Post by Josh on Sept 25, 2007 19:42:25 GMT -8
Just picked up D-Day by Stephen Ambrose for my next read. I've already read Citizen Soldiers (and Undaunted Courage) and I liked both of those, so I think this will be a good read.
Here's a quote about Hitler's strange decision to declare war on the United States that stood out to me:
"It was the looniest of all his crazy decisions. He was not required by the "Pact of Steel" to come to Japan's aid, as the treaty was for defensive purposes-- if one of the partners (Italy, Germany, and Japan) were attacked, the others were pledged to come to her aid. But Japan had not been attacked on December 7 [they had instead attacked the US], and Japan had not come to Germany's aid in June 1941 when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union.
It was also the lonliest of all his lonely decisions. Amazingly, he consulted no one. He threw away his long-range plan for world conquest, in which the final struggle against the United States was left to the next generation, utilizing the resources of the Soviet Union and the rest of Europe. One would have thought that he would have at least asked his military leaders what the implications of a declaration of war against the United States were, that he would have at least talked to Goering, Himmler, Goebbels, and his other henchmen about it. But he discussed it with no other person; on December 11, he simply announced it to the Reichstag."
Along with a handful of Hitler's other inexplicable blunders (not advancing to Dunkirk, indecision on the Eastern Front, etc..), this underscores a verse from the Old Testament that I've always thought intriguing:
Psalm 34:21
Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
So often, even with throughly evil genuises like Hitler, it is a person's own evil which is their own undoing. God doesn't use outside forces alone to frustrate the wicked, but He employs their own choices to bring them down.
Here's a quote about Hitler's strange decision to declare war on the United States that stood out to me:
"It was the looniest of all his crazy decisions. He was not required by the "Pact of Steel" to come to Japan's aid, as the treaty was for defensive purposes-- if one of the partners (Italy, Germany, and Japan) were attacked, the others were pledged to come to her aid. But Japan had not been attacked on December 7 [they had instead attacked the US], and Japan had not come to Germany's aid in June 1941 when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union.
It was also the lonliest of all his lonely decisions. Amazingly, he consulted no one. He threw away his long-range plan for world conquest, in which the final struggle against the United States was left to the next generation, utilizing the resources of the Soviet Union and the rest of Europe. One would have thought that he would have at least asked his military leaders what the implications of a declaration of war against the United States were, that he would have at least talked to Goering, Himmler, Goebbels, and his other henchmen about it. But he discussed it with no other person; on December 11, he simply announced it to the Reichstag."
Along with a handful of Hitler's other inexplicable blunders (not advancing to Dunkirk, indecision on the Eastern Front, etc..), this underscores a verse from the Old Testament that I've always thought intriguing:
Psalm 34:21
Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
So often, even with throughly evil genuises like Hitler, it is a person's own evil which is their own undoing. God doesn't use outside forces alone to frustrate the wicked, but He employs their own choices to bring them down.
