Yes there were reprehensible people on both side and in war the bad side of some comes out in full…


Play all audios:

Yes there were reprehensible people on both side and in war the bad side of some comes out in full bloom. It may be smoothing over the obvious but at least Lemay, Patton, MacArthur and many


others defeated Hilter and Japan. Not to say I would have liked any of them or admired them for their behaviors other than on the battle field in a very narrow way. I truly believe that


while some worship these “war gods” they skim over the personality traits they would rather not see. So if Eisenhower had an affair behind his wifes’s back just ignore that. If Patton struck


adisabled GI, Ah well, it’s just war and he was trying to get the man back on the battlefield. Knowing some really good war practitioners I know that they hide what they want to and present


a face to the public that is designed to protect their “war side”. We excuse a lot in the name of any hero complex. Does it mean we should buy it? NO. There is no one who walks this earth


who is lily white and we should quit with the adoration. Do some of them make the best of a bad situation? Oh hell yes, and they make bad decisions based on what is in front of them but then


who among us has not done that. I think what we should expect of heros is that they be human and admit mistakes. The fog of war is just that, very foggy stuff. The facts remain though that


leaders like them (WWII) took the risks and defeated a really mean and nasty regime. They uncovered some the worst atrocities most of us ever heard about. They made a deal with some devils


in order to accomplish goals (think Stalin). Can we blame them for some of their foibles? Not sure on that one other than to say that I do not think it serves us other than to be a warning


to future leaders on how NOT to do things. Besides always placing blame or disparaging people does not help anyone down the road. Learning how to avoid the negative things they did should be


the lessons we take from it. That part, learning how to avoid teh negative things they did, seems to be the most difficult part of the learning curve.