3 The harvest, all things considered, had been a good one but could not under any circumstances have been good enough to feed the zone population throughout the winter. Coal output in the British and French zones had increased, but the rail and water transport systems were only able to move about 60 percent of the coal away from the mines. The US zone received half a million tons in August but only 150,000 tons more in December, just enough to run the railroads and essential public utilities. When cold weather came, military government in Stuttgart and other places requisitioned all coal supplies over a quarter ton, and throughout the zone children were required to bring a piece of firewood with them to school each day to heat the classrooms.Doesn't sound much like the resounding victory followed by happy tickertape parades that we all think of, does it? Maybe a little history lesson for anyone out there expecting perfection in Iraq might be in order.
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