Ken Burns' film on WW II is brilliant

[Botany]

Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. - Winston Churchill

Was the fall of the towers on 9/11 like the Reichstag's fire and is our invasion
of Iraq any different than Japan's need for oil and raw materials that made
the Japanese War Lords launch Pearl Harbor?

BTW WW II cost 3 trillion 2007 $s ...... Iraq has cost us 1 trillion with 2 trillion
coming up fast.

facts
1 million Iraqis are dead
2 million have fled the country
2 million Iraqis are homeless inside Iraq
8 million face hunger, little water, no medicine, no power, and Cholera
Turkey & Iran have shelled, bombed, and sent forces into Northern Iraq
to fight Kurds
The biggest single helper of radical anti American forces in Iraq is not
Iran but Saudi Arabia

WW II
Sept 1 1939 to August 1945 (U.S. from Dec 41 to August 1945)
Iraq war March 2003 to ?????

[rusty quoin]

1. Yes. That was a war for what we believe. Iraq is for profit.

[hlthe2b]

2. Sorry to correct you, but see my sigline...

It is a favorite quote of mine (and may also been so for Churchill), but originated with the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana...

But, as for Burn's new documentary, I can't wait to see it, but may have to wait for DVD release...never seem to be home in time for PBS...Thanks for the early review...

[eleny]

3. Does Blitzkrieg = Shock and Awe?

That question came to mind when they covered Hitler near the beginning of this first episode.

[rusty quoin]

4. That thought came to my mind too,

The Japanese thought it would work, and Hitler, with his push West to the coast. They did it, but what about after.

[rwenos]

7. Blitzkrieg = Shock & Awe

It's most likely about the last thing the U.S. military would like to admit, but Blitzkrieg is fairly obviously the same tactic as "shock and awe." Blitzkrieg, which in German means "storm war," relied on air power, mechanized tank forces and infantry working together. I'm sure you can imagine the effect of this in September 1939, when the Polish forces tried to resist the German onslaught with mounted cavalry troops, singel-fire bolt-action rifles and horse-drawn 19th-Century artillery.

Not too flattering to admit we have adopted WW2 Wehrmacht tactics, eh? (Of course, now we have night vision systems, "Puff the Magic Dragon" shoowing 1800 rounds per minute, and Apache helicopter systems. Makes all the difference.)

[Duppers]

5. Burns is the best and most prolific documentarian ever.

Burns is a brilliant man with a brilliant crew of people working with him.

(Of course, I'm biased. :) )

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Brilliant

As he always is.

[stopbush]

8. So far, I'm unimpressed.

1. The pan-n-scan, zoom in, zoom out on a bunch of still photos is absolute cliches at this point, especially as literally miles of film footage exist of WWII.

2. Within the first episode, Burns was already using some footage/photos two and three times. Why?

3. Perhaps later episodes will fill in the blanks, but this initial episode provided an extremely myopic view of THE war.

4. The music sort of sucked. "The Death of Falstaff" from Walton's Henry V film music was a bit over used for my taste.

5. I'll keep my hopes up, but I can't see how this particular series will trump The World at War narrated by Olivier.