okay, no doubt that putin is wrong for saying russia liberated eastern europe from the nazis. i mean, if you liberate them, they become free to govern themselves. don't just take them from tyrant to tyrant.

but, the u.s has also done this. spanish-american war, anyone? did we not supposedly liberate cuba, puerto rico, and the phillipines just to pillage their resources and claim them as territory?

even after the u.n. was set up, the u.s. was the shadowy black hand in many a puppet regime. such as vietnam. yeah we didn't colonize them, but we had south vietnam in our pocket, easy. and you have coups in south america, also perpetrated by the u.s.

but to answer your question, world war II was worth it. fdr pulled hitler's card early, but europe didn't want to go through another hellish war, which is understandable. so hitler just did his thing. and you can't have some crazed ass just taking over your country. you gotta fight back.

plus, the vaccuum of world war II changed the global power structure. europe lost many of its colonies since the powers were weak at that point. the u.s. and u.s.s.r. became the polar opposites of the world and the cold war did involve many countries. wwII is extremely significant.

but dammit, i can't stand that the history channel shows, like 8 wwII programs a day! i can't even watch anything about it anymore!

http://www.last.fm/user/rah_li/

make the trip: http://www.guardian.co.uk/america