This will hurt me...

Today's ad is best seen as a counterpoint to the previous one . Accordingly, if cute 'n fluffy, sweet little lambs with flowers in their hair cannot stir your loins for a fight, perhaps extreme violence will! I like the touch of Rambo about this one.

Picture this: much of Europe is under the yoke of a homicidal totalitarian dictatorship, entire nations' armies have been crushed and their populations as good as enslaved. Asia is currently being overrun by a similarly brutal regime. You have been attacked on the underhanded manner and have now been driven to fight a war on two fronts. The scale of this war is unprecedented in history. Young men are dying in every corner of the globe. The extreme costs of such an enterprise are putting a great burden on the nation's reserves. The public is being encouraged to purchase war bonds to aid the war effort, which may continue for many years. So you stop and you ask yourself, just what is it that we fighting for? Just why should I buy war bonds? The answer? Huh? A f*cking lamb in a bow with a laurel wreath on its head, and a flower tucked behind its ear? WTF?!?!? This is the best that she could think of?

Robert Edwards, White Death: Russia's War on Finland 1939–40 One of the most captivating (yet little known) stories of World War II concerns the valiant Finnish defence against the invading Red Army through the winter of 1939–40. The Soviet Union's invasion of Finland in November 1939 prompted a combination of shock and outrage in the international community. Yet, three months after the invasion of Poland by Germany, reaction amounted to little more than the Soviet expulsion from the already dead League of Nations. In all respects, the results of what became known as the Winter War conflict seemed a foregone conclusion. The Soviet Army was reputed to be the best in the world, and the Finns outnumbered 4 to 1 in men, 200 to 1 in tanks and 30 to 1 in aircraft. However, to everyone's surprise, the Finns resisted the Soviet advance and became an international cause celebre. For over three months and with little outside assistance (much to the shame of the West), it looked ...