The Donald absolutely ripping into the krauts, here.

[Burney]

Stalin delayed awar he wasn't prepared for in order to fight onetwo years later that he was barely prepared for. Did we not carve up Czechoslovakia to avoid war with Germany? Why is it ok for us to do so despite it affecting millions of people somewhere else but morally reprehensible when Stalin does it?

As far as the Far East is concerned, yes, the tide eventually turned. But not in the period you were talking about. Following US involvement, of course.

As for refusing to ally ourselves with untrustworthy commies....errrr, isnt that exactly what we ended up doing anyway, as Stalin dealt Hitler a fatal wound on the Eastern front. The initial refusal to talk to them might appear slightly misjudged given that victory ultimately relied on striking Germany from both sides simultaneously.

Certainly Stalin knew there would eventually be war with Germany. However, he was totally unprepared and in denial in 1941 - so much so that he refused to believe his own intelligence services when they told him Germany was going to attack - even after they'd actually invaded, in fact. He had lost six million troops by early 1942 - that is not my idea of 'barely prepared' and, if it was as a result of calculation, I'd say those calculations had been pretty flawed, wouldn't you?

The tide turned in the Far East in part because we were out there rather than 'sitting, defending our island' as you suggested.

We didn't occupy Czechoslovakia and start murdering people as far as I'm aware, p, so that comparison doesn't work.

We allied with Russia because we had a common enemy - no other reason. And of course, as soon as the common enemy disappeared, Stalin showed that we had been right not to trust him before the war by immediately reverting to type, grabbing the whole of Eastern Europe and trying to seize Berlin.