60 years ago today, the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen came to an end. Nazi Germany finally declared surrender to Allied forces but it would still be months before the other Axis power in Japan would do likewise.
What then did WW2 actually teach us?
It is estimated that nearly 60 million soldiers died in Europe with another 25 million in the Pacific. Perhaps as many as 3 times as many civillians also gave up their lives. 340 million people who died in vain.
It is estimated that it cost all sides nearly $10,000,000,000,000 to pay for the costs of the war. $10,000,000,000,000 that could have been spent on anything useful rather than fashioning bits of metal to hurt one's fellow man.
Buildings that had stood for hundreds of years became riddled with gunfire and several other collapsed. During the blitz of London, 26 Underground stations were damaged and cost nearly £9 billion to repair it all.
What were the net results of all of this? Not much in all honesty. Borders moved as much a 10 miles in some cases, families were torn in two and countries were snapped in half.
8 May should be a giant celebration, not because of the people who died (though they gave what quite frankly they should not have been asked to do) but because the leaders of the various countries finally had the sense to end the bloody disaster.
It sickens me to think that leaders send people to fight their wars for them. In a lot of cases they go on the premise of lies and or promises that must not be.
War never decides who is right. It merely determines who is left.
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