If D-Day Had Been Reported On Today

[fintstone]

If D-Day Had Been Reported On Today

by William A. Mayer

Tragic French Offensive Stalled on Beaches (Normandy, France - June 6, 1944) - Pandemonium, shock and sheer terror predominate today's events in Europe.

In an as yet unfolding apparent fiasco, Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower's troops got a rude awakening this morning at Omaha Beach here in Normandy.

Due to insufficient planning and lack of a workable entrance strategy, soldiers of the 1st and 29th Infantry as well as Army Rangers are now bogged down and sustaining heavy casualties inflicted on them by dug-in insurgent positions located 170 feet above them on cliffs overlooking the beaches which now resemble blood soaked killing fields at the time of this mid-morning filing.

Bodies, parts of bodies, and blood are the order of the day here, the screams of the dying and the stillness of the dead mingle in testament to this terrible event.

Morale can only be described as extremely poor--in some companies all the officers have been either killed or incapacitated, leaving only poorly trained privates to fend for themselves.

Things appear to be going so poorly that Lt. General Omar Bradley has been rumored to be considering breaking off the attack entirely. As we go to press embattled U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
spokesman has not made himself available for comment at all, fueling fires that something has gone disastrously awry.

The government at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is in a distinct lock-down mode and the Vice President's location is presently and officially undisclosed.

Whether the second in command should have gone into hiding during such a crisis will have to be answered at some future time, but many agree it does not send a good signal.

Miles behind the beaches and adding to the chaos, U.S. Naval gunships have inflicted many friendly fire casualties, as huge high explosive projectiles rain death and destruction on unsuspecting Allied positions.
The lack of training of Naval gunners has been called into question numerous times before and today's demonstration seems to underlie those concerns.

At Utah Beach the situation is also grim, elements of the 82nd and 101st Airborne seemed to be in disarray as they missed their primary drop zones behind the area believed to comprise the militant's front lines. Errant paratroopers have been hung up in trees, breaking arms and legs, rendering themselves easy targets for those defending this territory.

On the beach front itself the landing area was missed, catapulting U.S. forces nearly 2,000 yards South of the intended coordinates, thus placing them that much farther away from the German insurgents and unable to direct covering fire or materially add to the operation.

Casualties at day's end are nothing short of horrific; at least 8,000 and possibly as many as 9,000 were wounded in the haphazardly coordinated attack, which seems to have no unifying purpose or intent. Of this number at least 3,000 have been estimated as having been killed, making June 6th by far, the worst single day of the war which has dragged on now--with no exit strategy in sight--as the American economy still struggles to recover from Herbert Hoover's depression and its 25% unemployment.

Military spending has skyrocketed the national debt into uncharted regions, lending another cause for concern. When and if the current hostilities finally end it may take generations for the huge debt to be repaid.

On the planning end of things, experts wonder privately if enough troops were committed to the initial offensive and whether at least another 100,000 troops should have been added to the force structure before such an audacious undertaking. Communication problems also have made their presence felt making that an area for further investigation by the appropriate governmental committees.

On the home front, questions and concern have been voiced. A telephone poll has shown dwindling support for the wheel-chair bound Commander In Chief, which might indicate a further erosion of support for his now three year-old global war.

Of course, the President's precarious health has always been a question. He has just recently recovered from pneumonia and speculation persists whether or not he has sufficient stamina to properly sustain the war effort. This remains a topic of furious discussion among those questioning his competency.

Today's costly and chaotic landing compounds the President's already large credibility problem.

More darkly, this phase of the war, commencing less than six months before the next general election, gives some the impression that Roosevelt may be using this offensive simply as a means to secure re-election in the fall.

Underlining the less than effective Allied attack, German casualties--most of them innocent and hapless conscripts--seem not to be as severe as would be imagined. A German minister who requested anonymity stated categorically that "the aggressors were being driven back into the sea amidst heavy casualties, the German people seek no wider war."

"The news couldn't be better," Adolph Hitler said when he was first informed of the D-Day assault earlier this afternoon.

"As long as they were in Britain we couldn't get at them. Now we have them where we can destroy them."

German minister Goebbels had been told of the Allied airborne landings at 0400 hours.

"Thank God, at last," he said. "This is the final round."

[speeder]

Fintstone, Welcome back! I was worried about you the last couple of days, it was getting really quiet around here from the Bush/Cheney campaign and I thought that the Bush economic miracle might have claimed another victory and found you a job!

Seeing as you are posting in the evening, maybe it did? Come on, share with us!

GWBush needs your help badly, it seems that a lot of Americans are not buying the comparisons between the current clusterf*ck and WW2, even Bush himself is reportedly looking for ways to get the heck out of Iraq before a few more of the endless series of failures and embarrassments costs him his job. I'm not kidding, I heard one of the conservative talkers on AM radio this week say it.

[pwd72s]

Denis...you can't come up with a better response than that??? C'mon guys...you libs can do better than that!

[Neilk]

You know I don't remember being "Pearl Harbored" by Iraq, nor has Iraq attacked any other nations since Bush 1 pulled out ten years ago.

There is very little similarity between the two. Furthermore, Roosevelt didn't need to lie to get us into war like Bush did.

[techweenie]

Fintstone, that has to be the lamest cut-and-paste posts ever on OT.

Doesn't even qualify for a retort.

[araine901]

Is France really worth the 10,000 men we lost in three hours?

[mcavour]

I think that you guys missed Fintstone's point entirely!!! How's this to ponder on: (And yeah, it is a cut and paste, SO WHAT??!!)

Subject: WW III


Read the catalogue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, re-set the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again?

In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979................that alarm has been ringing for years!

U.S. Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why the action we are taking now is so necessary and critical for our future as a free society.

AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!

That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed ) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.

It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 23 years.

America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam
experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.

America's military had been decimated and downsized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.

Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be
kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.

In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.

Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.

Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.

The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.

Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb
explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.

Then in August a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main; 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.

Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.

The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian
airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.

Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are
still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.

The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder. The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are
arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the
underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war?

The Snooze alarm is depressed again.

Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.

A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.

They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.

The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.

And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.

In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.

Our President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I think we have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough.

America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "...it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant."
This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.

Support Our Troops and support President Bush for having the courage, political or militarily, to address what so many who preceded him didn't have the backbone to do, both Democrat and Republican. This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year; this is an AMERICAN thing.

This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children and grandchildren in years to come.

[nostatic]

wasn't the Trojan Horse a terrorist attack?

[mcavour]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
Terrorism has been around for ages, all of this isn't anything new.

Remember the Maine?

http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html

-Wayne

You, sir, are correct. The case in point here is terrorism at us by a common/same group of people. We have been at war, just not aware of it... I can say more, but the message has been passed across by my post... E Pluribus Unum!!!

[fintstone]

Originally posted by speeder
Fintstone, Welcome back! I was worried about you the last couple of days, it was getting really quiet around here from the Bush/Cheney campaign and I thought that the Bush economic miracle might have claimed another victory and found you a job!

Seeing as you are posting in the evening, maybe it did? Come on, share with us!

Speedy, thanks for the concern. Yep, the Bush economic miracle did indeed strike me as well as almost another quarter million folks with new jobs this month. That makes nine solid months in a row and almost a million new jobs in the last 3 months alone!

[911pcars]

Employment figures? I thought the subject was D-Day.

A recent news article suggests that the true casualty figures may never be known. Lots of numbers have been reported over the years - apparently some combination of casualties, ours and allies. The article reasoned there was an actual number of between 4,000-5,000 US soldiers as well as 15,000-20,000 civilians (if I remember the numbers correctly). Not to minimize the loss of life in Normandy that day, but even the higher numbers pale compared to the numbers we lost in Iwo Jima, Okinawa and other Pacific island battles notwithstanding other WWII battles where allied casualties were truly staggering.

Here are a few links chosen at random:
http://www.warchronicle.com/numbers/WWII/ddaycasualtyest.htm
http://www.onwar.com/maps/wwii/pacific2/index2.htm
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/battles.htm

In regards to the current situation in Iraq, there seems to be a similar correlation between soldiers lost in battle and innocent men, women and children fulfilling the role as collateral damage. Not saying it can be avoided during wartime ..... unless we don't need to be there in the first place.

Have a reflective D-Day celebration,
Sherwood

[A Quiet Boom]

It's hard for me to understand why so many of us fail to see the true value of our efforts in Iraq. I suppose flintone's first post sums it up rather nicely, we believe what the liberal media tells us. I do not. I know we have done mant great things there and I hope the effort continues. This is and American thing, not a political one, I just wish others understood.

[Paco Anton]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
Terrorism has been around for ages, all of this isn't anything new.

Remember the Maine?

http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html

-Wayne

Not to enter into a heated argument but the Maine is believed to have been blowed up by a third party interested in leading the US into a war against us poor Spaniards

[fintstone]

Originally posted by Paco Anton
Not to enter into a heated argument but the Maine is believed to have been blowed up by a third party interested in leading the US into a war against us poor Spaniards

Yes, I have read that also and would not be surprised. Either way...it is terrorism. I have also seen the case made that similar happened with the sinking oif the Lusitania in 1915 which helped draw the US into WWI on the Allied side.

[Icemaster]

Here's the weirdest thing:

Sems MSNBC is doing a time capsule report - as thought it actually IS happening today...

[araine901]

Lynn, that is hyperbolic at best. 10,000 men in three hours is hardly 800 in a year. But if your vison is so blurred by hatred for the current CIC I guess this could seem like a valid comparison.

[turbocarrera]

So its ok to compare the press from Iraq and WW2 but don't you dare compare Bush's actions to FDR's.

I'm sure the soldiers that were getting shot at that day loved the "bring it on" comment.. very Roosevelt-esque

[Superman]

Yes Fint, I see your point. That darned "liberal media." So obvious. Like for example, if the media reports the nation's unemployment rate. That's just dirty journalism. Or if the media provides information about international relations. Dirty pool, huh? Or maybe if the media happens to mention the death toll in Iraq. How dare they!

But the trouble is, the list of things they can truthfully report on which would not shine a poor light on Dubya is getting fairly short. Baseball, I guess.

Further, Dubya has made some decisions that he should have expected would not endear him to the press. They traffic in information, and he has a little problem with that.

[island911]

Originally posted by araine901
Is France really worth the 10,000 men we lost in three hours?

There is thee question. (no takers?)

[araine901]

Turbo:

If you are comparing the freeing people from tyrany than it may be a valid comparison. D-Day has allied Loss estimates range 4,500 for June 6th to 12,000 for the entire invasion of Normandy. Now those losses were incured in just a few hours. If you are comparing 5000 to 800 than yes I consider that a hyperbolic comparison. WWII averaged 58,000 deaths a year. If you feel they are still a valid comparison I will ask you this. Is $800 dollars the same as $5,000-$10,000 or $60,000? Is 800 a year the same as 5K plus in three hours or 60K a year? You tell me if its a valid comparison.