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Originally Posted by willravel
There is a difference to note between our government and the former Iraqi government: one is the responsibility of the American people, the other is not. While there are many governments around the world that do terrible things, we (the people of the country where the government is in question) are responsible for fixing our own problems first and foremost. Can you imagine Nazi Germany going into a third world country and removing a dictator who was guilty of ethnic clensing?
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I have no problem imagining this because they did. Protecting the Volga Germans from the terror of the Soviet autrocities (no worse than any other Ukrainians at the time) was a key excuse in the Nazi invasion of the USSR. There were others, and it certainly wasn't the most important, but it was included. A quick history lesson - the Volga Germans were Germans who immigrated to Russia (specifically to the Ukraine) in the mid 18th Century, primarily under Catherine II (the Great) and Alexander I. They built their own villages and weren't entirely integrated into the general population since German remained their dominant language and they remained primarily Catholic, although there was some erosion of both of those by the October Revolution of 1917. They were later persecuted by Soviet authorities for perceived complicity with the enemy, although there was significant resistance to Nazi rule by the VG's.
History lesson aside, let's remember of the true aims of the Nazi thrust into the USSR, specifically the Ukraine. They were after oil, and "liberating" the Volga Germans was an excuse on their way to reserves in Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus. Sound familiar to anyone?