John: This response is totally off topic on an off topic, but I wanted to address your comments about WWII. You’re absolutely correct about some of the mismanagement of that war, both in terms of prosecuting campaigns in the Pacific and Europe and on the homefront as well (war profiteering, infighting between Republicans and Democrats).
What I wanted to say, was that I think Joe Stalin was right about one thing: I think the US and Britain allowed the Russians to bleed the Germans and themselves white while they slowly moved towards an eventual invasion of Fortress Europe.
Operation Torch (North Africa) is an excellent case in point, as are the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. We didn’t land in France until June of 1944 and the Germans were pretty much a spent force at that point (Operation Citadelle/Zitadelle in the Kursk pocket was the Wehrmacht’s last hurrah in Russia, and that was summer of 1943).
Stalin had been screaming for an Allied invasion in Europe and FDR and Churchill had been glad handing him the entire time. I think they knew that the Russians were the bigger “over the horizon” problem and having the Soviets deplete their forces while ejecting the Nazis from the Motherland was part of a larger strategy that envisioned the coming Cold War.
