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Yahoo
14 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
101-year-old vet recalls 'fight for civilization' 80 years after V-E Day
For Jack Appel, 101, the Allies' victory in Europe − made official on May 8, 1945 − wasn't just vital because otherwise, as he said, "we'd all be speaking German now." "World War II was a major, major fight for civilization," the World War II veteran told USA TODAY this week as the globe marks the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. "Civilization" is no casual choice of words for Appel, a Brooklyn native now living in Boca Raton, Florida. He was among the first Americans to see the Buchenwald concentration camp, abandoned by the Nazis as the Allies closed in. Appel, who served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Europe during the war, is Jewish. "Seeing the ovens, it was just unbelievable that any civilization could ..." his voice trailed, then he continued, "it was 11 million people total, 6 million of them Jews, and the others political enemies, homosexuals, gypsies." Appel, who also told his story in an oral history video for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015, knew just what he and others had been fighting for. After being drafted, a friend advised him not to say he was Jewish because "if the Nazis capture you, they'll shoot you." Instead, he said he was Catholic, his girlfriend's religion. During a nearly fatal bout with meningitis early in his deployment that cost him his hearing in one ear, he woke to hear a priest administering Last Rites. That, he believes, helped in what he calls "a relatively charmed life," one that kept him otherwise safe during the war. Appel, one of a dwindling number of U.S. World War II veterans who helped liberate Europe and the world from the grip of Nazism, fascism and genocidal hatred, was humble as he reflected on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. "There's hardly a day that goes by without someone saying to me, 'Thank you for your service,'" he said. "And I am very grateful for that. We knew we were fighting for a purpose." V-E Day marks the day Germans, reeling from military defeats and the death by suicide just days before of their leader, Adolf Hitler, surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Forces. The Allies − the United States, United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China, among others − fought the Axis Powers − Germany, Italy and Japan. The war was fought in primarily in two theaters, the European (which also included parts of the Middle East and North Africa) and the Pacific. V-E Day was the day the European campaign came to an end. Even though the Germans had surrendered, the Japanese had not, and so the war in the Pacific theater was still ongoing and would continue into the summer of 1945. The war, which broke out in 1939, had been costly in Europe, decimating cities and leaving much of the continent in ruins. There were massive military and civilian casualties. And the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews as well as others the Third Reich deemed "undesirable," including LGBTQ+ people, ethnic minorities and disabled people, in the Holocaust. Bloody battles on Iwo Jima and Okinawa over the winter and spring of 1945 had resulted in heavy losses among American and Japanese forces, but war in the Pacific continued. It wasn't until the United States used atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, killing a combined 165,000 people, that the Japanese relented. "There was a sense of unfinished business," Peter Donovan Crean Sr., vice president for education and access at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, told USA TODAY. "But it was also a moment of joy and elation and hope," and a "signal to the world that dawn was beginning to break." World War II officially ended on Sept. 2, 1945. As many as 80 million people, about 3% of the world's population at the time, were killed (including 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust). According to the U.S. Department of Defense, 250,000 American troops were killed in Europe during World War II. Notable battles involving U.S. forces included the invasion of Normandy, France, later called D-Day, on June 6, 1944; and the Battle of the Bulge in Northern France, Luxembourg and Belgium on Dec. 16, 1944. More than 16 million Americans served in uniform during World War II. More than 400,000 Americans lost their lives in the war. According to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans (which cites the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs), there are 66,143 WWII veterans still alive in the United States. Most are 90 years old or older. "We are at a critical time where we need to take advantage of being able to hear these stories," said Crean, a retired colonel with 30 years' service in the U.S. Army. "In the not-too-distant future we will not be able to have that luxury." The museum's Voices from the Front project captures the voices and memories of a host of people involved in World War II, including veterans, Holocaust survivors and people who were working on the homefront, for an interactive exhibit for visitors to ask questions, get answers and "talk" with those people, even after they're gone. "It's so important that we capture their stories now so future generations can learn those lessons and understand the context of the world you're living in," Crean said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: V-E Day 80 year anniversary: Vet recalls a 'fight for civilization'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Strategizing With Ghosts
I have taught strategy in war colleges in the United States and other countries. Like most instructors, I describe strategy as an endeavor that strives to match ends and means in a rational way, a dialogue between soldiers and politicians seeking to use force for political purposes. That is certainly what the senior officers who attend such institutions believe. A recent multiweek swing through European capitals, however, has emphasized for me that among the most important influences on the choices that countries make about war and peace are ghosts: memories—be they accurate, fanciful, or, more typically, something in between—of historical experiences and personalities from a remembered past, sometimes reaching back centuries. Several days in London spent speaking to all manner of generals and spymasters, scholars, and advisers to government, for example, brought home the long shadow of empire that still shapes British military policy, for good and for ill. It was tangible while walking through the House of Lords and seeing the coats of arms of field marshals and admirals of the fleet, as it was during the celebration of V-E Day by veterans, admittedly of later wars, wearing the regimental ties and bonnets of defunct but storied regiments. Imperial self-assurance and memory helps explain Britain's remarkable leadership in dealing with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Boris Johnson, whatever his peccadilloes, channeled Churchill's ghost by dashing off to Kyiv, pushing advanced weapons on Ukraine well before America did, and offering a security guarantee to Sweden as it began to move toward NATO membership. Not only Churchill but Palmerston or Pitt the Younger would have approved of such statecraft. Johnson is well read and eloquent enough to summon their spirits. Unfortunately, however, the reality of actual British power does not match its reach. The U.K. possesses outstanding niche capacities in the world of special operations and intelligence gathering, but its navy now has barely a quarter as many surface combatants as it did during the Falklands War; its nuclear force is obsolescent; and its army is tiny, albeit of high quality. The suggestion by British politicians that the U.K. could regularly deploy a brigade—say, some 4,000 soldiers—as part of a reassurance force to Ukraine in the event of a cease-fire was privately mocked by experts. The U.K. does not have enough troops to do that. The countries of Eastern Europe wrestle with different ghosts. Estonia is haunted by the Soviet Union's brutal occupation after World War II and the mass deportations of tens of thousands of Estonians, including the family of Kaja Kallas, the European Union's current high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. After the war, as in the other Baltic states, partisans fought the Soviets for another decade, and in some cases even beyond. The memories of those deported, killed, imprisoned, or tortured are with current leaders; so, too, are the ghosts of those who achieved a precarious independence after World War I only to lose it again to the Muscovites. It has led Estonians not only to arm themselves to the teeth and commit utterly to Ukraine's aid, but to disdain the condescending lectures of West Europeans who sought reconciliation with Russia after the Cold War. 'I was studying in Sweden in 1975,' one retired Estonian statesman told me, 'and no one then referred to the Federal Republic of Germany as the 'former Nazi Third Reich.' But somehow the West Europeans, 30 years after we regained our independence, think it's okay to refer to us as 'former Soviet republics.'' The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has changed much of that, but the ghosts of the Soviet period still haunt the relationship between edgy and exposed frontline states and those more comfortably situated to the West that never felt the Russian lash. Finnish and Polish ghosts are rather different. Conversations with Finns about the Russian threat invariably turn to the Winter War, the spectacular fight that Finland put up against the Red Army in 1939–40. The heroism, the sense of having to be ready to fight alone and the payoff for being prepared to do so, has shaped Finnish strategic culture to the present day. But NATO membership—and with it the need to fight as part of an alliance elsewhere than along the 850-mile Russian-Finnish border—is something Finns struggle with. For Poland, the national strategic ghosts are those of betrayal. France and Britain failed to do much while Poland was crushed between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. In the Polish understanding, the country was betrayed again at the Yalta Conference in 1945. If past glories lead British statesmen to offer more than they can deliver, past horrors incline Poles to be suspicious of requests to do more than they deem prudent. When discussing whether Poland should contribute to a reassurance force stationed in Ukraine (rather than just over the border), a Polish general first explained the operational requirements of Poland's large army to fend off various other threats and then offered this response: 'You Americans asked us to follow you into Iraq. I lost men there, whom I still mourn. And now you want us to do this, when you are not willing to do it yourselves?' He had a point. But a rich and increasingly powerful Poland, with the best and largest land army in Europe outside Ukraine, will need to assume a leadership role for which its history has not prepared it. Europeans now speak of an E-4, composed of Britain, France, Germany, and Poland, that may steer the West's support to embattled Ukraine. That is a step in the right direction, at least. The millions of Ukrainian ghosts, victims of suffering at Russia's hand, explain Ukraine's extraordinary tenacity. Russia's predatory imperial ghosts, who have gathered in legions over centuries of conquest of neighboring lands, have lured Vladimir Putin into a project to restore the Russian empire, one that Russians insist to this day 'has no borders.' The ghosts who fell in America's ill-starred wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are among the reasons (including others far less worthy) for J. D. Vance's and Donald Trump's snarls about renouncing the use of American military power abroad. But even Trump's government cannot quite dispel the worthier ghosts of its past—the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, recently avowed America's commitment to the alliance, despite 'America First,' in a speech in Tallinn. In Europe, at least, some of the ghosts may be gradually dissipating. Germany's new government is willing to break with its past in sacrificing thrift for the imperatives of continental defense. It is also willing to put to rest some of the (self-serving) ghosts of guilt-based aversion to military spending. Sweden has set aside its romanticized history of neutrality for participation in an alliance, although not without misgivings. As one shrewd Swedish strategist put it, 'There we were in our sailboat, the good sloop Nonalignment. A storm blew up, and we were delighted to be rescued by the mighty ocean liner SS NATO. The other passengers were wonderful, the bar excellent—and then we learned that there was a new captain who has decided he wants to play games of chicken with icebergs.' 'War has a way of masking the stage with scenery crudely daubed with fearsome apparitions,' Carl von Clausewitz wrote. Although it is true that we can never quite escape the ghosts, be they benign or malignant, that surround strategists, it is also necessary to lay many of them to rest, if only to find the ways and means to protect this and later generations from murderous madness. For Ukraine and the European future, this exorcism is a moderate sign of hope in a world that is indeed haunted by perfectly reasonable forebodings. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
5 days ago
- Politics
- Atlantic
Strategizing With Ghosts
I have taught strategy in war colleges in the United States and other countries. Like most instructors, I describe strategy as an endeavor that strives to match ends and means in a rational way, a dialogue between soldiers and politicians seeking to use force for political purposes. That is certainly what the senior officers who attend such institutions believe. A recent multiweek swing through European capitals, however, has emphasized for me that among the most important influences on the choices that countries make about war and peace are ghosts: memories—be they accurate, fanciful, or, more typically, something in between—of historical experiences and personalities from a remembered past, sometimes reaching back centuries. Several days in London spent speaking to all manner of generals and spymasters, scholars, and advisers to government, for example, brought home the long shadow of empire that still shapes British military policy, for good and for ill. It was tangible while walking through the House of Lords and seeing the coats of arms of field marshals and admirals of the fleet, as it was during the celebration of V-E Day by veterans, admittedly of later wars, wearing the regimental ties and bonnets of defunct but storied regiments. Imperial self-assurance and memory helps explain Britain's remarkable leadership in dealing with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Boris Johnson, whatever his peccadilloes, channeled Churchill's ghost by dashing off to Kyiv, pushing advanced weapons on Ukraine well before America did, and offering a security guarantee to Sweden as it began to move toward NATO membership. Not only Churchill but Palmerston or Pitt the Younger would have approved of such statecraft. Johnson is well read and eloquent enough to summon their spirits. Unfortunately, however, the reality of actual British power does not match its reach. The U.K. possesses outstanding niche capacities in the world of special operations and intelligence gathering, but its navy now has barely a quarter as many surface combatants as it did during the Falklands War; its nuclear force is obsolescent; and its army is tiny, albeit of high quality. The suggestion by British politicians that the U.K. could regularly deploy a brigade—say, some 4,000 soldiers—as part of a reassurance force to Ukraine in the event of a cease-fire was privately mocked by experts. The U.K. does not have enough troops to do that. The countries of Eastern Europe wrestle with different ghosts. Estonia is haunted by the Soviet Union's brutal occupation after World War II and the mass deportations of tens of thousands of Estonians, including the family of Kaja Kallas, the European Union's current high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. After the war, as in the other Baltic states, partisans fought the Soviets for another decade, and in some cases even beyond. The memories of those deported, killed, imprisoned, or tortured are with current leaders; so, too, are the ghosts of those who achieved a precarious independence after World War I only to lose it again to the Muscovites. It has led Estonians not only to arm themselves to the teeth and commit utterly to Ukraine's aid, but to disdain the condescending lectures of West Europeans who sought reconciliation with Russia after the Cold War. 'I was studying in Sweden in 1975,' one retired Estonian statesman told me, 'and no one then referred to the Federal Republic of Germany as the 'former Nazi Third Reich.' But somehow the West Europeans, 30 years after we regained our independence, think it's okay to refer to us as 'former Soviet republics.'' The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has changed much of that, but the ghosts of the Soviet period still haunt the relationship between edgy and exposed frontline states and those more comfortably situated to the West that never felt the Russian lash. Finnish and Polish ghosts are rather different. Conversations with Finns about the Russian threat invariably turn to the Winter War, the spectacular fight that Finland put up against the Red Army in 1939–40. The heroism, the sense of having to be ready to fight alone and the payoff for being prepared to do so, has shaped Finnish strategic culture to the present day. But NATO membership—and with it the need to fight as part of an alliance elsewhere than along the 850-mile Russian-Finnish border—is something Finns struggle with. For Poland, the national strategic ghosts are those of betrayal. France and Britain failed to do much while Poland was crushed between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. In the Polish understanding, the country was betrayed again at the Yalta Conference in 1945. If past glories lead British statesmen to offer more than they can deliver, past horrors incline Poles to be suspicious of requests to do more than they deem prudent. When discussing whether Poland should contribute to a reassurance force stationed in Ukraine (rather than just over the border), a Polish general first explained the operational requirements of Poland's large army to fend off various other threats and then offered this response: 'You Americans asked us to follow you into Iraq. I lost men there, whom I still mourn. And now you want us to do this, when you are not willing to do it yourselves?' He had a point. But a rich and increasingly powerful Poland, with the best and largest land army in Europe outside Ukraine, will need to assume a leadership role for which its history has not prepared it. Europeans now speak of an E-4, composed of Britain, France, Germany, and Poland, that may steer the West's support to embattled Ukraine. That is a step in the right direction, at least. The millions of Ukrainian ghosts, victims of suffering at Russia's hand, explain Ukraine's extraordinary tenacity. Russia's predatory imperial ghosts, who have gathered in legions over centuries of conquest of neighboring lands, have lured Vladimir Putin into a project to restore the Russian empire, one that Russians insist to this day 'has no borders.' The ghosts who fell in America's ill-starred wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are among the reasons (including others far less worthy) for J. D. Vance's and Donald Trump's snarls about renouncing the use of American military power abroad. But even Trump's government cannot quite dispel the worthier ghosts of its past—the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, recently avowed America's commitment to the alliance, despite 'America First,' in a speech in Tallinn. In Europe, at least, some of the ghosts may be gradually dissipating. Germany's new government is willing to break with its past in sacrificing thrift for the imperatives of continental defense. It is also willing to put to rest some of the (self-serving) ghosts of guilt-based aversion to military spending. Sweden has set aside its romanticized history of neutrality for participation in an alliance, although not without misgivings. As one shrewd Swedish strategist put it, 'There we were in our sailboat, the good sloop Nonalignment. A storm blew up, and we were delighted to be rescued by the mighty ocean liner SS NATO. The other passengers were wonderful, the bar excellent—and then we learned that there was a new captain who has decided he wants to play games of chicken with icebergs.' 'War has a way of masking the stage with scenery crudely daubed with fearsome apparitions,' Carl von Clausewitz wrote. Although it is true that we can never quite escape the ghosts, be they benign or malignant, that surround strategists, it is also necessary to lay many of them to rest, if only to find the ways and means to protect this and later generations from murderous madness. For Ukraine and the European future, this exorcism is a moderate sign of hope in a world that is indeed haunted by perfectly reasonable forebodings.
Boston Globe
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Nation's vets deserve more than parades and empty promises
Advertisement No, this nation has never been Russia or North Korea, which mark the anniversaries of their military victories with giant displays of their current military might. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Well, not until now, anyway. Now the current occupant of the White House, who has But this June 14, a day originally planned to mark the 250th birthday of the US Army with a festival along the National Mall, Trump has now given himself a Advertisement The Army estimates the cost of the extravaganza at $25 million to $45 million. And if Trump has his way, it certainly won't be the last such display of military might. Earlier this month the president said he would rename May 8 as 'Victory Day for World War II,' a day widely celebrated in Europe as V-E Day. Of course, it wasn't the end of World War II at all, and to say so dishonors the thousands of Americans who continued to fight and die in the Pacific theater until August. And Nov. 11, Veteran's Day, he vowed to rename, 'Victory Day for World War I,' Lost in the shuffle of all that celebrating of long-ago victories and conspicuous displays of current-day military hardware is the nation's ongoing obligation to care for its living veterans, especially those who depend on the government for services they have been promised — care that is congressionally mandated. Advertisement The Trump administration thus far successfully has pushed for The Department of Government Efficiency had planned to cut Veterans Affairs by some The administration insists it is increasing veteran benefits by some 4 percent this year but not necessarily within the VA system. But it's not just personnel on the line. Among the many research contracts halted in Trump's assault on Harvard is a project at Harvard Medical School on assessing the likelihood of A recent investigation by This nation owes its veterans more than pretty words, empty promises, and parades. And it owes them respect for their service whether the wars they fought were won or lost, popular on the home front or not. On this day set aside for remembering those who never came home, let us also vow to provide care and comfort to those who did. Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us
Hamilton Spectator
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton-area Today: Landlord fined $100K + State of local libraries + Were you exposed to measles?
G ood morning! It's May 16, and here are the top stories today in the Hamilton area. A little rain, then sunshine. That's what Environment Canada has forecast for Friday in the Hamilton area. Expect the daytime high to feel like 30 C with the humidex, 26 without. There is a risk of a thunderstorm overnight, they add. There are no weather alerts. Find the latest provincial road closures and traffic incidents via Ontario 511 . Closures in Hamilton are available on the Hamilton police incident feed . Taking transit today? Find the latest GO Transit service updates here . The latest information on local bus services are available here: Hamilton , Burlington and Oakville . Brent Rinehart with his wife Val. Rinehart was killed in a crash caused by Nedal Abusalem, who was chasing another driver. Hamilton landlord fined $100K for not allowing tenants back after renovations 'It was traumatizing for us,' tenant says of losing her longtime apartment. Exposed to measles in Hamilton? Public health investigating measles exposures at restaurant, venue Potential exposures to the highly contagious virus happened on May 2 and May 3, according to the public health unit. Why are 16,000 fewer kids going to Hamilton's libraries? HPL ups free programs, plans to move the children's section at Central and looks to make it easier for kids to get library cards to turn around a citywide decline. UPBEAT with Jon Wells | Centenarian veteran sweethearts, music on the brain, and new life for paralyzed Cuban mutt Matilda Centenarian Second World War sweethearts in the U.K. honoured on V-E Day, more proof that music on the brain is good for your mind and body, and how Matilda the dog made it from paralysis on the streets of Cuba to Hamilton, all offered in this week's Upbeat column. Why is a former MLB star pitching for the Hamilton Cardinals? At 48, Fernando Rodney is still playing for the love of the game. It's the long weekend! Here's what to do in Hamilton Watch fireworks, take a croissant-making class or go to a festival for Hamilton's weird and wonderful. Hamilton water strike: Is it safe to drink from my tap? City says it is not business as usual at its water and sewer plants — but it has a province-approved plan to keep your tap water safe to drink. Driver gets prison time in fatal crash that killed Hamilton man driving home from hospital Nedal Abusalem handed four-year jail term, 15-year driving ban for dangerous driving causing death. Public school board may lose 19 educational assistants hired temporarily this year The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board is projecting 19 fewer educational assistants hired temporarily with one-time funding. Staff say the numbers are likely to change through the budget process. Subscribe to our newsletters for the latest local content .
