Fundamentally Contrarian?

Is the Atlantic known as a contrarian magazine? Maybe that explains why I like it so much. Just read an interesting article summarizing recent historical writings on WWII and an increasing wave of historical sentiment which credits the Soviet Eastern Front as being the principal theater of the war. To put it in perspective, for four years 400 German and Soviet divisions clashed in the East whereas no more than 15 Allied and 15 German divisions clashed in the West at a time. 80% of German soldiers died on the Eastern Front. The premise of the article is that WWII is known as "The Good War," but the fact is, the war was decided upon by genocidal ferocity which the Germans and Russians waged against each other. One of the authors says Stalin's steadfastness and ability to radically change the Russian military after getting their asses handed to them in 1941 was the principal reason the allies won the war.

On another note, the main article this month is about the army interogators who led to the killing of Zarqawi. A perhaps uncomfortable fact is that they used the threat of being sent to Abu Gharib to scare informants...and it worked - because the informants knew they didn't want to go there.

It worries me a bit that I'm pretty sure the world is a whole lot uglier than many of us care to admit.