How US has won the World War II

The undisputed common knowledge in the US is that IT has won World War II, more or less by itself. The other countries are really mentioned, except as victims.

I keep reading stuff like this over and over again: "We have to do to them what the Americans did to the Nazis. Kill all their leaders. Kill all the collaborators. Then, we'll find those willing to make peace." http://www.macleans.ca/world/global/article.jsp?content=20080423_11237_11237&page=3 (This particular quote comes from US's 51st state - Israel, but it perfectly mirrors popular opinion in the "mainland").

Here are some numbers though (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties).

Country       Military casulaties   Total casualties
Soviet Union           10,700,000         23,100,000
Germany                 5,533,000          7,293,000
United States             416,800            418,500

80% of German military deaths were on the Eastern Front.

In military deaths, US is behind Yugoslavia, Japan, China, Germany, and Soviet Union, and just barely above UK.

In total deaths, US is behind United Kingdom, Italy, France, Hungary, Romania, French Indo-China, Yugoslavia, India, Japan, Indonesia, Poland, Germany, China, and Soviet Union, and just above Lithuania and Czechoslovakia.

So in all actuality, US involvement in WWII was far, far, far, less than most countries in Europe. And US contribution to winning the war was closer to that of France and UK, and far, far, far, far behind Soviet Union, where Germans lost 80% of their army and where it was broken in Stalingrad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad) and Kursk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk) a full year before Allies landed in Normandy.

Now, obviously, self-aggrandising is not an American phenomenon. Every country practices a healthy dose of it.

What is super dangerous in this reading of history ("U.S. has won World War II") is that it creates an idea among American population that wars are cheap, and easy to win. Look, we won in the worst war ever to hit human civilization, and most people barely noticed. (Yes, as a percentage of population, US lost... 0.32%. That's one out of three hundred. As compared to Soviet Union's 13.71% - one out of six.)

Hence, the Rambo mentality.

Hence, Iraq.

But it could have been worse, much worse.

In mid-80s there were two movies that came out in Soviet Union and United States, both dealing with the world after the nuclear catastrophe.

The Russian movie was "Dead Man's Letters" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man's_Letters), and depicted the world that was dead.

The American movie was "The Day After" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After), and had shown farmers removing the thin layer of soil that was irradiated, and preparing for the new crop. The message was - the life continues. We can win.

The Soviet Union is now history (look, America has won again! Just like it did with the Nazies!) but the myth of the military power on the cheap lives on - Hillary is now ready to obliterate Iran (soon to be nuclear power), and compared to the morons that are running the show now, she's the sane one.

It's funny, but the reality with Iran is probably going to turn out quite differently - by switching oil trading from dollar to euro it is they who are more likely to obliterate the US, not the other way around.

Meanwhile, the military hardware is being built. No health insurance though, we can't afford that...

5/5/2008:
In many countries such nationalism arises from a pent-up frustration over having to accept an entirely Western, or American, narrative of world history—one in which they are miscast or remain bit players. Russians have long chafed over the manner in which Western countries remember World War II. The American narrative is one in which the United States and Britain heroically defeat the forces of fascism. The Normandy landings are the climactic highpoint of the war—the beginning of the end. The Russians point out, however, that in fact the entire Western front was a sideshow. Three quarters of all German forces were engaged on the Eastern front fighting Russian troops, and Germany suffered 70 percent of its casualties there. The Eastern front involved more land combat than all other theaters of World War II put together.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/135380/page/5