As I write this, it is 2215 hours Eastern in the United States. The war in Europe officially ended at 2301 hours Central European Time on May 8, 1945. In Moscow, the time was 0001 hours, May 9, 1945. That is why the Russians celebrate May 9, while the West commemorates the end of the war on May 8.

If you missed my article, published last week, Donald Trump’s Grotesque Lie About the US Role in the European Theater in World War II, I have linked the article for your convenience. In a few hours, more than 100 million Russians will assemble and march in memory of their ancestors who made unimaginable sacrifices to defeat Hitler’s Nazi regime. As I noted in my article (see above), the Nazis, along with their Romanian, Italian and Hungarian collaborators, murdered between 16 million and 19 million Russian civilians.

Only one other country experience comparable civilian casualties… China. According to scholarly sources, about 12 million Chinese civilians died as a result of Japanese military actions, occupation policies, massacres, and war-induced famine and disease between 1937 and 1945. Some sources suggest the total number of Chinese deaths (including both civilians and military) could be as high as 20 million, with the vast majority being civilians. The Nanjing Massacre alone resulted in the deaths of at least 100,000 to over 200,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers in just a few weeks in late 1937 and early 1938.

This is one reason why China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is in Moscow. Both Putin and Xi understand that foreign invaders left a permanent scar on the cultural psyche of the Russian and Chinese people… one that is not quickly erased by the passage of time.

In the US, the vast majority of the people have forgotten the sacrifice that 189,577 American soldiers, airmen and sailors paid in blood in battles in North Africa, Italy and the rest of the European theater. Some care, but most Americans are oblivious and went about their normal activities today without pausing to reflect on the end of the war in Europe. If Donald Trump was serious about honoring their sacrifice, he chould have declared May 8 a Federal holiday and held ceremonies at the WW II memorial and Arlington Cemetery… He did neither.

I want to pose a question to my fellow American citizens, but first let me set the parameters. At the start of World War II in 1939, the population of the United States was approximately 130 million people. By way of comparison, the population of Russia and Ukraine (where the bulk of the battles with the Nazis were fought) was 150 million (110 million Russians and 40 million Ukrainians). In other words, Russia lost 20% of their population in World War II, while the US, in the war with the Nazis, lost .1%. So here is the question… How would Americans have reacted after losing 20% of their population in a war with Germany, and our Russian allies began a program at the end of that war that recruited and hired German officers as intelligence assets? Would that piss you off? Would that make you question Russia’s intentions with respect to US national security?

Viewed in this light, we get a whole new spin on the start of the Cold War. Because that is exactly what the United States did courtesy of Operation Paperclip. Operation Paperclip was a secret U.S. intelligence program launched in 1945 to recruit German scientists, engineers, and technicians—many of whom had worked for Nazi Germany—and bring them to the United States after World War II. But we did more than that. The OSS, later replaced by the CIA, recruited and managed a horde of former SS officers specifically for their expertise in running spies against the Soviet Union.

As the Russian people assemble on May 9 to remember the enormous sacrifice of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers and great grand parents, they also remember that the United States, despite being an ally in the war to end Hitler, quickly pivoted after that war and began targeting the Soviet Union. They remember, we don’t.

I talked about these issues today with Ania K and with Garland Nixon. I am also including a video I recorded on Wednesday of my conversation with an Indian journalist about the potential for war between India and Pakistan. I hope you find these informative.