DO you think the allies should have punished the germans so harshly?
363073
At the end of WWI, the US very much wanted to help rebuild and bring Germany back into the fold-in fact rebuilding Europe as a more integrated continent was forfront the the US devising of the League of Nations.  Unfortunately, the other allies very much wanted to punish Germany, to teach it a lesson, since they are still stuck in the "great powers" mindset.  This devastated the country, and allowed the growth of a "victim" mentality-used against Jews as internal enemies and the other European countries as external enemies.  At the end of WWII, the US was in a position this time to dictate that Germany would be rebuilt and reintegrated.  Though we don't like to see anything particularly good about Stalin's Russia (and there werent that many good things) they also kept punishment to a minimum, and integrated East Germany into their system..the cause of the poor conditions in East Germany was much more a factor of the system than it was of any punishment.  The German people themselves have maintained a very clear and active analysis of their collective guilt, which has been far more effective in resolving issues than external punishment.
1097172
hahahahaha!!!\nthats hilarious lol.\nno there called.....germans..
858676
Uh...  I doubt it.  This is like saying the Germans were as evil as Hitler. \n\nNo.  Evil people are responsible for their acts.  People who are unwittingly duped are victims like, well... the victims.
18136
I don't think Germany ever felt that way.  The feelings of humiliation that developed due to the loss of WWI and the requirements for Germany under the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the fall of the Weimar republic, the rise of Hitler and thus to World War II.
844131
As much as, I disagree with American policy they alone were responsible for the winning of WW II.  German had already whipped every Army in the European theater and if their generals had done what they wanted, England would have fallen at Dunkirk.  The British land forces affectively ended there as in North Africa if not for Americans opening a second front Erwin Rommel would have finished them.  The only contribution they made to the war effort was their bombings and providing a staging area.  Don’t misunderstand me their bravery and desire to provide contributions are unquestionable.  The Russians were effectively finished Stalin begged and DEMANDED we open a second front and without our material, they would be speaking German.  No for once, the American actually did what they say they did and they alone were more responsible for winning the war. \n\nGod Bless You and The Southern People
928195
No they killed most of them.\n\nCoach
488746
You're not...\nBut it was'nt YOU who comitted those crimes, so dont worry about it. But if you blame Germany for what they did in the past, then you should blame yourself too.\nWorry about the millions of people GBush is killing NOW...
86203
Hitler was more evil then history wrote.  Some of the things in the history books are really toned down from what happened.  My father was in World War II.  He told me first hand stories about what he saw during the war.
1178672
~Worked well for the Third Reich.  They just didn't use it enough.  Neither did Pol Pot.  Joe Stalin made a good run at it though.  Kill for Peace and Justice, I say.  PTL
416071
Germany's desire for revenge... or for a more complete explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWII
646449
Completely unfair.\nThey are doing to the Palestinians what Hitler did to them...
939332
What would have been worse was that Japan would have secured the resources it needed in the Pacific to really wage war against the US.  Pearl Harbor was done to cripple the US in the Pacific so that Japan can invade and take over what they needed to maintain their war machine.\n\nAlso, lets not forget Hitler.  If the US had not entered the war, Germany would have taken England and would have had a pretty strong hold on Europe.  There is nothing short of war that could have stopped him.  Sanctions would not have worked because Germany was very industrial and could produce just about anything it needed.  If they needed it and could not make it, they would just invade whomever had it.  Diplomacy would not have worked because Hitler had a grand plan and you would not have been able to talk him out of it.
989269
If they were taunting them then yes, they should be penalized. It was very childish.
372880
I think it was a SO CALLED mistake. NATO made many of those so called mistakes during the bombardment.
545158
If they had used the tactics they used in WW2.  Namely faster more mobile mechanized warfare (blitzkrieg) instead of getting bogged down in trench warfare and attrition.\n\nAirplanes and tanks were being developed and refined.  The tools and technology were there, they just hadn't learned how to use them effectively yet.\n\nThe Allies were the first to figure out that tanks could be used to pass over the trenches and that air support meant more than just reconnaisance.\n\nBy giving the Americans time to mobilize and enter the war, the Germans sealed their fate.  This is not to say that the Americans alone defeated the Germans but they did tip the scale in favor of the Allies and I'm grateful they did.
953164
I think so yes...I think they should have done so the moment they realized they could not be of any help.
558694
I think a better way to put this is who killed more people in a genocide, the nazis or the russians.  The answer is the russians killed many times the number of people that the nazis did.  We should have destroyed both of these leftest causes while they were still relatively young (nazism is often misidentified as right wing where it was, actually National SOCIALISM).  Probably, it would have been much more wise to allow Hitler to wipe out the Russians, probably expending much of his military power to do so, and then mopped up the floor with him afterward.\n\nThere was nothing good about either regime.  If Hitler didn't force us to stop him militarily by invading all of his neighbors, the government was well on its way to collapse all by itself.\n\nThere is a saying that virtue is its own reward.  But, what is not said is that evil is its own punishment.  Values that are evil lead to destruction and eventual death of those who adhere to them.  This is a repeating pattern in human history.  Unfortunately, evil people rarely give their victims the luxury of waiting around until the bad guys off themselves.