TheWilhelm Gustloff: A disaster history would like to forget

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Well Sand, governments(and the people who comprise them)are like that. They act in their self interest at the expense of other nations and peoples and even their own people and try to conceal it by promulgating democratic ideals. I honestly think that
ruveyn is just an ol' w*ker trying to look tough since most of what he says has made him laughing stock.



The opportunity has passed with regards to coercing Russia into apologizing and demanding reparations. Germany very well COULD have exploited Russia's economic collapse in the 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union and I have a feeling even Gorbachev would've yielded under pressure from a reunified Germany as the USSR was collapsing during those final 2 years.

From the position of the German government: Germany managed after 1949 (the start of the Federal Republic of Germany) to convince the rest of Europe (and the USA and Canada) to be a reliable and a bit boring democracy, not posing any danger to the peace in Europe. This was done not least by openly accepting the responsibility for the German actions in World War II (the difference to Japan is enormous).

It would be not in Germany's interest to jeopardise this political capital just to have a gesture from the Soviet Union or Russia.

A river runs through the Japanese accounts of The Pacific War: De Nile.

The Japanese government and many of the people there have never accepted full responsibility for the dreadful things done in Korea, China and Manchuria. The Japanese don't even have to be sorry. They just have to openly acknowledge an historical fact.

In the U.S. there has never been an official apology to the various aboriginal nations (so-called Indian Tribes) for the near genocidal attacks on them and the broken treaties. But no one in the U.S. denies the facts. It is a matter of historical record. We killed the savages and stole their land, plain and simple.

ruveyn

As much as I reject your formula of responses to despicable international behaviors and various genocides I cannot fault you for being ignorant of these perpetual atrocities. For a recent analysis of more current US behavior in this matter Harold Pinter's Nobel speech (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lite ... ure-e.html) is worth reading.

Aww...They're just being paranoid. Don't you remember what Condi Rice said? She insisted that the Missile defenses were only there to protect Poland from missile attacks by "rogue states like Iran."

I'm still trying to figure out why Iran would want to shoot missiles at Poland.