Normandy invasion was a footnote, no one remembers Patton,arab armies are magnificient and other gems of military expertise from Debanjan

Submitted by Shishir (United Arab Emirates), May 1, 2012 at 05:09

Shishir: yes almost single-handedly if you discount the contributions of the allied powers of U.S and U.K which included the largest amphibious assault, the most sustained air campaign as well as well trained ground troops !

Debanjan : Please can you tell me the total number of allied troops who fought alongside Red army in the battles of Stalingrad and the total number of allied troops who fought alongside Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk ?

Shishir:What does it matter whether any Allied troops fought alongside the Red Army at Stalingrad, the point is Allied troops ensured that Nazis kept fighting wars on various fronts, and therefore were unable to focus like a laser beam on one opponent.There was also a great deal of material support with trucks and tanks etc that Allied provided to Stalin.

Dear Mr. Shishir compared to those two above mentioned battles , the so-called largest amphibious assault was just a footnote in the annuls of history until and unless you happen to be a bleeding heart Anglo-Saxonphile historian who is unable to take an objective view of history.

Debanjan:You and I know seem to have a different understand of the word "footnote"! If the Normandy invasion was not the largest ambphibious assault in history as you claim then which one was?

Shishir:Had there been competent generals ,the scale of deaths would've been vastly reduced.

Debanjan : Had Stalin not carried out the purges there would have been strong possibilities that some of these so-called competent generals would have overthrown the Soviet government and cut a deal with the Third Reich thus making it almost impossible for the allies to defeat the Third Reich in the Western front.

Shishir: Again the boogeyman of the coup plotting generals!Maybe you should ask yourself why is it that the regimes that you support seem to be so vulnerable to coups .Is it because they are loathsome gangster states which holds the lives of soldiers and citizens of little value?

Debanjan:You mean these competent generals Gen. Vlasov and Gen. Shilenkov who collaborated with the Third Reich ?

Shishir:You cant really blame them that much,at one point the entire Soviet Union "collaborated" with the Third Reich!

Fighting Saddam!Indeed that was an incredible challenge!Read Norvelle Atkins essay on why Arabs lose wars on the utterly pathetic performance of Arab militaries. No single serious military observer is impressed by the Iranians resistance of Saddam Hussein.

Debanjan : Well if Iran's successfully fending off Saddam's aggressive designs is not bigger enough challenges to impress the armchair military analysts such as you , then surely Israel's 1967 war victory against those very same Arab armies also should not be worthy of frequent chest-beatings that we regularly see in these forums.

Shishir:Actually yes,Israels victories against Arab states be it 1967 or 1973 becomes less impressive to any objective analyst when one realizes that Israel in the end were fighting Arabs.I maybe pro Israel but doesnt mean I have to swallow pro Israel propaganda wholesale.I use critical thinking to evaluate events, somewhat you are unable to do.Whether I am an armchair military analyst(as opposed to you who I suppose are a decorated war hero!) or not,what does it matter!Facts are facts! If Gen Petraeus tomorrow claims that the U.S lost WWII, I refuse to yield the argument to him just because he is more qualified on military matters than anyone currently on the planet.Indeed he has done many questionable things like drafting rule of engagements in Afghanistan which severely handicap U.S troops ability to fight!He does this to subordinate any military operations to nation building.Of course he is just doing his job.But therein lies the problem,generals whether active or retired may not always have a vested interest in stating facts.This is true in all countries.So therefore it is not all advisable for a country to heed your "wisdom" and surrender our critical faculties only to those who fought in wars!

Debanjan:Who is this guy Novel Aetkins by the way ? How many wars has he been able to fight and win ? How many divisions did he successfully command in battle ?

Shishir:Perhaps if you hadn't butchered his name, you would successfully come up with this info in a google search.

Norvell De Atkine, a U.S. Army retired colonel with eight years residence in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, and a graduate degree in Arab studies from the American University of Beirut, is currently instructing U.S. Army personnel assigned to Middle Eastern areas.