Subject: turneth away wrath?
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Mon Sep 17 2001 - 03:11:07 GMT
'... We don't understand that why of the war culture ...'
That's a charming protestation of innocence, Cec, & I can
understand where it comes from on a week such as this.
But, of course, it won’t wash. From the confirmation of
your country’s Union in the first modern war to the Tokyo
fire-raids & through four assassinated Presidents to the latest
multiple school shooting, Americans have been just as much
at home with the gun & with violence – perhaps more so –
than the rest of us.
It’s that word ‘home’ that seems to me to be the key.
Until Tuesday the Eleventh, America’s wars were all taking
place in another century or another place. It appals me
to look at the aerial shots of Manhatten this morning –
but to a German or Russian contemporary they must seem
small beer. Five thousand people died last week in New York.
Yet twenty times that number were killed in one night
in Hamburg by the outfit to which I once had the great
honour to belong. This is the way the world is: filthy
& complicated & horrible. And, even for Americans now
it seems, there’s no more escaping it.
You people saved the rest of us in two global wars. I remember
so vividly longing, longing, longing in the winter of 1940
that you’d come & help us. And how we loathed the isolationist
voices, the Joe Kennedys, the Lindberghs who advised steering
clear, preserving the Munroe Doctrine, not getting your hands
dirty in foreign wars.
I think I detect the same tones now: the voices urging forebearance
& an understanding of your assailant. Be reasonable, they say,
don’t strike back, see where he’s coming from, be a little more
generous – and so on. Which is exactly what the statemen of
the Thirties tried. Most of them had known the horrific reality
of war at first hand & felt that anything other was preferable.
It didn’t work though. Talking gently when the other chap
has the big stick – or has just thumped you – gets you nowhere,
except a little bit further back down the street. A couple of
Huns lying dead on a Rhine bridge in 1937 would have saved
many millions over the next decade.
Sweet intentions are no substitute for engagement & firmness.
As the dominant empire this is the lesson America has to learn.
By your very position you can never hope to be loved.
Stop trying. The Romans had no qualms about razing a couple
of Black Forest villages from time to time. And for centuries
the ordinary European enjoyed good road, decent drains,
fair laws & a quiet life. Only with the triumph of Christian
caritas did we sink into stinking morass of the Dark Ages.
We’ve had two Pear Harbours now. Surely to God we don’t
need a third.
Scottie B.
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