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January 2012 Documentation for those statements is compiled in 446 pages of the 1981 book "The War Between The Generals," by David Irving.
A
personal example:
It is too
easy, and wrong, to consider that captain and those
who followed his command war
criminals. Legally, yes, morally, no. Before we had the atom bomb we firebombed Dresden with the intention of demoralizing the population; there were no substantial military installations there. We firebombed Tokyo for the same reason: More recently, we had Abu Ghraib. Understandable vengeance for the enemy's previous behavior.
That is
not who we are, but that is who some of us
are. January 2012 All of which brings to mind that pre-Pearl Harbor, and since, isolationists of both the Left and Right suspected that Roosevelt was angling to get us into the war. Certainly, his aid to England was not the action of a neutral nation. Many Americans, probably the majority, were/are aghast that one could suspect the President of the United States of such devious behavior. Rereading the 1939-1943 diaries of Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Mussolini's son-in-law, I re-encountered the following entry. I present the entire text, adding emphasis to the comment re Roosevelt.
Ciano's December 7 entry deals with Libya, Tunisia, DeGaulle, Ribbentrop, battles in the horn of Africa. No mention of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His December 8 entry reports that Ribbentrop "is joyful over the Japanese attack on the United States." Ciano goes on to worry, "American will enter the conflict, and the conflict will be long enough to permit her to put into action all her potential strength." Josef Goebbels, in his diaries, repeatedly commented on what he saw as Roosevelt's difficulties trying to convince an isolationist nation, not just politicians, that America should get involved in the European war. But the German leader, like the Italian Ciano, was almost dismissive of America. Context is what matters. America's actions were, until years later, of marginal concern except for those nations who hoped we might save them.
China, Japan, South Korea working toward a free trade agreement Going further, the two nations are considering forming a tripartite agreement with South Korea.
Dec 2011 Context is what matters Which war do we start next? OK, we're out of Iraq, sort-of, but our country seems compelled to have a potential enemy in sight. Currently, there are three: China, Iran, and North Korea. Most likely is that Israel will find it necessary to preemptively attack Iran, a country which unlike Syria will counterattack and probably find two or three Arab nations who will join it. And we will be told that an attack on Israel is an attack on us, even though Israel began the whole mess with its umpteenth preemptive strike in the area. We have no prospective Allies who will help us in the Mideast as Japan might help us in Asia, despite the Yellow vs. White issue. Context is what matters All of which brings to mind that pre-Pearl Harbor, and since, isolationists of both the Left and Right suspected that Roosevelt was angling to get us into the war. Certainly, his aid to England was not the action of a neutral nation. Many Americans, probably the majority, were/are aghast that one could suspect the President of the United States of such devious behavior. Rereading the 1939-1943 diaries of Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Mussolini's son-in-law, I re-encountered the following entry. I present the entire text, adding emphasis to the comment re Roosevelt.
Ciano's December 7 entry deals with Libya, Tunisia, DeGaulle, Ribbentrop, battles in the horn of Africa. No mention of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His December 8 entry reports that Ribbentrop "is joyful over the Japanese attack on the United States." Ciano goes on to worry, "American will enter the conflict, and the conflict will be long enough to permit her to put into action all her potential strength." Josef Goebbels, in his diaries, repeatedly commented on what he saw as Roosevelt's difficulties trying to convince an isolationist nation, not just politicians, that America should get involved in the European war. But the German leader, like the Italian Ciano, was almost dismissive of America. Context is what matters. America's problems were, until years later, of marginal concern except for those nations who hoped we might save them.
China, Japan, South Korea working toward a free trade agreement Going further, the two nations are considering forming a tripartite agreement with South Korea.
Hispanic, female, and Republican
Thinking the Unthinkable Yet, none of those countries deploys armies abroad to protect themselves. Instead, operating through NATO, they send a limited number of troops here and there to help out, in Afghanistan mostly.
No one has captured bin Laden (hiding in caves and issuing audio and video threats), but the evidence is pretty conclusive that Al Qaeda is less centrally organized than our Tea Party. It is now questionable whether "If we go after them over there, they won't come here" remains a valid policy -- either in terms of dead/wounded or of money. If we pull out out of Afghanistan and Iraq, the threat of mainland violence becomes no greater than what Europe is experiencing.
Maintaining most of our hundreds of strategic military installations around the world, we retain our ability to mount punitive and preemptive strikes against activities or threats by Islamists or others. We don't desert the Afghans or the Iraqis. Instead, we continue to offer appropriate financial and in-kind aid indefinitely. Exactly as we have been offering Israel since its founding and Egypt for decades. The financial cost will be billions less. Fringe benefit: The money saved by bringing our troops and equipment home can be used (a) by Republicans to reduce the federal debt or (b) by Democrats to fund new and existing domestic programs.
Those moderate
Muslims It is just as impossible to erase the image of Arabs dancing in the streets in celebration of the 9/11 attack as it is to forget the attack itself. In America, one can't help wonder why no sizeable number of Moderate Muslim voices are being heard in the current debate about the Ground Zero mosque. A guess: Moderate Muslims are as fearful as Danish and Dutch Christians are of being killed for expressing any negative reaction to the behavior of militant Islamists. Dissenting Catholic priests get defrocked. Protesting Protestant clergy get demoted. Not since Spinoza, 500 years ago, has a Jewish heretic been in fear of his life. And those continual reports about stoning adulterous couples or deliberately crippling a man who had crippled another don't help, in these days when "an eye for an eye" is considered part of mankind's primitive past by most of us. However, that very fear which Moderate Muslims share with us non-Muslims justifies the increasing suspicion in the West that, whoever started it, a new Crusade -- though a secular one -- is under way. Pakistan is becoming worrisome for the U.S. about everything from its willingness really to take on the Taliban and its apparent drive to increase its nuclear weapon capability. It is conceivable that this ally will some day become an adversary. Remember, the wise nation doesn't have permanent allies, but permanent interests. We have to understand that that concept applies to Pakistan as well as to America. -- 20 May 09 April 2009 § Americans proudly remember that Jesse Owens won four gold medals during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Forgotten or, more likely, ignored because Hitler made such a big deal out of promoting Aryan race superiority, is that Germany won more medals than any other nation. § President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, is simultaneously pro-American and skeptical of what he and other Europeans call "Anglo-Saxon" market capitalism. His pragmatism shows, too, in reversing De Gaulle's withdrawal from NATO. An anecdote from that time puts the French Anglo-Saxon mindset into another context. It is said that when De Gaulle called President Johnson to announce France's withdrawal from NATO, he added that all American service personnel should be removed from French soil. Johnson is said to have replied, "Does that include those buried in it?" A recent BBC piece tied that anecdote to an analysis of the people killed on D-Day: Of the 4,572 allied servicemen who died that day, 19 of them, 0.4%, were French. 37 were Norwegian. 1 was Belgian. The rest were from the English-speaking world -- 2 New Zealanders, 13 Australians, 359 Canadians, 1,641 Britons, and 2,500 Americans. Ah, yes. Anglo-Saxons. March 2009 § Alberta (AP) - Former President George W. Bush says he won't criticize President Barack Obama because Obama "deserves my silence," and says he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office. Bush's speech Tuesday at a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta was his first since leaving office. Then there's Jimmy Carter. § AIG was/is irresponsible, even stupid. Not all those execs who accepted their bonuses are greedy or at fault (we don't know how many of the lower-paid guys were middle management with no real power to set corporate policy). I'm more concerned that this Democratic Administration is on a tear to establish an authoritarian government. It's almost understandable for government to say -- to an organization -- "Accept our money and you have to accept our conditions." But to use an Act of Congress to punish individuals has until now been more expected from a Latin American dictatorship. The courts are there to challenge that internal AIG contract with the execs. Legislation is a bit of an overstep and worries us libertarian types and reinforces our growing recognition that we may have to take to the streets, metaphorically and actually, to challenge the control-freak mindset of this Democratic Administration and Congress -- FJV: 25 Mar 09.
Jury or Judge: which is better? § The middle class, though differently described, is growing around the world -- in democratic countries, authoritarian countries, even in dictatorships. Using the definition of middle class as "people who do not live from hand to mouth, job to job, season to seas, as poor people do," researchers are seeing this phenomenon as leading to a global middle class which on balance can lead only to a betterment of mankind. February 2009 § Okay, let's agree that Europe made a mistake by inviting millions of Muslims as "guest workers" and such. And, let's pretend that by enforcing a few tough immigration laws, Europeans can force most of Muslims back home. Would that solve the problem? Not unless the Europeans begin having more kids. With their current birth rate, Western European nations are ripe for invasion by masses of Muslims whose population pressure alone will give them dominion over time, as has happened repeatedly throughout history to empires as powerful as Egypt, Assyria, China, Rome. § The average European worker, in 2005, took off 11.3 days, compared with 4.5 days for the average American worker, reports a Belgian study, which also reports that "some [Belgian] government departments were averaging 35 days of paid sick leave per employee" for several years. The report contained the usual anecdotes about men with alleged back problems caught doing heavy lifting on off-the-books work while on sick-leave. And the female who boasts that the law permits her to declare stress or depression and get sick-leave about 20 times a year.
§
Where are the Greeks when you need them? 1) Angry at Athens for leading a revolt against his rule, Darius the Great first engaged the Athenians and a thousand other Greeks at the Battle of Marathon, His much larger army, armed primarily with bows and arrows, was outflanked by the Greeks, armed chiefly with spears. 6,400 Persians were killed; fewer than 200 Greeks died. 2) Under Darius's son Xerxes, 200,000 Persians (and Libyans and Ethiopians) were stopped by 300 Spartans, led by their king Leonidas, at the Thermopylae pass. All the Spartans died but not until Xerxes had been slowed enough to enable the Athenians to leave the city. 3) Xerxes occupied deserted Athens and chased the Greeks with his large naval fleet. His Persian vessels, heavy and slow, were sunk, captured, or chased away by the the lighter, faster Greek ships at the Battle of Salamis. After one last, unsuccessful, land battle a few months later, no Persian army ever again set foot in Greece.
For those readers who have forgotten their history: An argument against deferring to
International Law Had Germany won the war, such language would have made criminals out of Eisenhower, leaders of the British and American air forces, and every pilot and crew member who participated in, say, the indiscriminate bombing of Dresden or Berlin and the fire-bombing of Tokyo. General Mark Clark would be guilty for destroying historic Monte Cassino -- unnecessarily, as it turned out. Infantrymen could be declared criminals for throwing a grenade into a house, later found empty, from which they had been taking fire. Truman, of course, would be a war criminal despite the fact that his decision to use the atomic bomb saved up to two million lives -- Japanese, as well as American and Allied: military personnel and civilians who would have been killed from the fighting to invade Japan. Political and military treaties between consenting countries are fine. Mutually accepted commercial law applied to multinational business transactions makes sense. But no way should Americans have the right to declare "criminal" an indigenous practice we may consider savage or primitive in other countries. So we should never commit troops to prevent, say, Muslims from cutting off the hands of thieves or stoning an adulteress in their own country. Which gives us the absolute right to oppose, philosophically and militarily, any county or coalition which attempts to superimpose Islamic practices on our culture. Taking this approach further, de Gaulle was within his rights to withdraw France from NATO -- and we would be within our rights to withdraw from the United Nations, at the same time as Obama and H. Clinton work to establish direct contact with Iran and North Korea and, I hope, Cuba. Finally, Jackson cites several sources which contend that "Every state is alone judge of whether in a given case it is waging a war of self-defense . . . even if later events proved that judgment mistaken." Notice, he says "mistaken," not "criminal." If all this sounds convoluted and cumbersome, that's because it is, just as are our joint attempts with other nations to get out of the messy financial/economic mess the world is currently experiencing. January 2009
§
This means war! BERLIN: No wonder the European Union is often ridiculed when it comes to dealing with a major international crisis. As Israel stepped up its ground offensive in Gaza and Hamas continued to fire rockets, two groups of top European politicians rushed - some would say belatedly - to the region. . . The Europeans have long argued that they understand the region far better than the United States because of their history and geography. But Middle East experts are not convinced. Rather than dealing with the core issue, which is the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and virtual siege of Gaza, they say the Europeans have become distracted with Palestinian religious fundamentalism. -- International Herald Tribune December 2008 § Arguments for and against creating a "League of Democracies" are presented in the November/December 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs. The suggestion comes from those who have become convinced that the United Nations -- where democracies are largely outnumbered -- will never serve the needs of liberal nations. As one who long ago suggested that the UN be evicted from the U.S., I sympathize with the hope behind forming a league, but the last thing the world needs is another formal multinational organization. Instead, I recommend ignoring the UN, winding down NATO (thus encouraging the Europeans to defend themselves) and conducting foreign affairs with flexible and ever-changing, strictly need-to-cooperate, bilateral or multilateral agreements. These groupings can address anything from humanitarian issues to arms control, from trade to space exploration. NAFTA and current Russian/American space programs are examples. Then, terminate each agreement as it accomplishes its goals -- or proves ineffective. -- Dec 2008
§ Kosovo honors George Bush § We freedom-lovers lost the battle to keep CITCOM from mandating Internet filters at our Library. But we can take solace in learning that Iran has ordered Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block more than 5 million sites which inflict "social, political, and moral damage" with dissent or pornography or anti-Islamic material. On a roll, the Iranian government charges the European Union with seeking to develop "anti-Iranian cyberspace." -- Nov 2008
'The Beginning Of Hope?' § MOSCOW: A top Russian energy official said China will provide Russian oil firms with "considerable" loans in return for increased oil supplies as Moscow and Beijing agreed on details of a new pipeline linking the two countries. BEIJING: Chinese and Taiwanese officials signed agreements in Taiwan on Tuesday expanding charter flights, maritime shipping and cooperation on food safety issues, bringing the mainland and island governments closer together as both sides struggle to overcome economic slowdowns. The agreements were finalized on what was the second day of a planned five-day visit to Taiwan by a mainland delegation led by Chen Yunlin, the head of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, the main negotiating body for China in matters related to Taiwan. AFRICA: Transportation companies like DHL, Dubai World, and several Chinese companies which supply oil and mining projects in Africa are working to improve the continent's almost dysfunctional transportation systems. One explanation of why cargoes can be stuck at the port where it arrives for three weeks: "roadblocks, bribes, pot-holes, mud-drifts, malarial fevers, prostitutes, hyenas, and soldiers on the road at night." At the moment, there is nothing like a transcontinental highway, and there are only a few "broken-down" railways. One American study has found that it costs more to ship a ton of wheat from Mombasa in Kenya to Kampala in Uganda than to ship it from Chicago to Mombasa. § The Iraqi government is making demands on the U.S. about everything from our right to attack Syria from Iraqi territory to the right to try U.S. troops and contractors in Iraqi courts. And they're telling us they want us gone by 2011. We have succeeded in establishing a fledgling democracy in the Middle East. § Ah, the pluses and minuses of globalization. Wall Street's poor October (markets down 16%) was reflected worldwide. Markets were down 24% in Brazil, 25% in China, 24% in Japan, 13% in Europe. -- Nov 2008
§ The Economist endorses Obama.
§
"There
is respect for our religion here," said Nadia Qualane, 14, her hair
covered by a black headscarf. The religion is Islam. The
"here" is a Catholic school in France.
Despite its historically fierce determination to remain secular in
all things, and withdrawing all financial support or even
recognition of anything religious, that country has found it helpful
to pay teachers' salaries and a per student subsidy to Catholic
schools which teach the "national curriculum" and and are open
to students of all faiths. That curriculum bans any religious
instruction "beyond general examination of religious tenets and
faiths as it occurs in history lessons." Religious instruction, such
as Catholic catechism, is "strictly voluntary."
-- International Herald Tribune
An example of the concept that education funds should follow the
student.
§
Russia is cozying up to a couple of lefty Latin American countries.
Russia has sent a couple of its naval vessels into the area. Russia
makes sounds about helping this or that Latin American country
develop nuclear technology. Should we be afraid? No.
Should we be concerned? Yes. But that's life. After all, we have a
strong ally, Turkey, on Russia's border (like our Mexico). We are
pushing our Western power down Russia's throat by moving NATO and
the European Union ever closer to its western border.
This is not to preach "moral equivalence." It's
merely realpolitik: Be strong. Always remain on-guard. But don't
panic when everything doesn't go our way. Don't confuse ideology
with pragmatics. We will succeed and fail as the world agrees with
or challenges our behavior and values: economic, social, military, political,
cultural.
§
Let's see. Like any mature nation the United States should have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests . -- 09 Jul 08Source Unknown When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building' by George Bush. He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return. . . . You could have heard a pin drop. Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?' A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?' . . . You could have heard a pin drop.
§ There are those anti-American Americans who delight in finding flaw with our nation, and who cannot resist judging the good against the perfect. They completely ignore, for example, that "poverty" in the United States is largely a statistical construct, that our poor live in luxury compared to the poor in most other nations. "Ah, but Europe -- especially Scandinavia -- has no poverty like ours," some contend. Tell you what: Go to www.Ask.com and enter this 3-word search: "Denmark" and "poverty". Be prepared for a surprise. § A worldwide phenomenon? § "The African Press has been reporting on Bush's visit there with affection." -- Newsweek I told you so!
Bring the Troops home -- from that
Balkan mess In that context, I'm all for removing all U.S. troops and equipment from the Balkans, which is a European trouble spot. Let Europeans assume total responsibility for the Serbia-Kosovo-Macedonia-Bosnia mess, including ethnic cleansing. Unless our interests are directly threatened by some action of either Christian or Muslim entities, let's remove ourselves from this "war of choice" and let the Europeans handle their own problems. -- 13 Feb 08§ At the same time as French President Nicolas Sarkozy is working to improve France's relationship with the United States he -- taking advantage of his country's long involvement with the Arab/Muslim world -- is working to create a common European foreign policy, beginning, perhaps, with a "Mediterranean Union." The concept is that eight southern European countries and ten North African and Middle Eastern ones (including Libya) would have their own EU-style council of governments., reports The Economist. Good show! What a relief it will be if Europe again resumes some responsibility for establishing and maintaining economic and military security in its former sphere of influence. Foreign Affairs
Fatigue taking effect?
Then What?
Pull out of Baghdad and establish staging areas.
Protecting national borders
Socialism gone sour So said Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president of Action Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in an address delivered at Hillsdale College in October 2006. Contending that to hold on to a doctrine that is demonstrably false "is to abandon all pretense of objectivity," Rev. Sirico looks at real world developments and summarizes:
Rev. Sirico concluded with a quotation from Pope John Paul II re the impact of economic initiative:
Two views
International name-calling has
long tradition When we recall that Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the "evil empire," we might be tempted to think that such name-calling is a strictly Republican characteristic -- until we learn that Democrat Franklin Roosevelt referred to Japan, Germany, and Italy as "bandit nations." Taking it further, if extremist Muslims want to declare "jihad" against the West, let's declare "crusade" against Muslim extremists.
Europe is struggling with
immigration problems
Canada has troubles with its
Indians
Decades ago, dynamic left-leaning but pragmatic prime minister Pierre Trudeau suggested mainstreaming the First Nation population: Total assimilation. No reservations. No special programs not available to the general population. The white majority gasped. The aborigines preferred to maintain their miserable life on the reservation. Of course, there are always gambling casinos. -- Oct 06Double jeopardy set
aside -- After 800 years of legal precedent, Great Britain in 2003 enacted double-jeopardy reform which permits re-trial -- for serious crimes like murder and rape -- if "new and compelling" evidence has been found. In mid-September 2006, the first conviction under the new law jailed a man, found not guilty 15 years earlier, for strangling a young mother. Something the U.S. might consider. -- Sep 2006 Think
permanent, unending war Obviously, nothing we Satans of the West do, or don't do, will mollify the extremists. Their "root cause" is death to the infidels. From their caves and their cells they repeatedly declare war, and I take them at their word. Can we adjust? Sure, we can, just as we did during the decades of the Cold War -- living pretty normally domestically while using economic power, diplomacy, and military power as needed to conduct foreign affairs. -- 20 Sep 06 An
unwelcome test for U.S. diplomacy With friends like that . . .
Gut-level
negativism at its worst (best?) It's enough to make
Bush-haters gag. Summer soldiers, all. --- 14 June 2006 Canada
holds suspected terrorist for 4 years No comment out of Ottawa about current news reports that "Canada has deported to an unspecified nation an Algerian man held for four years as a suspected plotter of a millennium bombing of Los Angeles airport." Four years? Unspecified nation? Suspected plotter? He was treated humanely, of course. -- Jan 2006 Churchill
at War: Kill 'em all. Considering other Nazi officials "outlaws," he argued that they too should be summarily executed, not put on trial. Any question how Churchill would handle today's terrorists? -- FJV [See Canada, below. Does it
matter? Will our world come to an end? It helps to keep in mind that Asia
managed to survive and grow for decades while importing American and European
steel. Despite enacting import-duties to protect American steel companies, of
which several failed, prices went up, but the U.S. economy is now on a
40-month roll of continual growth. Guns kill
people? People kill people? Facts are so disturbing of preconceptions! Some
American Jews worry that "Reform Jewish leaders have put what they presume to the the secular equivalent to Judaism above the interests of Judaism itself. The Union for Reform Judaism stands for many causes. It's no longer clear that Jews count among them," says Lawrence F. Kaplan, senior editor of the New Republic. Health Care in
China Pension reform in
Great Britain Health Care in
Canada In some provinces, courts are trying to decide whether patients have the right to shorten those waits by seeking medical care privately, an option which is generally illegal in Canada. -- Dec 2005 Technology strikes again Mothers can administer the paste at home and not have to leave crops or other family members unattended to go sit outside distant health clinics waiting for treatment. Already Plumpy nut has been used to save thousands of infants in Africa. -- Nov 2005 Turkey moves to de-stigmatize
homosexuality Whether this liberal movement will stand in the Muslim world is being watched both by those who support it and by those who oppose it. -- Nov 2005 Terrorism is not a
law-and-order matter "To respond to terrorism as a law-and-order problem is to do what the terrorists want -- to sap your strength. No amount of security can stop terrorism if the nation is reluctant to go after terrorist cells and networks and those who harbor extremists." -- 13 Nov 2005
They are going to teach us
how to run a country? France and Germany have 10% unemployment, overall, 20-40 among Muslims in France. Germany with two leading parties, neither a majority party, is into its third month after the election of trying to form a governing coalition. Key cabinet members are resigning in Great Britain, following a couple of scandals. Canada is embroiled in scandals related to on-again/off-again separatist movements by French Canadians. Bolivia is trying to sort out redistricting problems which affect the Presidential election. Zimbabwe's government admits its confiscation of white-owned farms has contributed to that country's massive crop failure. Is it necessary to go on? -- 09 Nov 05 The rights of
criminals Even in the United Kingdom, which like the U.S. has an adversarial legal system, if the defendant refuses to testify, "the judge will draw unfavorable inferences," one legal essay reports. Further, European judges "cannot understand how we can justify exclusion of known and reliable truth from a judicial inquiry." The American system of justice "puts a premium on skill, adroitness, even trickery on both sides," suggests another European. Those overseas critics think that having the defendant's counsel watching a line-up is stupid and an actual conflict of interest; that insisting on jury trials for civil, as well as criminal, cases is wasteful. No changes in the American system of justice seem forthcoming soon, but it's good not to lose sight of procedural options which work successfully elsewhere. License opium as a painkiller? [See] It worked in
Afghanistan Although some 20,000 American and NATO troops remain and will be needed for several years -- special forces to run down those Taliban fighters who hope to frighten democracy away -- Afghanistan, though not perfect, has to be characterized as one successful battle in the war on terror. Iraq is next.
"They preserved peace by constant preparation for war; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines that they were as little disposed to endure as to offer an injury." -- Edward Gibbons, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Democrats Flee
Peace Protests . . . The anti-war movement's "leading lady Cindy Sheehan offered a tepid excuse" for Senator Clinton's absence. Quoting Sheehan: "She knows that the war is a lie, but she is waiting for the right time to say it." Speaking for himself, the writer opines: "I have been thinking for a while now that the Democrats should sit down and consider changing their mascot from a donkey to a marmot. A rodent really is more emblematic for their provincial habits than a donkey could ever be." The writer, Joshua Frank, is author of a book called Left Out: How Liberals Helped Re-elect George W. Bush, published by Common Courage Press. -- 11 Oct 05 Disaster Relief
coming from Israel According to the news service, Israel has asked for $2 billion in aid from the U.S. and is concerned about any ripple effect from the mindset that led to the apparent rejection of Katrina help. Muslim
asks: Learning from history -- It is estimated that 20 million were neither battle causalities nor bombing victims but were murdered. Of those 20 million, in Europe, six million were Jews. I have seen no authoritative estimates concerning the other 14 million victims: the mentally ill, homosexuals, Protestant and Catholic clergy, Gypsies, political dissidents, Slavs. Although Hitler conveniently used the war to implement his hope to exterminate all Jews, his three clearly stated geopolitical goals were :
As horrible as was the Holocaust, it is a distortion of history and a disservice to all the others who suffered persecution or were killed -- and an unfair burden on Jews -- to contend that Hitler's core-motivation was anti-Semitism when he absorbed Austria and Czechoslovakia, then invaded Poland . Students of history deserve better. -- FJV date 2005 Already in 1964, some Americans
and European complained of -- That excerpt appears early in a long 1964 essay dealing with European attitudes toward America. The author, Milton Mayer, had already cited a Frenchman who 100 years earlier, in 1867, had warned that Americans would "subjugate our spirit, change our mores and institutions, and overthrow the equilibrium of the civilized world." Mayer, who did not hesitate to cite American arrogance and occasional bad judgments over time, also cited the apparently never-ending litany of European complaints about us. The following excerpts demonstrate the tone and content of the comments.
Just a few more tidbits to suggest that anti-American feelings did not begin after Nine-Eleven.
Learning from History Learning from History -- Furthermore, since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents of three of the great religions of mankind, and its soil has been consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of devout people of these three religions for many centuries, therefore do I make known to you that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer, of whatever form of the three religions, will be maintained and protected according the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacred. The above proclamation was made in December 1917 by English General Edmund Allenby, as the Allies completed their defeat of the Ottoman Empire, as well as of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Until that moment, Jerusalem had been under Turkish control for 400 years. Provides a bit of perspective, eh? History repeats itself -- 3
History repeating itself -- 2 That was President Woodrow Wilson speaking, after 12 senators (seven Republicans, five Democrats) -- demonstrating "pacifists' bitter animosity" -- prevented 75 other senators from passing legislation to authorize Wilson to arm American merchant ships to defend against Germany's submarine warfare against neutrals. Today, of course, the same impasse is preventing up-or-down votes on President Bush's nominations for federal appellate court judges. Wilson's suggested remedy: "There is but one remedy. The only remedy is that the rules of the Senate shall be so altered that it can act." Today, the debate is about the wisdom, or not, of implementing that "nuclear option" in the fight over judges. On 08 March 1917, the Senate changed its rules and suspended "the right to unlimited debate" (read: filibuster). And the nation survived. 07 April 2005 Boy, does history ever repeat
itself The polar positions were clear: 1) Americans have every right to book passage or serve as crew members on any ship they please, or 2) Americans should be forbidden to travel on any belligerent ships during the war. A secondary impasse was caused by controversy over the logic of attempting to restrict Germany's submarine warfare while approving Britain's blockade which was measurably beginning to starve Germany and which some influential internationalists considered illegal and immoral. A now-forgotten fact is that much of American opinion back then was anti-British and pro-German, so much so that Germany felt it appropriate to suggest that the U.S. and Germany work together to break the British blockade. The split between President Woodrow Wilson and his Congressional opponents led by a Senator Gore, of Oklahoma, reached the point that Gore publicly accused Wilson of sneakily trying to get America into the war. As it developed, Germany's submarine-behavior and its less than diplomatic exchange of messages with the United States swung opinion against it and helped avoid the embarrassment of the Congress officially disagreeing with the foreign policy of the President. Even without the Senator Gore connection, does history repeat itself or what! 31 March 2005 Conspiracy Buffs &
International Affairs Roosevelt-haters to this day contend that the President knew the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor and kept quiet because he was looking for a casus belli to justify getting American into the war. A few conspiracy-minded went further, saying that Winston Churchill learned about the pending Japanese attack, then a) told or b) did not tell Roosevelt. Whether you believe a or b depends on how much you hate(d) Roosevelt. FJV 10 March 2005 Why shouldn't Iran go nuclear? Domino Effect? It is in Lebanon that the "Arab streets" are speaking, not in the actions of the terrorists. Neither is concern about worldwide hostile Islamic revolution new. As World War I opened, those who feared taking on the Ottoman Empire warned that the "Mohammedans" would erupt into a "holy war" pitting the "colored" races against Europe. Oh, well, perhaps someday the perennial pessimists of the world will prove right. FJV 03 March 2005 Classical Greece used
homosexual couples in battle The "Sacred Band of Thebes" -- 300 soldiers, specifically 150 homosexual couples -- for several decades, ended in 338 B.C., were considered the most proficient practitioners of the formidable Theban phalanx. The concept was that " . . . the desire to protect and impress one's lover would bring out the best fighting spirit in each soldier. No one would dishonor himself or his partner by fleeing battle and bringing shame upon them both." Tradition has it that following his victory over
the Greeks in a battle when
the Sacred Band died to the last man, the Macedonian Phillip II commented,
"Perish any man who suspects that these men did or suffered anything that
was base." A follow-up to earlier
comments --
Citing what he sees as similarities between the Roman Empire and U.S. power in the late Fifties, de Riencourt warns that the American president is "one man . . . directly in command, either as peacetime President or wartime Commander in Chief, of more than half the globe’s economic and technical power." Citing European nations’ centuries-old mutual hatred of each other as one reason that the United States was able to grow strong, and the "invisible but powerful empire of the Dollar" as another, the French writer ends his book: "Caesarism in America does not have to challenge the Constitution as in Rome or engage in civil warfare and cross any fateful Rubicon. It can slip in quite naturally, discretely, through constitutional channels."
In this book, Servan-Schreiber calls for "the urgent economic reunification of Europe as the only way to meet the growing threat of American industrial colonialism."
[In Africa] "Washington will follow in the footsteps of the French and begin placing trusted American Negroes in key positions throughout the continent, many of whom could even become citizens of the African countries in which they reside while serving the interests of the United States." "American and Russians . . . will abide by the rules of the game . . . while jointly ruling the world." [Asia] . . . "saw in American imperialism the historical European colonialism . . . ." America is attempting the "Hawaiianization of the Orient." Those samples from de Riencourt’s book – who wrote at a time when many of the world’s intellectuals were certain that communism/socialism would rule the world -- are examples of fundamental misreadings of the American character by those who feared and resented America’s rise to dominance in world affairs.
In this book, Servan-Schrieber finds fault with both European and American commercialized society, and blames the U.S. for leading the way to a depersonalized, unhappy society. Pretty much as some American sociologists of the time saw machines, computers, consumerism, capitalism, large-scale agriculture, militarism – saw all those developments, not as freeing humankind but, instead, as trapping all of us under the control of those few in charge of the "economic motorway." His solution is a "radical alternative" which in his view puts politics, not the economy, in charge of the world. Recognizing that his proposed solutions impose controls over personal decisions, Servan-Schreiber attempts to soften the blow with statements like: "It is not a question of taking children away from their parents; it is a question of showing imagination and helping parents, through large-scale action, to stimulate the awakening of intelligence in their children." Never forgetting to blame America, the French writer repeatedly tosses off assertions like, "America is the prime example [of that] pauperization which is a marked tendency of" industrialized society. All these books are well-written and contain much helpful historical perspective. At the core, though, de Reincourt and Servan-Schriver demonstrated a France-focused anti-American bias decades before Iraq/Bush. 22 July 2004 So they don't love us anymore
. . . As all countries do, or should do, France puts her self-interest first. Over the centuries, she has allied herself with other Continental powers to fight England or with Russia and England to contain Germany or whatever alliance serves its purpose at the moment. As a nineteenth century colonial power in Africa, France developed close relationships with Arab and Muslim leaders, using them to help control the black population. France went so far as to discourage Christian missions and to promote Islam to extend French power. Her African Empire was described by one historian as "the world's largest Moslem country." It is not coincidental, therefore, that France currently disagrees with the U.S.'s automatic pro-Israel posture or that the French population's frequent disagreement with Israeli foreign policy is labeled anti-Semitic by some. Nor is it coincidental that France is attempting to take the lead in building a stronger, more independent European entity -- politically and militarily, as well as economically -- to counter America's dominance in all three of those arenas. (Voice leaves for another time the exploration of the pluses and minuses for the U.S. if Europe becomes stronger and independent.) During our Civil War, Great Britain -- looking to its self-interest -- came close to recognizing the Confederate States as an independent country, and it stationed troops in Canada in anticipation of invading New England to help defeat the North. Latin American countries cheered when the U.S. helped them break free from Spanish colonialism. Once independent, they became resentful of what they continue to call "dollar imperialism." Haiti wants U.S. Marines in or out, depending on the crisis-of-the moment. At no time in U.S. history have we been universally loved. Even as we fought to help Great Britain survive and to free France, leaders in both those countries worked openly and behind the scenes to diminish our influence -- especially hoping to weaken our post-war impact on their pre-war designs. Voice has previously commented on Italians' lack of gratitude, since they perceived us to be acting in our self-interest when we rebuilt Europe after World War II. All the above to help us remember that the U.S. should feel no guilt, after deliberation, for acting in our self-interest. We can afford to feel sadness and disappointment if other countries don't like us at a given moment, but knowing that these likes and dislikes come from centuries of cultural history, it is simplistic to blame current likes and dislikes on Bush -- or on Truman (supporting Greece and Turkey against the USSR) or on Eisenhower (threatening to use The Bomb to reach a Korean truce) or on Reagan (ignoring protest riots in Rome, Bonn, Paris and saving Europe by installing mid-range missiles on the Continent). I suppose there were those who loved us more during Carter's administration when we lost Angola, lost Afghanistan, had hostages in Iran for over a year, were told to turn down the thermostat and wear sweaters, and were advised to stop seeing Communists under every bed. --17 June 2004 |
15 Brainstorming ideas about foreign policy That "hockey stick" case for global warming. Misreading Hitler's anti-Semitism American Jews disagree re Iraq Should the Pope apologize for the Irish Terrorists? God give us courage & patience Courage, patience needed to overcome anti-war protests Anti-U.S. terrorism began in 1979 Did France ever like the United States? Hundred Years War . . . War of the Roses . . . Seven Years War . . . England and France have fought forever [Go] The U.S. Senate's "unlimited right to debate" (read, filibuster) has been suspended before. [See] Conspiracy buffs hated Roosevelt, hate Rice/Rumsfeld/Bush. [See] Every war experiences a shortage of weapons, materials. [See] Classical Greece used homosexual couples in battle. [See] Arab Street speak: our own Domino Effect [See] Why shouldn't Iran go nuclear? So they don't love us anymore
. . . Already in 1964, Europeans were complaining about the Americanization of Europe. England and France fight most wars in Europe?
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