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Reference Material: A Historic Decision Part III - No Middle Ground Between Righteousness and Evil (Continued) By Zhang Tianliang (Clearwisdom.net) (Note: most of the quotes in this article are translated and therefore
paraphrased) 3. No Middle Ground Between Righteousness and Evil It is necessary to recollect here how France was defeated. It is well known
that France built a nearly 400-kilometer long defense line named the
"Maginot Line" on its border with Germany. It was sturdy enough to
withstand tank and heavy artillery. At the time, the British and the French
calculated that if Hitler were to attack France, he could either go around
Switzerland or attack France directly by breaking through the Maginot Line. Both
plans were difficult to implement. The only other way was to seize Holland and
Belgium, thereby sidestepping the Maginot Line on the northern side of France. At the time, Belgium's stance was critical. On January 10th, 1940,
a German officer followed orders to go to the headquarters in Cologne, carrying
very important documents with him. Having missed the train, he decided to take a
flight. But his plane flew past the destination and was forced to land in
Belgium. He was arrested by the Belgian military and his documents were
confiscated. These documents contained Hitler's plans to invade Belgium, Holland
and France. If Belgium were willing, both Britain and France would send out
troops to help Belgium to defend itself. However, at that crucial moment,
Belgium chose to passively wait and see, believing that Hitler would not attack
because Belgium had maintained its neutrality. What followed proved this trust
to be misplaced. On the night of May 9th - 10th 1940,
large-scale air raids on Belgian airports, transportation lines, communication
hubs and supply depots were launched. The German army then swiftly invaded
Holland and Belgium without any pretext or warning. On May 28th,
Belgium surrendered to Germany. The German army quickly breached the French
defensive line in Sedan, located on the border between Belgium and France, and
promptly headed south behind the "Maginot Line." On June 14th,
the German army seized Paris. The intent of this discussion is not to shift the blame from Hitler's crimes,
but rather to point out how England and France adopted the appeasement policy at
the outset, and that the Soviet Union silently cooperated with Nazi Germany.
These two factors undoubtedly created the necessary ingredients for Hitler to
start the war. These countries only became clearheaded when disaster was at
their doorstep, but it was too late as their superior military strength rapidly
disintegrated with their eagerness to appease, compromise and collaborate with
the evil. They were left to face a formidable enemy under exceedingly difficult
conditions. All the benefits acquired through cooperating with the evil went
down the tubes the moment the war started. Churchill once alluded to the fact
that if you are unwilling to fight for justice at a time when you can easily
succeed without great sacrifice, if you are unwilling to fight at a time when
you can win without having to pay too high a price, then one day you will be
forced to fight under extremely disadvantageous conditions with only a slim
chance to succeed. Even worse, you may even have to fight at a time when there
is no chance to win at all. Posting date: 10/1/2002 |