Debate on Justification of World War II

I think it's very difficult to have fought the Second World War without innocent

people being killed. I think-

I don't know. No one tried, but maybe...

Well, I've never understood why fight the Second

World War in the first place.

Well, that's a very, um, fundamental question.

Well, how about the First World War?

Well, let's stick to the Second World War.

No, let's start with the first, which leads to the second.

Well, we, we were on the second. Um, the, the Second World War,

Hitler would have taken as much as he could have done-

Okay

... as he was showing, and did you really want him to-

Well, Hitler said that 15% of Poland was

once Germany, and it was given to Poland at the Treaty of

Versailles. That was German territory, which Germans said.

That was his case, and by the way, that was true.

Except, except-

And I-

... except the Polish borders had been cut off

by-

I, I, look, I'm not here to p- I'm not sitting here defending Hitler

... Prussia and Russia and Austria

I'm just saying the idea that Hitler just randomly rolled into

Poland is a

lie, and everyone believes it because they know

nothing about the actual facts.

But the truth is,

Germany had big pieces of it carved off, including part of Prussia, and it was

given to this other country. It infuriated the Germans.

Maybe it shouldn't have, but it did, and that was the justification for it.

The UK had nothing to do with it at all,

and they-

Well, we had a treaty of alliance

... destroyed their empire and their country fighting this war

that they still

pretend was a good idea, but it wasn't.

It, it was fundamental. It was, it was the classic good versus

evil.

Has the UK benefited from it?

We did the right thing.

Is it a better country than it was?

To have defeated Hitler, yes.

So the UK is a better country now. It's a wealthier country now.

Well, otherwise, we, we'd otherwise would be speaking German.

I... Who cares? But-

I do

... there are a lot of people in Britain who

can't speak English.

Well, yes.

So it would be nice to have, like, at least a European language spoken in

your

country.

No, I-

But you don't

... see no advantage speaking German over any

other language.

Um, we want to speak English. Thank you so much.

But, but the point is-

Uh-

... a war should benefit... If a war is fought with the

children

of your citizens, which it is,

then that war should benefit those citizens.

And it did benefit this country.

In what ways?

Benefited this country.

Can you tell me how?

Uh, but as I said to you, otherwise Germany would eventually have

invaded us.

So you, um, Germany-

But we've had 80 years to assess. Tell me the benefits