[lit-ideas] Re: Victor Hanson in Iraq
- From: joerg benesch <jgruel@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:47:21 +0100
Eric Yost schrieb:
(...)
Ouch. Sorry to be a focus of the passion of your disagreement.For my
part, I sometimes feel compelled to introject "this tone" as a
corrective or buffer for what I perceive to be a dogmatic party line
chorus. Just can't see anything wrong with killing our enemies. Tried
to. Probably too dense to reflect much. When geopolitics merits it,
I'd be glad to sing the "Ode to Joy" with you.
(...)
I'm not much given to geopolitics, contenting myself with cultivating my
garden. So, it's not about disagreeing, there are others here who can do
that much better. It's about being shocked to hear you talk in that
killer's language. Here's what it reminds me of:
"[...]Ob die anderen Völker in Wohlstand leben oder ob sie verrecken vor
Hunger, das interessiert mich nur soweit, als wir sie als Sklaven für
unsere Kultur brauchen; anders interessiert mich das nicht.
[…]Von euch werden die meisten wissen, was es heißt, wenn hundert
Leichen beisammen liegen, wenn fünfhundert daliegen oder wenn tausend
daliegen. Dies durchgehalten zu haben, und dabei – abgesehen von
Ausnahmen menschlicher Schwächen – anständig geblieben zu sein, das hat
uns hart gemacht. Dies ist ein niemals geschriebenes und niemals zu
schreibendes Ruhmesblatt unserer Geschichte
[...]Wir hatten das moralische Recht, wir hatten die Pflicht gegenüber
unserem Volk, dieses Volk, das uns umbringen wollte, umzubringen. [...]"
That's Heinrich Himmler on what you'd call "geopolitics", or "killing
our enemies". Sounds great as a "corrective", or "buffer". Looks
transparent enough for me, so perhaps here's a point to start reflection.
This is a link to a bilingual version:
http://www.holocaust-history.org/himmler-poznan/speech-text.shtml
Another version, with sound and the text of the complete speech, can be
found at http://www.susannealbers.de/09animation-video29poznan.html
As I said, I'm not much versed in geopolitics, yet a friend just sent me
a copy of Daniel Yergin's "The Prize", and made me promise to read it;
so hopefully I'll soon be able to disagree on a less passionate level.
joerg,
from Suebia
p. s.: Himmler's hold this speech a few weeks after the decisive defeat
in the battle of Kursk, and it is instructive in many ways; take, for
instance, his unwillingness to give General Wlassow and his
anti-stalinist dissenters a chance, who later, when the military
situation became desperate, were armed and served in a kind of
"sovietification" - only to be forsaken by the Americans, and
slaughtered by Stalin.
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