Quote:Dartz wrote:Proud of it, huh? I came from a country that decided to stand with the U.S. and got invaded by the Japanese in WWII for it. The Japanese occupation definitely made the U.S. seem like true benevolent overlords. Japanese brutality was something else to behold in those times.Google up the Bataan Death March if you don't believe me. And do you know what? If you ask the generation and the succeeding ones if it was worth it? The vast majority would say it was. My father was proud of his service of that war. And I am proud of him. That they answered the call.It is funny when you consider two generations prior, they were fighting the American army tooth and nail. Even if there had been up and downs with relationships with the U.S. after independence.
We stayed out of World War II, and I am damn proud of that fact. We took a moral stand, while at the same time asserting our own independance as a free country, able to chart its own course in world affairs for good or ill and not be subject to the whims of the great powers. It was an act that defined the nation we wanted to become - one which renounced the use of force in international affairs. You will hardly find an Irishman that would speak against our policy of military neutrality, and peaceful self-defense. Those that do, are regarded as foolish and rightly so.
And because of that decision, we were isolated from world affairs for years. That was the price of not being a pawn of the great powers. Even if he sounds like Snape.
Perhaps though, we should the man speak himself. About the only thing I respect about the man.
I am just going to just going to leave you with a quote from Edmund Burke -"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." If you are proud of the fact, that Ireland stood by while Hitler decided to conduct the Final Solution, your call. Just don't expect me to agree with you.
Edit1: BTW, you did not answer my original question. What did de Valera do to those who deserted the Irish army to fight for the Allies?
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