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At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial in 1946, Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering, the commander of the Luftwaffe and one of Hitler's main advisers early on in World War II, was quoted as saying:
Why of course, the people do not want war...but, after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked.
That was a defeated war leader speaking in 1946 of the period prior to WW II when the German people were enticed to back the Nazi war plans. This is 2003. Although it is clear that the leaders of our country are attempting to use the same sort of ruse to get backing from the American people for the upcoming invasion of Iraq, it is not nearly as easy these days to fool all the people or even a significant majority. Opposition to this pending war has grown from 19% to 38% in the last six months and, after the large demonstration in Washington, D.C. last weekend, it promises to grow even larger. While there are still many who brand peaceniks as unpatriotic and a danger to the republic, Bush himself was careful to say that it is merely a sign that American political freedom is alive and well.
It has been popular among war hawks to use the Munich conference of 1938, when Czechoslovakia was abandoned to Nazi Germany in the name of peace, as an analogy as to what might happen if Saddam Hussein is not removed from power immediately. Condoleezza Rice, speaking on the subject of the apparent lack of a "smoking gun" to justify a pre-emptory strike...the Bush administration's euphemism for naked aggression...said that it is better to remove him now before a smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud is provided for us. In this case, Saddam is being compared to a potentially nuclear armed Hitler.
But is this analogy really apt? After all, it was Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939 behind thinly veiled excuses that started World War II, forcing England and France to finally live up to their commitments, having ignored previously obvious Nazi threats to do just what they did. Who is threatening to invade whom at this time? Who is quite plainly nuclear armed and has produced its own mushroom cloud smoking guns in the past?
It is possible that the threats and bluster of the U.S. government is really a colossal bluff, meant to so intimidate Hussein and the Iraqi people as to force either his overthrow or exile. Should this work, not only will it be a great "victory" for the military policy of Bush, but it will also strongly resemble the manner in which Hitler gained control of the Rhineland...in 1936 when it was being administered by France as part of the settlement of WW I...Austria...in 1938 during the Anschluss when Nazi troops gained control merely by marching into Vienna...and the Sudetenland...also in 1938 when it was part of Czechoslovakia. In those cases, not a shot was fired and Germany gained control of immense industrial capacity as well as friendly German speaking territory.
These days, the beating of the drums of war promises democracy in Arab lands...presumedly encouraged and enhanced by an easy victory of U.S. forces in Iraq...not to mention control of massive amounts of oil production now administered by countries currently with despotic governments.
What seems to be the driving momentum behind these moves is the overwhelming power of our military forces. We currently spend as much on military matters as THE NEXT 20 COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD COMBINED! That is, adding all the expenditures of Russia, France, Great Britain, Germany, China, Japan, etc., etc...we are actually spending more. Nor are these vast sums being invested in defensive force. Almost all our weaponry and all our human resources are devoted to assault. To call an aircraft carrier or a nuclear submarine or missile a defensive weapon is to engage in "newspeak" worthy of George Orwell's world of the novel 1984. No, it is clear that our "defense" systems are made to order for ATTACK. It is no wonder then, that our military, like Germany's military in the late 1930's, devotes most of its energies to
strategies of conquest, not "defense of the homeland."
We are not decrying the use of these weapons in the hands of our very patriotic armed forces. Were we soldiers, we would thank our lucky stars that our government has provided us with such wondrous weapons in time of war. If you have to fight for your life, why not have the biggest and best guns?
It is the fact of the strategy that we are against, not its implementation. Like all previous empires, by overextending ourselves in the name of "preserving the peace and stability of the (our?) world," we are creating the very conditions we hope to avoid, the decline and fall of our great nation. Don't get us wrong. In a sense we are ourselves imperialists, or, at the very least, U.S. chauvinists. We long for a world that shares our love of freedom and democracy. We glory in the spread of American culture and the English language throughout the world. And, if we are right in supposing that these values are correct and important, then they will SELL THEMSELVES. There should be no need to force them upon others. Like the Soviet Union, countries that try other, more coercive and restrictive methods will collapse. Sooner or later, the "axis of evil"...Iran, Iraq and North Korea...will join up with the modern world.
Indeed, all the evidence suggests that our ham-handed attempts to spread freedom and democracy through force are counterproductive. Whatever the outcome of the current campaign against Iraq...whether Saddam lays down his arms and flees or U.S. forces take Baghdad via house to house combat and hang him from a lamp post...it will serve as recruiting posters for Al Qaida and other medieval forces bent on forcing us and all other freedom loving people to adopt THEIR ideologies!
In the absence of U.S. aggression...under any name...does anyone seriously believe that these people can succeed? Of course, every time we take away a few more freedoms in the name of homeland security, every time we torture captive enemy agents, every time we oppress a suspect ethnic group...we are giving them victories. Still, there is no question that it is our "war footing" that encourages just such outrages.
It is said that Al Qaida and other terrorists hate us because we are free, hate us because we treat women and minorities decently, hate us because we allow all religions to flourish. But they themselves say that their reason for hating not us, but our government, is its projection of power into their homelands. This may be as big a ruse as our own government's feeble excuses for war, but who is more frightening, a passel of fanatics wielding swords and guns, or governments with thousands of nuclear weapons, tens of tons of biological and chemical weapons and seeming...but not actual...endless resources to carry on warfare?
Perhaps it is time for the American people to once again take control of our own lives. Perhaps it is time we show...BY EXAMPLE...that the way to peace, freedom and democracy is through peaceful means. It's certainly worth talking about.
Talk to you later...
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