The two greatest protectors of western civilization in the last 1000 years are French and Polish. Charles Martel who stopped the islamic invasion of Portugal and Spain in France and then drove them back and later General Sobieski whose brave Polish troops were the only armies that responded as the Islamic Ottomans invaded Greece, then the Balkans (Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia (and all the other now independent Yugoslav countries) all the way up to the walls of Vienna.

The polish people have been ignored as the heros of western civilization along. Nearly every european war over the last thousand years had western troops crossing Poland going east or Russian troops crossing Poland going west....and in each case it was always the polish people who suffered and died at the hands of foreign invaders.

with this post, I salute my friends the Poles!

It is a sad irony that we tend to focus in history books on evil aspects of our history and tend to forget those who did good. We can name dozens of world leaders who fought in heroic wars but we can name very few humanitarians, people who protected human lives and opposed violence. Sure we all have heard about Ghandi, many of us have heard about Albert Schweitzer but that's where it ends. I was stunned to learn about Hoover's humanitarian effort. Nobody has ever told me that he saved millions of lives. We all know about Bill Gates and that he gives his fortune away, and the scale he operates on. But you have never heard about Hoover (who BTW was also an orphan). Hoover gave away millions of dollars and worked 18 hours a day to save millions of innocent war victims. He did it during WW I and WW II. You can learn a lot from Hoover's biography. I'll be the first one to see this exhibit.

Hoover also achieved well-deserved fame for coordinating Belgian Relief, which saved countless thousands of lives in war-ravaged Europe.

moron, western civilization does not include the turks or ottomans oe persians

The two greatest protectors of western civilization in the last 1000 years are French and Polish. Charles Martel who stopped the islamic invasion of Portugal and Spain in France and then drove them back and later General Sobieski whose brave Polish troops were the only armies that responded as the Islamic Ottomans invaded Greece, then the Balkans (Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia (and all the other now independent Yugoslav countries) all the way up to the walls of Vienna.

The polish people have been ignored as the heros of western civilization along. Nearly every european war over the last thousand years had western troops crossing Poland going east or Russian troops crossing Poland going west....and in each case it was always the polish people who suffered and died at the hands of foreign invaders.

with this post, I salute my friends the Poles!

The two greatest protectors of western civilization in the last 1000 years are French and Polish. Charles Martel who stopped the islamic invasion of Portugal and Spain in France and then drove them back and later General Sobieski whose brave Polish troops were the only armies that responded as the Islamic Ottomans invaded Greece, then the Balkans (Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia (and all the other now independent Yugoslav countries) all the way up to the walls of Vienna.

The polish people have been ignored as the heros of western civilization along. Nearly every european war over the last thousand years had western troops crossing Poland going east or Russian troops crossing Poland going west....and in each case it was always the polish people who suffered and died at the hands of foreign invaders.

with this post, I salute my friends the Poles!

Ok, so you don't like Jews, and you don't like Muslims either. Got it.

Before you start blaming Hoover for the Big Depression please read what Eleanor Roosevelt said about it. "He had nothing to do with it". She knew what she was talking about. Hoover was made a scapegoat during the presidential campaign. The Great Depression began in October 1929, when the stock values dropped very quickly. Why? The final blow came when it was announced that western European countries won't be able to pay their WW I reconstruction loans. Hoover's government had very little power to ease the depression. It was much later when the president received more control to produce new laws that gave the government far more power than at any time in the history to control the money market. Don't blame Hoover for the economic disaster. he had one of the more ambitious economic plans of all XX century presidents.

wwabbit - most of the money Hoover used in Europe he collected himself from private sources many articles about it on the web. Governments don't give away money so eagerly.