Need anyone mention the atrocities done to the American Indians living here .......  because the land they were on was desired?  Man's inhumanity to man is astounding. 


-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Russell, James M
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 2:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] IRAQ WAR


Since I just finished lecturing on this topic to my American history survey classes, I don't feel that I can just let this message go unanswered. The evidence indicates that the Roosevelt administration was fully aware that the holocaust was ongoing no later than November, 1942. After Hitler's armies invaded Russia in the summer of 1941, they were accompanied by Einsatzgruppen ("command groups") who machine-gunned thousands of Jews all over eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Sometimes they enlisted soldiers from the countries they invaded to help with burial of the bodies. One Hungarian soldier forced to participate in this grisly practice said that the ground near Kiev "heaved like the sea in the moonlight" where they had buried some who were not yet dead. That was in October, 1941. Stories like that appeared in American newspapers at the time, but invariably in the back pages. It was not a high priority issue; winning the war was. American bomber planes flying over Auschwitz during June of 1944 saw smoke coming up from the four crematoria and asked permission to bomb. It was denied. Granted, many (maybe most) American soldiers did not know about the Holocaust. But the record overall is less absolute than that. Important people did know.

Mike Russell


-----Original Message-----
From: Jean Rice <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 13:20:24 -0500
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] IRAQ WAR

Over the course of a couple of weeks we have had many people
share their opinions about the war with IRAQ. At the base
of some people auguments has been the moral issue that
war is wrong.

I have reflected back to when I was a teenager and
learned about the atrocities committed by the German
against the Jewish people. I was discussing this
with my dad. Basically what I told him was
"how did good men let these evil things happened."
I remember my dad saying: "you are coming from
the viewpoint that we as Americans knew that
these evil deeds were going on." He went on
to say that his generation did not learn about these
things until World War II ended and Americans entered
Germany.

As far as this war in IRAQ, history may have to
determine if we were fighting for a just cause.