Pat Buchanan Uber Alles

Pat Buchanan has now shown that he has taken that step beyond being an odd former conservative politician and talk show host, and transformed into a complete flipping lunatic. In a little gem of an essay titled, Was World War II worth it? Pat takes the completely legitimate fact that Eastern Europe pretty much got sold out to Stalin in the deal and makes the wild leap that this somehow invalidates the entire war.

When one considers the losses suffered by Britain and France – hundreds of thousands dead, destitution, bankruptcy, the end of the empires – was World War II worth it, considering that Poland and all the other nations east of the Elbe were lost anyway?

If the objective of the West was the destruction of Nazi Germany, it was a "smashing" success. But why destroy Hitler? If to liberate Germans, it was not worth it. After all, the Germans voted Hitler in.

If it was to keep Hitler out of Western Europe, why declare war on him and draw him into Western Europe? If it was to keep Hitler out of Central and Eastern Europe, then, inevitably, Stalin would inherit Central and Eastern Europe.

Was that worth fighting a world war – with 50 million dead?

Herr Buchanan is of course missing the point, that although we were stuck between two unpalatable choices, these were the only choices we had. We had no choice but to throw down with Germany, we couldn't beam to some other more peaceful planet. As horrible as Stalinism was, Hitler was more of a threat, we could not just wish him away.

Another great, more indepth fisking of this story is available here at Vodkapundit, great name for a blog I must say.