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Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News


Poles cheer as an American military convoy passes through

Those evil American imperialists! As an American military convoy passed through the Polish Bialystok during a NATO exercise the entire town came out to cheer.

Gee, I wonder if the Poles would give the Russians or Germans or maybe any other foreign army the same greeting. In fact, isn’t it strange that this is the same greeting American troops get from ordinary people in every nation they have ever gone to? Could it be because we as a nation have never gone to conquer but only to liberate? Could it be because once we are finished these places have always been better off than before we got there? Could it be because we have always demanded that freedom, justice, and the rule of law be the guidebook for the local regimes we leave behind?

Nah, none of that can be true. My leftwing college professors told me that America is the source of all evil in the world. That must be true. They couldn’t have lied to me.

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16 comments

  • Jwing

    Don’t ever count out the Polish. I’m not Polish but having worked in a Deli in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, I gained a great respect for these tough, smart and proud people. Polish women can be drop dead gorgeous, too.
    Heck, it was a Polish mathematician who initially cracked the Nazi’s Enigma Machine cypher, and few people know that during the Battle of Britian many of the pilots were Poles flying Hurricane fighter planes over the English Channel.
    Pope John Paul II gave the ultimate insult to the Ruskies by defying the Communists leadership at every step while a Bishop in Warsaw and later as Bishop of Rome. He would have open, outdoor masses in fields in direct defiance of the atheistic communist decrees. A big F U to the USSR.
    They are one of our most loyal allies and I hope this current President realizes it.

  • Cotour

    “They are one of our most loyal allies and I hope this current President realizes it.”

    The president cares not about your hope, totally not relevant to his agenda.

  • Cotour

    “My leftwing college professors told me that America is the source of all evil in the world. That must be true. They couldn’t have lied to me.”

    Your left wing professors, like the president were and are moral litteralists and are unable to properly weigh and get past the abuses of power of the different modes of governance.

    If I were to ask you: Who’s abuse of power model would you rather live under, yours (meaning Americas and its Constitution) or the abuse of power model belonging to those systems that he / they profess to admire and believe to be superior?

    You would properly answer the question, yours. They would answer from their moral litteralist point of view. And they would be as they are today, existential threats to you and us and to themselves. IMO its a form of ignorance and further more, treason.

  • Desmond Murphy

    I agree that most places were better after America withdrew, but not everywhere. I don’t think Iraq is better than before 2003

  • I disagree strongly, at least when I think of the condition of Iraq in around 2009, before Obama accelerated prematurely our exit. At that time there was very little violence, there was no ISIS, and the country had even managed an election or two peacefully.

    We left too soon, and the result is a collapse.

    Note that after WWII we did not give up control of Germany for almost a decade, and our troops have never really left, though if the Soviet Union wasn’t a threat they could have by the mid-1970s.

    I should also add that ordinary Iraqi people routinely expressed support of our presence in every poll that was taken.

  • Edward

    “Nah, none of that can be true. My leftwing college professors told me that America is the source of all evil in the world. That must be true. They couldn’t have lied to me.”

    Robert, I agree completely, our college professors wouldn’t lie to us. Crowds cheering American soldiers in Poland is almost as likely as the Afghan president thanking our evil America for advancing freedom in his country.

    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/03/24/afghan-president-thanks-american-troops-for-advancing-freedom-in-his-country/
    “He thanked ‘the American taxpayer’ for helping to provide funding for Afghanistan’s development.”

    Such a thing would never happen.

    And if it did, what would that do to Obama’s view of America? [Trick question! Of course he would ignore such an occurrence.] Since I cannot find whether Obama said it, this American taxpayer will: You are welcome, President Ghani.

  • Abe Windsor

    In the last century, two billion people have been freed by the American Soldier.    Across history the only like militaries with large human effects we see are the Roman Legions;  Alexander’s Armies;  the Khan ‘ s Great Mongol Hordes  —  so which would you and your alknowing College Professors want to march by your home?

    In Europe military units are normally transported from home bases to deployment areas on trains.     So,  Why is the World’s Greatest General  –  Obama running the  brigades  !forward! Toward Russia on the common roads?    Is this Saber rattling in front of a Nuclear Dragon whose coffers are being drained by the price of crude oil?    A dragon who has helped build the nuclear infastructure of Iran’s wilting treasuries.

    In 2003 according to Samantha Powers one of Obama’s five women riders of the war powers. Currently what UN Ambassador and formerly of the National Security Council — Saddam’s and his killer sons were murdering 20,000 to 30,000 each month in Iraq as she said in her book Genocide.

  • Steve C

    “Could it be because we as a nation have never gone to conquer but only to liberate?”

    Mexico, Spain and a lot of indigenous people might disagree with that statement, but we have gotten out of the habit.

  • Mexico is really the only country in the world that can correctly claim the U.S. took some of its territory by military force. At the time, however, the population in the southwest was becoming increasingly dominated by Americans who had settled there and had found the Mexican government under which they lived to be very corrupt and oppressive, and wanted to be ruled by an American-run government instead. In addition, though we invaded Mexico and captured its capital, we did not stay as conquerors. In negotiating a settlement we only took the areas in the north whose populations were dominated by Americans.

    Nonetheless, we did do this. And as you say, we quickly got out of the habit.

  • pzatchok

    My little brother relates a similar story about his arrival in Israel during the first Golf War.

    His Patriot missile battery arrived in Haifa Israel about 4 in the morning local time and proceeded to drive to their designated launch sight near Mount Carmel.
    Along the way thousands of locals came out at 4 in the morning to wave the US flags and cheer for the US troops.

    Coincidentally just before they got to the Mount, Sadam launched another Scud attack on Israel. This time pretty much right at Haifa and over Mount Carmel. Subsequently my brothers unit was the only Air defense unit since WWII to setup and return fire while under fire. He remembers hearing the rocket parts fall and smelling fuel mist down on them as the scuds were blown up only a few hundred feet over their heads.

    22 hours from the moment they got orders to leave their base in Germany to firing their first missile in Israel. Including a one hours detour around unfriendly air space and an hours wait on the ground in the Haifa airport.

    The next morning an old couple walked up the mountain 5miles to thank the US solders for freeing them in WWII.
    They were treated as honored guests.

    Oh yea, a big mean imperialistic army.

  • PeterF

    And we eventually paid Mexico for the land that was annexed

  • I’m sure that Putin took note of this event and it chills me to think what may happen to the people of this city.

    But I also remember the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII. A group of civilians that had been supposedly disarmed (gun control is for safety don’t ya know) resisted without resupply for about a year while completely surrounded by the most powerful army in History to that time that was intent on their extermination. It was only until after they had run out of food and ammunition that they were dragged off to the gas chamber.

    Also people tend to have forgotten that we have won every conflict since WWII. We have just been prevented from realizing 100% victory by the progressives that insist on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. (except in Grenada where the people still love Americans and spit on the ground if you mention Castro)

  • Abe Windsor

    Then when we needed another bit, a mountain pass to form one of the five transconential railroad routes across the USA ; we bought it – The Gadsden Purchase!

    Abe Windsor

  • Kirk

    “They are one of our most loyal allies …”

    Unfortunately, the US still imposes harsher visa requirements on Poles who wish to visit the States than on citizens of most other European countries. I’m looking forward to that being straightened out when we finally manage to pass some new immigration legislation.

  • Paul

    Well, I’m in Poland and can tell you, as you very well know, that the Russians would definitely get an unforgettable and very hot greeting. And I must say I wouldn’t enjoy the buggers’ trip into this region. I would be very glad if there were squadrons of A-10 Tank Killers stationed here, and I wouldn’t be sorry to see the Raptors and Abramses, either. It is back to Cold War, if not shooting war, with the border between West and East here and those ninnies in the White House are clueless. With Obama you have to wonder not only about Iran and Israel, but also Russia and NATO. They seem to have no idea what nasty stuff they are up against. They are seriously delusional in the Beltway, and we better hope it doesn’t blow up in all our faces. I always enjoy your SpaceShow appearances. Cheers.

    Paul

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