Were the Allies bad as the Nazis/Axis?

[Cory]

Point Of Order: The only reason the Soviets can be described as nearing the Nazis in terms of horribleness is because the Nazis lost the war. The Holocaust as we know it would only be the tip of the iceberg.

[Redalgo]

This is true, Cory, though it also raises the question of how they would have compared if the Soviets had hypothetically ascended to superpower status much sooner and invaded Germany before the Nazis had a chance to begin their blitzkrieg offensives, sweeping across the continent and leading to a protracted war between the Allies and Comintern instead - in which event there might be irony in finding fascist Italy and Spain on the same side as France, Britain, the U.S., etc. Also, what about the chances of Germany getting a Nazi successor to Hitler who was more of a segregationist than genocidaire? History is full of "what-ifs," though I agree that the contents of Nazism were significantly more horrible than those of Leninism.

[courts]

Yeah, Stalin was an evil mass murderer. But Hitler was clearly worse, managing to kill roughly half as many people* as Stalin in only six years.

Imperial Japan was also a genocidal evil regime as well, which people forget.

i don't really think it's a stretch to say that stalin would have launched new pogroms had he lived longer. although people tend to exaggerate the level of anti-semitism in the ussr because of ww2

also insert standard 'enlightened' comment about churchill not having any problem gassing natives here

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Also, the figure of 20 (or more according to some nutjobs like whoever wrote Black Book of Communism) million deaths ascribed to Stalin was found to be less than accurate after the post-Soviet document leaks, the actual figure that can be blamed directly on the Soviet leadership (as opposed to the Nazis or natural events) being less than half that, albeit still astronomically high by any other standard.

[Deus Naturae]

Also, the figure of 20 (or more according to some nutjobs like whoever wrote Black Book of Communism) million deaths ascribed to Stalin was found to be less than accurate after the post-Soviet document leaks, the actual figure that can be blamed directly on the Soviet leadership (as opposed to the Nazis or natural events) being less than half that, albeit still astronomically high by any other standard.

Cite?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/mar/10/hitler-vs-stalin-who-killed-more/

Of course, we decided to stick with the inaccurate Cold War estimates because those were scarier.

[courts]

don't forget that there is actually no ambiguity at all as to whether churchill deliberately starved bengalis. as well as his own support for franco and the like.

[Redalgo]

don't forget that there is actually no ambiguity at all as to whether churchill deliberately starved bengalis. as well as his own support for franco and the like.

Yeah, Winston makes my skin crawl.

[Person Man]

I voted for the comedy third option, because the question is f**king stupid. Of course they aren't.

[Associate Justice PiT]

don't forget that there is actually no ambiguity at all as to whether churchill deliberately starved bengalis. as well as his own support for franco and the like.

     Also Dresden, which I am surprised that only one person has referred to so far. While they were definitely one of the less malicious partisans in the war, the U.K. had its share of flaws.

[dead0man]

and the bombing of Dresden is WAY overrated when it comes to war time atrocities.