[lit-ideas] A German view of the Nuclear threat from the U.S.

From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:04:57 -0800
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/382jtvww.a
sp

The above article is entitled "America the Baleful, A German view of the
nuclear threat . . . from the United States."  It is another example of our
species move away from logical argument - a sign perhaps that we are more
strongly embracing Nihilism where "what I say" is important whether or not
it has any facts to support it.  

The writer of the article, John Rosenthall, describes a three part
documentary on the German public television network ZDF.  The ZDF prime
anchor  Claus Kleber narrates throughout.  Rosenthall writes, "For the
overriding message of The Bomb is that the nuclear threat is not constituted
by Iran, North Korea, and other potential rogue possessors of nuclear
weapons, but by the established nuclear powers and first and foremost by the
United States. According to the odd sort of nuclear theology proposed by the
film, it is the United States that committed the original sin by developing
the first nuclear weapons, and the current risk of proliferation is merely
the consequence of America's transgression.     

"The viewer gets a first hint of this tenet barely two minutes into the
film. Kleber is touring New York harbor with a police patrol boat assigned
to protect the city from potential nuclear terror attacks. "The consequences
of the Manhattan Project, the construction of the first bomb, come back to
haunt its inventors--as a weapon of terror," Kleber intones.

"The consequences of the Manhattan Project? It is as if the Manhattan
Project occurred in a vacuum rather than in the midst of the Second World
War, with America racing to beat Nazi Germany to the bomb."

We who are not German may recall that a former German, Albert Einstein,
warned President Roosevelt personally that the Germans were working on an
atomic bomb and that we Americans needed to build one ourselves to thwart
their evil intentions.  Why was Einstein in the U.S. warning the American
president of possible German misuse of this technology?   Because the Nazis
(not as spiritual as Heidegger had hoped) were bent upon using technology to
advance Germany's war ambitions.

Why did Einstein encourage America to develop its own bomb?  Because
Einstein had more faith in America's Liberal Democracy than he did in
Germany's Totalitarianism.  Has something changed?  Have we in the US become
secretly totalitarian without our knowledge?  Or, has "Liberal Democracy"
become a danger in some way Kleber doesn't make clear - because he is unable
to, or more probably because he doesn't feel a need to develop a logical
argument to support this allegation.  

Rosenthal writes "'George Bush dared to include Iran in the Axis of Evil:
the ancient and cultured nation of Iran,' Kleber continues, before adding
with a dash of schadenfreude: 'They showed him.' Instead of being an
entirely predictable outcome of the weakness of the U.N. sanctions regime,
the progress of the Iranian nuclear program is stylized by Kleber and ZDF
into an 'almost incomprehensible' demonstration of the greatness of Iranian
civilization. 

Kleber's amazement is all the more unwarranted in light of Germany's large
role in blocking harsher sanctions. In September 2007, Germany reportedly
broke ranks with its Western allies in the "P5+1" group (the five permanent
members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany) and opposed sanctions
aimed at forcing Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities. At
around the same time, French president Nicolas Sarkozy was pitching a plan
for the EU independently to apply sanctions on Iran. Under the Sarkozy
proposal, the EU states would bypass the U.N. Security Council and form a
sort of economic "coalition of the willing" with the United States. This
proposal too was opposed by Germany."

            It is interesting that the proposal of German foreign minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier is antithetical to the founding concept of the
United Nations; which was that the most powerful nations at the time needed
to stay together to keep the other nations from acting aggressively.
Steinmeier turns that on its head when he says "Only if the possessors of
nuclear weapons disarm will others be prepared to do without them in the
long term."   There is no thought here of foreign affairs, no thought of the
resolution of conflicts, and no thought of any powerful nation keeping a
less powerful but nevertheless aggressive nation in line.  

            Rosenthal thinks Steinmeier isn't presenting a well-thought-out
principle but a bit of double talk to protect their ally Iran.  Perhaps, but
Steinmeier's superficial and impractical suggestion is not so very different
from Kleber's approach to his subject.  It is encouraging that Steinmeier's
Social Democratic Party was defeated by Merkel's Christian Democrats in the
last election.  Will common sense eventually overcome Germany's prevalent
resentment against the US?  Probably not.

Lawrence
[lit-ideas] A German view of the Nuclear threat from the U.S.

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