Originally Posted by
ironbutt57
be the same US forces who lost countless aviation lives and countless aircraft defending countries across an ocean....just sayin'
First things first: I don’t want to diminish those who had to fight a war just because they were ordered to.
This being said, it is also true that wars are started by men (politicians) and fought by boys (soldiers). WWII started in 1939, the US entered it only in 1941 after being directly attacked by Japan.
It wasn’t to “save Europe” but to limit Japanese expansion in the East (do not forget about US economical and political interests in the SE) and to avoid the conquest of the entire Europe by Germany and/or the USSR. You can see all of this had huge geopolitical and economical reasons behind it.
Even the Marshall Plan was a very well orchestrated political and economical move. It allowed the US to establish military bases in other countries (something which amazes me even today), to avoid a truly democratic process in Europe (left wing movements were on the rise), to limit Russia’s sphere of influence and to save its own economy (with a collapsed Europe the US had virtually nowhere to export its products).
So please, with the due respect for those who fought a war they didn’t ask for, stop saying it was just “goodwill”. It was a geopolitical decision and the US gained huge advantages from it.
Back OT, seen what happened with Iran Air (don’t forget the crew failed to distinguish an A300 with a fully functioning transponder climb profile from a fighter/bomber attack) profile, yes, I do think such messages are very worrying for pilots operating in that region.