Is He Serious?
Ross Douthat writes:
Ross Douthat: If you want to rebut [Fred] Thompson's claim [that Americans "have shed more blood for other people's liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world"], might I suggest that arguing that Stalin's Red Army was fighting for "other people's liberty" probably isn't the best way to do it?
In the 245 messages in my email inbox right now I notice the names of two people in particular. One of them had a grandfather from the Ukraine who was inducted into Stalin's Red Army just before June 22, 1941. He fought all the way backward from Lvov to Stalingrad, and then all the way forward from Stalingrad to Berlin. He survived. The other of them had a grandfather who was inducted into Stalin's Red Army just after June 22, 1941. He was dead within a month.
Ross Douthat may think that in fighting against the Nazis my two friends' grandfathers were fighting for genocide and slavery. I don't think so.
The debt all of us owe to the soldiers of the Red Army and the workers of Magnitogorsk is still outstanding. That they were Stalin's victims does not cancel the debt.
