Stalin Bust Sparks Outrage Among Small-Town Residents

[KR McKay]

Ain't moral relativism just grand???

(Grrrrr...)

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/16/stalin-bust-sparks-outrage-small-town-residents/

Stalin Bust Sparks Outrage Among Small-Town Residents


Published July 16, 2010
FoxNews.com


The installation of a memorial bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in Bedford, Va., next to Western Allied leaders in World War II has ignited a firestorm of controversy and threatened to tear apart the small town 200 miles south of the nation's capital.
Opponents of the bronze sculpture say it has no right to be placed in the National D-Day Memorial next to the busts of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill because Stalin's murderous rule led to the deaths of at least 20 million people, surpassing even the number of murders under Hitler's bloody reign.
The Bedford board of supervisors voted unanimously late last month to ask the National D-Day Memorial Foundation to lose the bust. A group called the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation has an electronic petition calling on the memorial overseers to remove the bust. Several newspaper editorials have criticized the bust.
But the foundation isn't backing down, saying that Stalin, love him or hate him, is a part of the war's history, and his actions should be remembered.
"We certainly can understand the concern recently expressed by the Bedford County Board of Supervisors on behalf of their constituents and their interests," Robin Reed, president of the foundation said in a written statement.

"However, as a lifelong educator, I believe the foundation has a responsibility to serve as a catalyst for serious discourse regarding key historical figures and their actions as they relate to the D-Day story and World War II in general," she continued. "To do otherwise, is a serious disservice to those individuals that lived and died during those historical events."
The foundation could not be reached for further comment.
Rep. Tom Perriello, R-Va., wrote a letter to the chairman of the foundation last month, urging him to remove the bust.
"The long term viability of the Memorial will depend on its ability to maintain the support of the community of veterans who worked so hard to bring it into existence," Perriello said. "On issues of veteran's affairs, I take my marching orders from those who have served. I strongly encourage the leadership of the foundation to do the same."
The Joint Baltic American National Committee, a lobbying group, said the bust not only elevates Stalin but "does a great disservice to the memories" of the soldiers who died at Normandy.
"It is embarrassing to have to explain to our friends and colleagues overseas why Stalin's bust has suddenly appeared in our backyard when we have been applauding the removal of Stalinist icons elsewhere," the committee said.
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation has collected more than 3,500 signatures on its petition.
"Statues of Stalin have been torn down all over Europe. Even in the Soviet Union," Lee Edwards, chairman of the group, said in a written statement. "The Stalin bust in Bedord, Va., should be removed immediately."
The petition also calls on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to make the acceptance of the D-Day Memorial as a national park dependent on the removal of the bust.
Reportedly facing serious financial problems, the foundation is trying to get the National Park Service to take over the site.
David Barna, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said the controversy wouldn't be a factor in the agency's decision.
"If the memorial comes our way, we would have to interpret what it meant to America," he told FoxNews.com.
Bedford was chosen as the site for the memorial because of the huge sacrifice it made in the war. The city lost 21 of its men during the climatic D-Day battle on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the most men per capita of any community in the U.S. during World War II, according to the memorial.
Stalin, who had teamed up with the West after Hitler betrayed him, didn't send one Russian soldier to that battle.


© 2010 FOX News Network, LLC.

[mattfivefour]

Stalin, who had teamed up with the West after Hitler betrayed him, didn't send one Russian soldier to that battle.

Everything else in that article is fine except that last sentence. It is a ludicrous one. The implication is clear; but it is undeserved. While my own view of Stalin is as the monster he was, I feel compelled to set the record straight.

Regardless of their leader, no troops in the Second World War sacrificed as much in the war against the Nazis as the common Russian soldier. More than 10 times (10,000,000+) as many Russian men and women in uniform died in that conflict as all the other allies combined (US 416,800; UK 382,700; Canada 45,300; Australia 39,800). Another 10 million civilians were killed by German attacks in Russia, meaning that roughly 1 out of every 7 people in that country was killed during the war. Compare that to the US where 1 out of every 320, or the UK where 1 out of every 127, was killed. Their political system was evil, but the people who were trapped in it paid a far higher price to defeat the Nazis than anybody else. Just for the record.

The reason no Russian soldiers took part in D-Day, apart from the difficulty of getting soldiers from Russia to England at that time, was that every single Russian soldier was attacking German-held territory from the East side. In fact their efforts prevented Hitler from sending sufficient Panzer divisions to the Atlantic Coast which could have prevented the Allies from successfully managing a build up after they landed.

And remember as well that while Britain and her former colonies and the US were fighting Germany primarily in the air and on the sea until the D-Day invasion, Russia had not only been doing the same thing but her soldiers had been engaged in hand to hand war on the ground for 3 years (since June 21, 1944) already.

As I said, I am not in any way defending the Communist system or that monster who ran it from 1929 to 1953. I am merely setting history straight as to the role of the common Russian citizen and their troops' role in WW2. The final statement in the Fox story was stupid.

[micah719]

I choose to look at it like this.....the pigeons have been given another durable weatherproof outdoor privy. They have a wide choice of political affiliation to express themselves over; hooray for diversity.

The germans suffered about 97% of their military casualties on the eastern front. It is a great example of The Lord's prophecy to make those who persecute His people consume themselves in mutually destructive wars. A feast is coming soon...