[harrison987]

Well...

It is against the Rules of Armed Conflict to shoot at parachutes from planes. I know the US Pilots did it, and anyone who would do that is just as bad as the next person you want to call "evil".

Yeah..of course Stigler thought about it. He would have been SHOT ON THE SPOT IF ANYONE FOUND OUT!!! The "right decision" is ALWAYS the human decision. Hmmm...let's seee....shoot at a crippled B-17 that had 50% of it's crew dead, no one shooting at him, and running on 3 engines...or do the HUMAN thing. I would have made the same decision. if the RIGHT thing is too "kill everyone possible", then clearly a person with a viewpoint like that should never be in the military, and not someone I would want by my side.

The uprising of Nazism was due to an EXTREMELY charismatic leader, and in the beginning stages did not have the same, "immoral" values as we focus on now. Germany was falling apart, and the people needing something to believe in as people were starving and business were failing. To judge ALL Germans and pilots as all being "Nazi's" is an uneducated statement. Fear drove most of these people to stir in one direction.

John pointed out that there are far more atrocities done by other countries for longer periods of time. The British Empire had far more atrocities for a LONGER period of time than Germany ever did.

I remember a US vet telling a story about the Ardennes...

This captured US soldier (amongst others) was being marched down an icy road. A German officer kept having his Kubelwagon drive back and forth from the front of the line to the rear...honking at all US troops to move out of the way. I think he was just doing it to make them mad. After many passings, this one US troop decided, 'screw it", and did not move out of the way on one of the last many attempts. The German officer was so mad the US troop did not move, the Kubelwaagon pulled over, he went over to the US Troop, and put a gun to his head. The US troop being more angry than anything did not move an inch. As the German officer began to pull the trigger, a large "clack" from a machine gun could be heard. Looking left, he saw the MG that just cocked was atop a Panzer, and the gun was pointed at the OFFICER! It was an SS Tank. The SS officer pulled an MG on the German officer, yelling at him for having a gun to this US troops head. Don't remember what he said to him, something about how they are soldiers, not murderers.

True story.

So is that German SS officer dumb? Should he have let the other officer shoot the US troop? After-all, it was mentioned that Stiger was dumb for letting the B-17 go...what would happen if these US troops escape? CRAP!! Better kill them all now, then to have them escape and be soldiers fighting against us again!!

How do you look at the massacre in the Ardennes? Where 3 DOZENS of captured and defenceless US troops were gunned down by the SS?? Was that, "okay" because it better to kill the enemy than have them escape and fight another day?

Jesus...

No matter "what" peoples beliefs are, EVERYONE is human...that includes Hitler...and EVERYONE, no matter what they have done, is ALWAYS forgivable...

That is the main basis of Judiasm..."everything and everyone is forgivable" - that includes Hitler.

Stigler, along with MOST Germans all felt the same about the war and had the same beliefs about how WRONG Hitler was...wasn't there 50+ attempts on Hitler's life since 1942?

Mike