I had several thoughts about "The War." It dramatically brought home to me the differences in quality of leadership and preparation between then and now. If our generals today performed like the generals of WWII we'd be clamoring for them to be in jail. Also, the general lack of information allowed to the civilians of then would in no way be tolerated now (unless it was a democrat president). The level of war planning, soldier prepartion and training, etc. of today is incredible compared to WWII(in spite of all the bitching about our President, the Sec of Defense, Pentagon and in-theatre leadership). Literally thousands of people lost their lives in training exercises on our own East coast simply preparing for the D-Day invasion let only the additional thousands involved in the actual invasion in Normandy. The loss of thousands on Pelelieu when it wasn't even strategically important borders on criminal. I have modified downward my view of FDR, Eisenhower, MacArthur and others while increasing my respect for Patton as a result of watching the show.
Also, was somewhat outraged by Burns' highlighting apparent war crimes in WWII in his stated effort to show the "worst" of war.
