Seriously? Stalin?

"The small town of Bedford, VA is home to 21 men who sacrificed their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It is now also the home of one of the world's few public memorial busts of communist dictator Josef Stalin. Local citizens and organizations have expressed their outrage over the installation of the bust at the National D-Day Memorial, which honored the 66th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy over the weekend. The bust of the Soviet Union's wartime leader was unveiled last week to accompany existing busts of U.S. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman as well as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. ... 94.8 percent of 429 respondents said a bust of Stalin should not be placed at the National D-Day Memorial as of Monday afternoon ... Bedford lost the most men per capita of any community in the U.S. during World War II, as the town's National Guard unit was in the front of the first wave of the attack on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. The 19 D-Day assault deaths represented about two-thirds of the brothers, sons and fathers the close-knit small town sent overseas in World War II ... The president of the D-Day Memorial Foundation, William McIntosh, did not return three calls from The Washington Times. He has told reporters that the foundation merely sought to mark Stalin's role in the war." Full Story & Pics

Is it just me or did Kruschev, as succeeding Secretary General, go about removing all statues, busts and images of Stalin as one of his first acts? All with overwhelming Party support they even went so far as to remove his body from the same tomb as Lenin's.

Look, I understand the idea of properly acknowledging history, accurately. But come on! A "bust" has a particular social connotation. I'm not saying scrub Stalin from our history books, quite the contrary. But a bust is an honorary emblem. If they sought to honor Russia's sacrifice then a bust of a Russian soldier, a Russian Jew, or Vasilly perhaps would have been appropriate in my estimation. I doubt Churchill would of approved of Stalin's mug right next to his own.

And what makes this particularly "non sequitorious" is this is a D-DAY memorial, the remarkable opening operation of the Western Front! I heard a professor, whom helped arrange this thing, defend the bust (and I paraphrase) as warranted because without Stalin there couldn't have been a D-Day. Do you know how tortured an extrapolation that is? I understand he tied up German forces in the Motherland, and that he demanded a Western front at Tehran, FINE. But there also "wouldn't of been a D-Day" without Adolf Hitler!

Please allow my own tortured extrapolation - this is where cycle and hammer tees get you. Where belts in trendy mall clothing stores with the face of Mao, Che and Stalin on them lead you.

It's utterly ridiculous.