Well-done, george1001.... the U.S. campaign during WWII in the Pacific was one only the United States could have waged. Not even Great Britain was then capable of projecting power half-way around the globe on such a massive scale as we were. The legendary efforts of the USMC at Guadalcanal are now well known, but don't forget the sacrifices of the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy during the same campaign. Of the three branches, the navy actually suffered the most casualties in the Solomon Islands campaign.

Re: "If the state want to take your house or farm - they just do it. No compensation, or very little. That is not capitalism. It is communism." Hate to break the news to you, George257, but our government acts in a manner not at all dissimilar to your example. Emminent domain seizures, the IRS and asset forfeiture laws come to mind.

Strictly in numerical terms, Stalin was a greater butcher than Hitler. Professor Rummel's work proves it conclusively. You are certainly correct about the terrible damage inflicted by FDR, Hopkins and company - whose naivete and gullability concerning the Soviets cost Eastern and Central Europe dearly, not to mention our own nation over the nearly half-century of the Cold War.

You are entirely correct; in the 1930s, many in the west hated the Soviets more than the Germans. Our alliance with Stalin and Societ Russia lasted only as long as necessary to defeat fascism - and not a moment longer.

Stalin robbed FDR and the Roosevelt administration blind, a process which didn't end until Harry Truman put a stop to it. Without American lend-lease aid - such as our Studebaker trucks - it is certain that the USSR would have fallen to Germany - a fact Stalin and then Krushchev took great pains to redact from all of the Soviet histories of the war.

Re: "Is Turkey Leaving the West?" Turkey has never been part of the west in the first place, Daniel - review your history and that fact will become evident. For a brief historical interval, from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to perhaps ten years ago, Turkey could have been considered a secular state with some western qualities - but that is not the same as being a part of the west. Turkey does not now and has never belonged to western civilization in the way that Greece does, or England or any number of other nations and peoples.

Get lost.... why don't you go grovel at Obama's feet or whatever it is you "thrill down the leg" types do when B. Hussein is around.

Re: "But in fact, whatever Republicans did in 2012 -- other than an overly long primary fight -- worked amazingly well, given the circumstances." Wrong, Ann - a thousand times wrong. You trust a liberal-left pollster at the Brookings Institution for your analysis? Good luck with that. The GOP has one and only one path by which it can reclaim its place in the political and cultural firmament of this nation, and that is by embracing genuinely conservative principles. If the Republicans do not do that, they will - and deservedly so - go the way of the dodo bird.

Although the Soviet Communist Party was an implacable foe of the United States during the Cold War (which began before WWII even ended), the U.S. and the free world owe a debt of gratitude to the common Russian soldier, who broke the back of Hitler's Wehrmacht. Eight out of every ten German soldiers killed in the Second World War lost their lives on the Russian front. Russia herself lost more than twenty million lives, civilian and military deaths alike, during that conflict - a toll of suffering almost unimaginable in today's world. To put Stalingrad in perspective, Russian casualties in that campaign alone were 1.12 million, of which more than 478,000 were deaths. During WWII, the U.S. lost 416,000 dead, less than the USSR at Stalingrad.

(continued from previous comment) The Second Amendment is unique in the constitution; it is the only amendment to mention a specific item by name. Though leftists would have you believe otherwise, nowhere in the amendment is hunting mentioned. While hunting and defense against criminals are among those rights the founders wished to secure, they aren't the primary reasons for the amendment. Rather, the Second Amendment was designed to reaffirm an inalienable right which already existed, and to serve as a bulkwark against tyranny - at home or abroad.