By J.T. Dykman The Eisenhower Institute, Washington, D.C.
Overview
Americans have little conception of the Soviet Union's experience in World War II. No cities in the United States were besieged, not a single bomb was dropped by an enemy airplane on any of our 48 states, no part of our population was enslaved, starved or murdered, and not one village, town or city was completely destroyed or even heard a shot fired in anger. #1
About the only way we can begin to understand is through imagination. The distance between Moscow and Berlin is about the same as that separating New York City and Atlanta. Imagine twenty million people being violently killed between those two American cities in four years. The Eastern Front in the war wound like a serpent from Sevastopol on the Black Sea to Leningrad on the Baltic. Including the twists, bulges and turns of the line of battle at the height of German penetration, November 1942, the line would have stretched from Baltimore to Cheyenne, Wyoming. In place of Leningrad, can you fathom Chicago under bitter siege and constant shelling for 900 days?
Is it possible for us to mentally picture thousands of dead bodies lying on the frozen streets between Lake Shore Drive and Evanston? Could we endure seeing a million people die, mostly from starvation, during the Chicago siege or begin to fathom our own citizens engaging in cannibalism for profit? At the same time of the Chicago siege think of Cincinnati becoming a battleground such as Stalingrad where not a single structure was left habitable and several hundred thousand soldiers killed each other in the process of leveling the city. Mentally switch names such as Smolensk, Karkov, Minsk, Kiev and Rostov for American cities and picture them destroyed and silenced. If such images are possible for us to even conceive, we can begin to understand why Americans refer to the conflict as World War Two, but the Russians universally refer to it as the Great Patriotic War.
The Numbers
The populations of the United States and the USSR were about the same, 130,000,000, when both nations went to war within six months of each other in 1941. To Americans, we were sending our boys to fight a foreign war that we'd never experience. To the Soviets, it was an up front and personal war of monumental savagery. America would lose slightly more than 400,000 soldiers (killed or missing) and almost no civilians during World War II and the USSR, depending on which historian you believe, would lose at least 11,000,000 soldiers (killed and missing) as well as somewhere between 7,000,000 and 20,000,000 million of its civilian population during the Great Patriotic War.
Looking only at Anglo-American forces engaged against German soldiers on our two fronts, northwest Europe and Italy, the United States lost 139,380 soldiers (killed and missing) during the conflict. General Eisenhower had just over 3,000,000 men under his command, with about a third of them safely in England, and faced a German Army of less than 1,500,000 of which our forces killed 834,314. At the same time, Soviet armies in excess of 20,000,000 soldiers #2 were fighting German armies totaling 5,700,000 at their strongest and killed 2,415,690 of them as they fought their way out of Russia and on to Berlin.
These are the numbers that make Russians bristle when they hear Americans say to each other that we won the war in Europe. For every American soldier killed fighting Germans, eighty Soviet soldiers died fighting them. On the other hand, Americans deeply resent Soviet textbooks telling their children their version of history with passages such as:
"In June, 1944, when it had become obvious that the Soviet Union was capable of defeating Hitler's Germany with her forces alone, England and the USA opened the second front."
"On 6 June, 1944, the Allied forces, commanded by General Eisenhower, landed in Normandy (Northern France). The Anglo-American forces met with practically no opposition from the Hitlerites, and advanced into the heart of France."
Studied without bias born of the Cold War, one can understand the Soviet description of the facts. Some historians of World War II suggest that by mid 1944 the USSR was strong enough to defeat Germany eventually, without any Anglo-American second front. With respect to the "practically no opposition" propaganda phrase it is also true that the Soviets, who routinely faced battles involving several hundred thousand soldiers on both sides, did not regard the 67,000 Germans defending Normandy on June 6th as serious opposition. To the Soviets, fighting 390,000 Germans in the area of a single city (Stalingrad) was meeting serious opposition
The Savagery
"Subhuman" Russian children tortured to death by the brave German Wehrmacht soldiers
Beyond the quantifiable numbers of people killed and missing, the Great Patriotic War was a much different war than that experienced in the West.
Hitler's occupation of countries such as Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France was harsh, but was not aimed at inflicting widespread depopulation (with the exception of the Jews) on those nations. The Germans looted huge amounts of raw materials, machinery, art, gold and even wine from their European conquests, but they left the people with enough food to prevent starvation and saw to it that some form of the civilian rule of law remained in force in those countries during the war. Almost all the French, English and American soldiers captured by the Germans were housed and fed at or above the subsistence level and repatriated after the war. The same was true of German soldiers captured by the Allies. In the west, most of the putative "rules of war" were observed at some level.
The war in the east was entirely different. The results of Hitler's beliefs concerning the Jewish populations is widely known because of the Holocaust, but his dark convictions concerning peoples he called Slavs are much less well known in the west. Every reputable biography of Hitler and his own writings and speeches confirm that he regarded them as subhuman. He saw everything east of Poland as the ideal place to provide extra living space for the Aryan race and all that was necessary to provide it for them was to push the "Slavic subhumans" out or exterminate them if they failed move.
Unlike his earlier conquests, Hitler ordered his generals in 1941 to conduct the war against the USSR as one of annihilation rather than capture and coercion. He wanted the populations out or dead. The German invasion of the Soviet Union was the only attack during the war employing the concept of Einsatzgruppen (tasks forces) which followed just behind the attacking forces with specific orders from Hitler to kill, "… all potential leaders of society (meaning to wipe out the intelligentsia), all communists, Jews, Gypsies, guerrillas, saboteurs and those capable of resistance." This written policy of annihilation was also given to three million German soldiers just before the attack on June 22, 1941.
When Hitler`s troops marched into Russian territory that June they were often greeted as liberators by village populations weary of Stalin's rule. That soon changed as the people began to witness the treatment inflicted on them by the Einsatzgruppen. The Germans emptied the land and moved on. All communists, everyone with an education and the Jews were murdered. Grain, farm animals, equipment and anything of possible value were stolen or sent back to Germany. Villages and homes were torched. Objecting civilians were slaughtered and the rest left to starve. This was not just the looting of art or precious metals that went on in Europe; this was stripping the land for depopulation by starvation.
One little known aspect of the massive effort to perform what today might be called ethnic cleansing, concerned Wehrmacht (German Army) horses. The typical infantry division table of organization included 12,352 officers and men and 4,656 horses. The vast majority of German artillery and supplies were horse drawn. Although much has been made of the notion of Blitzkrieg (lightening war) the fact of the war was that no German army could move faster than its horses could pull its equipment behind it. Depending on the weather and distance traveled, each division needed up to 55 tons of feed per day. During the invasion of the nations of northwest Europe, feed for the horses was generally carried with the army or taken to it by supply trains from Germany. The Wehrmacht made few such plans for its invasion of the USSR. There were more than 750,000 horses in the attacking force in June of 1941 and they required 16,350 tons of feed per day, much of which was to be confiscated from the Russians.
As the towns and villages experienced murder and the torch, their granaries were emptied and their horses stolen for replacements. The mass starvation of peasants in the coming winter was attributable, in fair measure, to the empty grain bins between the Volga and Moscow. Like everything else about the Great Patriotic War, the scale is difficult to conceive. The German army causality losses during the 1941-45 period exceeded 6,700,000 horses (26,000 of which were eaten by starving German soldiers during the battle of Stalingrad) and no one can calculate the number of Russian lives lost because the horses consumed the grain that could have supported human life.
As the conquered people began to understand their apparent fate, the stronger of them began to form Partisan groups. These organizations did not necessarily come together out of loyalty to Mother Russia, but out of desperation to stay alive and of hatred to revenge the butchery of their relatives.
Contrary to popular myth, the Partisans were never strong enough to affect the movement or combat readiness of the German armies. As they increased in numbers they robbed German supply trains and brutally murdered any small enemy unit they could catch. Word of mutilated dead comrades to their rear spread both terror and hatred throughout the advancing German armies and increased their willingness to inflict even more violence on the populations they encountered. By early 1942, the civilians and soldiers knew that the invasion had become a dreadful life or death struggle for everyone on both sides. Becoming a prisoner of either side provided little hope of survival. The Germans captured more than 3,500,000 Soviet soldiers during their invasion and sent them all to slave labor camps where most eventually died from malnutrition or unattended disease. The Soviets captured about 90,000 German soldiers at Stalingrad alone and less than 5,000 made it back to Germany after the war.
What separates the battle histories of the war east of Berlin from the war west of it is the level of savagery. In the major western battles, such as Falaise and The Bulge, the Anglo-American generals used tactics designed to encircle and capture their adversary. In the eastern battles there was mainly direct frontal attack with brute force that didn't stop short of annihilation. Even the numbers reflect the difference. In the west, the 3,000,000 man Allied army killed 834,314 German soldiers and, through the strategic bombing campaigns, about 250,000 civilians. In the east, where neither side had a strategic bombing force, less than six million Germans killed eleven million Soviet soldiers and at least seven million civilians … all of it face-to-face and on the ground. Even General Eisenhower, no stranger to war-damaged towns and cities, was appalled by the extent of depopulation and wrote in his memoir:
"When we flew into Russia, in 1945, I did not see a house standing between the western borders of the country and the area around Moscow. Through this overrun region, Marshal Zhukov told me, so many numbers of women, children and old men had been killed that the Russian Government would never be able to estimate the total."
The best that most historians have been able to do in telling the tale of war on the eastern front has been to simply say that the level of mass barbarity was indescribable.
The Differencies Between The War In The East And The West
In Europe Hitler's goal was to conquer and subjugate populations. In the USSR his written goal was annihilation of everyone suspected of being capable of resistance and depopulation of the rest by starvation.
For every American soldier killed fighting the Germans, eighty Soviet soldiers died fighting them.
The USSR was the only theatre of war in which Einsatzgruppen task forces were used to follow the combat troops and kill civilians.
People, measured in the millions, were forced to starve because their livestock was sent to Germany and their grain was used to feed the 6.7 million horses needed to transport Wehrmacht artillery and supplies.
In the west, prisoners were generally fed and housed by both sides. In the USSR both sides killed their prisoners by forced labor, malnutrition and unattended disease.
In the west, the generals, on both sides, usually tried to use tactics of encirclement with the goal being to capture the enemy. In the war in the east the tactics were predominately frontal assaults on the ground with the only goal being to kill the enemy.
Many historians, from Liddell Hart to Harrison Salisbury, have speculated that the unprecedented savagery of the war fought in the USSR between 1941 and 1945 led to the national paranoia – the "never again" mentality. For those who remembered the war, any cold war policy that would repel any future aggressor on their soil – or discourage any group of nations from contemplating it – was an acceptable sacrifice. It was not until the first-hand memory of the Great Patriotic War had faded among the ruling elite that the country was capable of contemplating perestroika and a new strategy for integrating a new Russia into the international community.
LEST WE FORGET THE IMMORTAL FEATS OF OUR FOREBEARS
#2 The numbers given by J.T. Dykman hereabove may produce a somewhat delusive effect that allegedly the Red Army had always outnumbered the Wehrmacht approximately by 3.5 times. But in fact, during the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945 the Soviets conscribed 34,476,000 men totally, while the Germans conscribed 21,107,000 men during the years 1939-1945. Hence the ratio was only 1.6 to 1.0 or so in Russia`s favour, which preponderance of force was achieved principally by the final stage of the War. The numbers of the Russian and German conscripts, as well as their combat losses, and many other details – according to Colonel General G. Krivosheyev`s recent research – will be given in a table on this website in the nearest future, God permitting.
SITE MAP
† HOME – Dedicated to the Blessed Memory of those millions of valiant men, women, children and old
people who gave their lives in the sacred fighting for the freedom and independence of our Motherland during the Great Patriotic War in 1941 – 1945.
† Germany harps on Communist crimes to hush up Nazi Atrocities, says Wehrmacht's war veteran.
† PATRIARCH – Message by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia on the occasion of the
60th Anniversary of the Glorious Victory in the Great Patriotic War † A unique photo of the Patriarch inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow
† GLANTZ - 1 – American Perspectives on Eastern Front Operations in World War II
by Colonel David M. Glantz, Part One
† GLANTZ - 2 – Postwar American perspective on Eastern Front operations
by Colonel David M. Glantz, Part Two
† GLANTZ - 3 – Soviet Sources on Eastern Front operations: Perceptions and Reality
by Colonel David M. Glantz, Part Three
† BALTIC – Russia's Baltic policy before World War Two: the Baltic Lands resumed, by Dr. Valentin Falin † An impressive picture: Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin and Marshal Klim Voroshilov in the Kremlin, Moscow, 1938. How to secure the defense of the Motherland, that was the principal concern at the time. As always...
† BARBAROSSA – 1941: Year of the Truth. Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, by Dr. Valentin Falin
† The glorious defense of the Fortress of Brest
† WHY NOT 1943? – The War could have ended in 1943: The wiles of the West,
by Dr. Valentin Falin
† DYKMAN
† WINTER – General Frost: Fighting the Russians in Winter,
by Allen F. Chew, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
"The Russian winter defeated Napoleon, as every Frenchman knows. It also defeated Hitler, as most Germans know. Many Americans share that "knowledge" which is false in both cases! Those popular myths illustrate the uncritical acceptance and perpetuation of rationalizations designed to obscure the fact that those "invincible" Western military paragons were humbled by the 'inferior' Russians"
† APPEAL – The most important appeal to the Nation: Stalin's Radio Address, Moscow, 3rd July 1941
"Comrades!
Citizens!
Brothers and sisters!
Men of our Army and Navy! My words are addressed to you, my dear friends!"
† WARLORD – The Supreme Commander-in-Chief: Stalin as Warlord,
by Prof. Gerhard Rempel, Western New England College
† YALTA – The Crimean Conference: A Chance the World Missed, by Dr. Valentin Falin and Victor Litovkin
† CHURCHILL – On the Question of Poland: Statement by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons, 27th February 1945 † The Curzon Line
† VICTORY – The Great Victory in May 1945
The hard-won Victory was achieved by the Soviet Union's "Red Army which tore the guts out of the German Army", as Churchill admitted, in glorious military alliance with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America, over the juggernaut of the so-called Axis: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Militarist Japan, and their satellites: Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Finland, and Bulgaria. The Axis states were supported by all the manpower, industry and resources of almost all Continental Europe, North Africa, and South-East Asia under their control.
† Stalin's Orders. Profusely illustrated. The VICTORY webpage also features a unique picture which was never before posted on the Internet: Captive German military banners and standards flung down in dishonour at the Victors' feet after the Great Victory Parade on the Red Square in Moscow on the 24th of June 1945
† FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
The Body Count and GULAG † The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, the Curzon Line and the so-called 4th partition of Poland
WHO WAS STALIN? A World-Known Anti-Soviet Dissident and a Former Rabid Anti-Stalinist Has Said His Say
Click: ALEXANDER ZINOVIEV – "Even a Donkey Can Kick a Dead Lion"
Prof. Grover Furr About Marshal Stalin and his denigrators
This article is a real MUST READ
for anybody who seek for the truth about the Russian Soul
RUSSIA IS A SUPERPOWER – WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT
GENOCIDE IN SOUTH OSSETIA IS STOPPED!
Russian armored column is rushing to stop the genocide in South Ossetia
SAVED!
A South Ossetian military man holds a child as he looks at
an armored Russian column arrived to save them from Georgian assault
A PATH TO PEACE IN THE CAUCASUS
By Mikhail Gorbachev, 12 August 2008 The Washington Post
MOSCOW - The past week's events in South Ossetia are bound to shock and pain anyone. Already, thousands of people have died, tens of thousands have been turned into refugees, and towns and villages lie in ruins. Nothing can justify this loss of life and destruction. It is a warning to all.
The roots of this tragedy lie in the decision of Georgia's separatist leaders in 1991 to abolish South Ossetian autonomy. This turned out to be a time bomb for Georgia's territorial integrity. Each time successive Georgian leaders tried to impose their will by force – both in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, where the issues of autonomy are similar – it only made the situation worse. New wounds aggravated old injuries.
Nevertheless, it was still possible to find a political solution. For some time, relative calm was maintained in South Ossetia. The peacekeeping force composed of Russians, Georgians and Ossetians fulfilled its mission, and ordinary Ossetians and Georgians, who live close to each other, found at least some common ground.
Through all these years, Russia has continued to recognize Georgia's territorial integrity. Clearly, the only way to solve the South Ossetian problem on that basis is through peaceful means. Indeed, in a civilized world, there is no other way.
The Georgian leadership flouted this key principle.
What happened on the night of 7th August 2008 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinval with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity.
Mounting a military assault against innocents was a reckless decision whose tragic consequences, for thousands of people of different nationalities, are now clear. The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia.
In other words, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was expecting unconditional support from the West, and the West had given him reason to think he would have it. Now that the Georgian military assault has been routed, both the Georgian government and its supporters should rethink their position.
Hostilities must cease as soon as possible, and urgent steps must be taken to help the victims – the humanitarian catastrophe, regretfully, received very little coverage in Western media this weekend - and to rebuild the devastated towns and villages. It is equally important to start thinking about ways to solve the underlying problem, which is among the most painful and challenging issues in the Caucasus – a region that should be approached with the greatest care.
When the problems of South Ossetia and Abkhazia first flared up, I proposed that they be settled through a federation that would grant broad autonomy to the two republics. This idea was dismissed, particularly by the Georgians. Attitudes gradually shifted, but after last week, it will be much more difficult to strike a deal even on such a basis.
Old grievances are a heavy burden. Healing is a long process that requires patience and dialogue, with non-use of force an indispensable precondition. It took decades to bring to an end similar conflicts in Europe and elsewhere, and other long-standing issues are still smoldering. In addition to patience, this situation requires wisdom.
Small nations of the Caucasus do have a history of living together. It has been demonstrated that a lasting peace is possible, that tolerance and cooperation can create conditions for normal life and development. Nothing is more important than that.
The region's political leaders need to realize this. Instead of flexing military muscle, they should devote their efforts to building the groundwork for durable peace.
Over the past few days, some Western nations have taken positions, particularly in the U.N. Security Council, that have been far from balanced. As a result, the Security Council was not able to act effectively from the very start of this conflict. By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its "national interest," the United States made a serious blunder. Of course, peace in the Caucasus is in everyone's interest. But it is simply common sense to recognize that Russia is rooted there by common geography and centuries of history. Russia is not seeking territorial expansion, but it has legitimate interests in this region.
The international community's long-term aim could be to create a sub-regional system of security and cooperation that would make any provocation, and the very possibility of crises such as this one, impossible. Building this type of system would be challenging and could only be accomplished with the cooperation of the region's countries themselves. Nations outside the region could perhaps help, too – but only if they take a fair and objective stance. A lesson from recent events is that geopolitical games are dangerous anywhere, not just in the Caucasus.
The writer was the last president of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and is president of the Gorbachev Foundation, a Moscow think tank.
RUSSIAN BEAR WILL GROWL THEN BITE DEADLY – IF PROVOKED
Well what did else the West expect? Any self-respecting bear will growl first as a sign to ward of attackers, then pounce and maul them if provoked sufficiently.
Remember the dire fate of Napoleon, Hitler, and all the other bloody murderous scum who dared to insult Holy Russia.
The Russian Bear is confident and proud and looking more for respect in international affairs rather than a fight. But we Russians are always ready to make mincemeat of any aggressor.
With 4,237 strategic Russian warheads, approximately 2,000-3,000 operational tactical warheads, and approximately 8,000-10,000 stockpiled strategic and tactical warheads Holy Russia is being remarkably well equipped to defend herself and her allies.
RUSSIA IS A SUPERPOWER – WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!
Some say we are five minutes to a new Cold War
This is a false assertion
In fact, with the NATO Navy entering the Black Sea
THE WORLD IS ONE MINUTE TO A THERMO-NUCLEAR WAR
It is incredible!
HOMELESS CHILDREN IN AMERICA
It is incredible for any Russian like myself
to learn about poor homeless people in the West,
and especially about homeless children in America
because formerly we used to consider the USA to be
the wealthiest and happiest country in the world
Obviously, we were wrong in thinking thusly
Friends, I must admit that despite being myself
quite a hardy, tough, and experienced man, as I am
nevertheless
I could not hold back my bitter tears
when I was watching this
extremely heartbreaking video
Click on the picture to watch it yourself
No true Christian can ever watch this video
without tears in the eyes!
Now, you will have to realize
why we Russians love and esteem Stalin:
This is because
Stalin denied the Soviet children
the "freedom" to be homeless
he denied all of us the "freedom"
to sleep and perish in the street
as in America
IN THE SOVIET UNION
NO ONE HAD THE "RIGHT"
EITHER TO BE HOMELESS, OR UNEMPLOYED
OR TO LIVE AND DIE IN THE STREET
HELPLESS AND ABANDONED
AS IN AMERICA
ALL OF THE SOVIET PEOPLE
WERE DENIED SUCH WESTERN "HUMAN RIGHTS"
BY THE STALIN'S REGIME
In this regard I suggest that
you should have a look at the shrewd observations
by an American expat now living in Russia:
click HERE
IS THE WEST HELL?
NO, IT IS NOT HELL
THE WEST IS TERRIBLE HELL
With all its benignity and peoples' fraternity
inasmuch as the former Soviet Union used to serve
so today's Russia continues to serve as an open rebuke
to the Western infernally inhuman and godless way of life
And this is the only true reason
why Russia has been hated, defamed and reviled so much
by the West's ruling class and the media under their control
No wonder!
ARE YOU READY FOR NUCLEAR WAR?
The Mindlessness is Total
By Paul Craig Roberts, August 19 2008
Nothing real issues from the American press, which is about demonizing Russia and Iran, about the vice presidential choices as if it matters, about whether Obama being on vacation let McCain score too many points.
The mindlessness of the news reflects the mindlessness of the government, for which it is a spokesperson.
The American media do not serve American democracy or American interests. They serve the few people who exercise power.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the US and Israel made a run at controlling Russia and the former constituent parts of its empire. For awhile the US and Israel succeeded, but Putin put a stop to it.
Recognizing that the US had no intention of keeping any of the agreements it had made with Gorbachev, Putin directed the Russian military budget to upgrading the Russian nuclear deterrent. Consequently, the Russian army and air force lack the smart weapons and electronics of the US military.
When the Russian army went into Georgia to rescue the Russians in South Ossetia from the destruction being inflicted upon them by the American puppet Saakashvili, the Russians made it clear that if they were opposed by American troops with smart weapons, they would deal with the threat with tactical nuclear weapons.
The Americans were the first to announce preemptive nuclear attack as their permissible war doctrine. Now the Russians have announced the tactical use of nuclear weapons as their response to American smart weapons.
It is obvious that American foreign policy, with its goal of ringing Russia with US military bases, is leading directly to nuclear war. Every American needs to realize this fact. The US government’s insane hegemonic foreign policy is a direct threat to life on the planet.
Russia has made no threats against America. The post-Soviet Russian government has sought to cooperate with the US and Europe. Russia has made it clear over and over that it is prepared to obey international law and treaties. It is the Americans who have thrown international law and treaties into the trash can, not the Russians.
In order to keep the billions of dollars in profits flowing to its contributors in the US military-security complex, the Bush Regime has rekindled the cold war. As American living standards decline and the prospects for university graduates deteriorate, "our" leaders in Washington commit us to a hundred years of war.
If you desire to be poor, oppressed, and eventually vaporized in a nuclear war, vote Republican.
This is the final part of an article by P. C. Roberts.
Warning
This video contains images depicting the reality and horror
of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience
with their nerves of steel
Massacre Caught on Tape: US Military Confirms Authenticity of Their Own Chilling Video Showing Killing of Journalists
One of the men on the ground, believed to be Chmagh, is seen wounded and trying to crawl to safety. One of the helicopter crew is heard wishing for the man to reach for a gun, even though there is none visible nearby, so he has the pretext for opening fire: "All you gotta do is pick up a weapon." A van draws up next to the wounded man and Iraqis climb out. They are unarmed and start to carry the victim to the vehicle in what would appear to be an attempt to get him to hospital. One of the helicopters opens fire with armour-piercing shells. "Look at that. Right through the windshield," says one of the crew. Another responds with a laugh.
Sitting behind the windscreen were two children who were wounded.
O Holy Father, heavenly Physician of our body and soul, Who hath sent Thine only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to heal ailments and deliver us from death, do Thou heal Thy servant Anthony of all suffering and restore him to health by the grace of Thy Divine Son, through the prayers of our Most Holy Queen, Ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and of all the Saints; for Thou art the fountain of all cures. O Lord, and we render Thee thanks, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
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