Thinking over Obama’s speech from yesterday, I want to revisit something I posted at the beginning of the month. It was an excerpt from page 427 of General Heinz Guderian’s classic book Panzer Leader, discussing matters in March 1945 when Nazi Germany was facing imminent collapse:
During this difficult month of March many conversations took place which are sufficiently interesting to be worth preserving. Thus one evening Hitler lost his temper at the high prisoner-of-war claims that were being issued by the Western Allies. He said: ‘The soldiers on the Eastern Front fight far better. The reason they give in so easily in the West is simply the fault of that stupid Geneva convention which promises them good treatment as prisoners. We must scrap the idiotic thing.’ [General Alfred] Jodl contradicted this wild and senseless proposal with great energy and, with my support, succeeded in persuading Hitler to postpone taking any such step. Jodl also prevented Hitler from appointing as commander of an army group a general who had recently been punished for gross irregularity of conduct and dismissed [from] the Service.
Now, consider this excerpt from Obama’s speech.
I took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief, and as a citizen, I know that we must never, ever, turn our back on its enduring principles for expedience sake.
I make this claim not simply as a matter of idealism. We uphold our most cherished values not only because doing so is right, but because it strengthens our country and it keeps us safe. Time and again, our values have been our best national security asset — in war and peace; in times of ease and in eras of upheaval.
Fidelity to our values is the reason why the United States of America grew from a small string of colonies under the writ of an empire to the strongest nation in the world.
It’s the reason why enemy soldiers have surrendered to us in battle, knowing they’d receive better treatment from America’s Armed Forces than from their own government.
Hitler recognized exactly this point. His soldiers fought to the death on the Eastern Front where they were facing a remorseless Russian enemy. But, on the Western Front, they felt safe in surrendering to American or British troops. And they did so in large numbers. A lot of us wouldn’t even be here today if those Germans had killed our grandfathers instead of surrendering to them.
Hitler wanted to jettison the Geneva conventions because our adherence to them was costing him dearly. It seems like quite a small step for someone who was operating death camps at the time. But he was talked out of it. Even Hitler didn’t revoke the Geneva Conventions. But Cheney and Bush did. And they’re proud of it. And they stupidly think it made us safer.
Even Hitler didn’t revoke the Geneva Conventions. But Cheney and Bush did.
That’s it then — the appropriate, effective ending of all discussion on this topic, the absolute fucking bottom line. We should all copy these two sentences and go forth across the land to every newspaper comment section where some imbecile(s) is(are) defending our use of torture and paste this in response.
I find it to be an interesting juxtaposition.
One of the best diary/arguments I have seen on the net.
Hope it gets widely distributed.
By the way, Gen. Alfred Jodl, who talked Hitler out of scrapping the Geneva Convention, was hanged as a war criminal.
Damn. Your html prompts assume more knowledge than I possess.
Quote: And they’re proud of it. And they stupidly think it made us safer.
In the case of Bush, I’m willing to leave things at that. But with Cheney in the mix, I think we can also add the adverb “evilly” without committing any errors.
I would doubt that they truly believe that. Revoking them was just part of their business model.
Clearly stated. Thank you for putting the issue in such plain relief.
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WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the Obama administration had no choice but to order the shutdown of the prison at Guantanamo because “the name itself is a condemnation” of U.S. anti-terrorism strategy.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I hope all of you are aware that when Obama refuses to prosecute, or worse, covers up crimes that are in violation of the Geneva Conventions, he also is in violation.
Obama has made these policies his own.
nalbar
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/could_cheney_be_gulp_right.php?ref=fpblg
nalbar
…then again, one does not argue with ignorance.
Adding to your point, the Germans faced a remorseless Russian enemy because the Germans broke their non-agression treaty with Russia – unilaterally discarding international agreements has its consequences…
A 1944 book, THE NAZIS GO UNDERGROUND by Kurt Reiss, says the same thing and more. The Nazis who were preparing for the collapse essentially were throwing more troops on the Eastern Front so that the Americans and Brits would occupy more of Germany.
Also, a couple of years before the end of the war the Nazis began hiding people within the bureaucracy. They’d take a political officer in eastern Germany and move him to the west and put him in charge of the sewage system of a city, or the waterworks. They knew that the Americans would want to oversee a functioning country. They knew that the Russians would line up anyone in the German Nazi government against a wall and shoot them.
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The search for Werner von Braun and Heisenberg. Alsos Mission. 30AU Intelligence Mission. Dora-Mittelbau … V2 production facilities. Messerschmidt 262
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."