Today is the 70th aniversary of the start of World War 2, when Germany invaded Poland. Probably one the biggest events in history. It's the lead story on the BBC website and where does it feature on the CNN website? Nowhere at all... Glad to see the American news has it's priorities straight. Even on BBC World it's mentioned nearly every half an hour, CNN News? No heard one story in the last 2 hours of listening... Although saying that the top story read on the BBC news website is that 'Girlfriends are being abused by boyfriends'...
Well, that might be because for the USA it wasn't the start of WWII. They didn't enter until a certain event set in motion by the Japanese. Some things are essential to remember, some things are best forgotten. I think each individual nation will express it's own part in it's own way.
In any other country on Earth though this day 1 has no patriotical means really, apart from being the "actual" start of a devastating war. Here in Germany though, the event hit all the covers of the majority of German newspapers on Tuesday, the authors mainly covered the recent event in Poland. I don't pay that much attention to who attends such meetings or not, but I did not quite understand how come that Obama only sent his secruity minister while he himself was absent. Anyway, a day to remember here in Europe. Even Russia expressed their eagerness to soon achieve such a good relationship to Poland as the German-Polish relations.
Today is the day when Great Britian (including empire states like Rhodesia, Newfoundland, Fiji and East Africa), Australia, New Zealand and France declare war on Germany.
US media is far more interested in the Pacific side. Not to downlplay Blitzkrieg in the least, but at least a this particular time in history w/ the proliferation of nukes (and tree huggers everywhere trying to get rid of them) the anniversaries of the two A-bombs being dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki are probably going to get a bit more press... well, at least in the two countries I'm affiliated with.
The most horrible part of the after effect when it comes to WW2 is now adays the fascists aka. the Nazis aka. neo fascists aka. neo conservatives has become a houseclean political party (with different names, such as DPP BNP and a load of other names and abbreviations) in MANY countries, including my own. And that is a fucking travesty.
"I am speaking to you from the cabinet room of 10 Downing St. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany. "You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more, or anything different, that I could have done, and that would have been more successful. Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between Germany and Poland. But Hitler would not have it; he had evidently made up his mind to attack Poland whatever happened. And although he now says he put forward reasonable proposals which were rejected by the Poles, that is not a true statement. The proposals were never shown to the Poles, nor to us. And though they were announced in the German broadcast on Thursday night, Hitler did not wait to hear comments on them but ordered his troops to cross the Polish frontier the next morning. His action shows convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force, and we and France are today in fulfillment of our obligations going to the aid of Poland who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack upon her people. We have a clear conscience, we have done all that any country could do to establish peace, but a situation in which no word given by Germany's ruler could be trusted, and no people or country could feel itself safe, had become intolerable. And now that we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will all play your parts with calmness and courage." Neville Chamberlain
