Bob Wallace
Posts: 97
Joined: 2/18/2001 From: Des Moines, Iowa, USA Status: offline
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Hi,
I probably shouldnt touch this topic with a ten-foot-pole, but hey, I like to live dangerously ;)
First of all I do not wish to make lightof anything that was said by ENO by postulating that he was deliberately telling falsehoods... on the contrary, I am quite sure he truly believes what he has said.
Whether your nationality be Russian, Finnish, German, American, or whatever, there are PLENTY of falshoods we have been told by our governments, taught in our schools, and read in the press.
Let's face it, unless we have ready access to the truth, we are likely to believe what we are taught, hear, and read... especially if it is something that makes us feel better about ourselves and our country.
Lets consider this... The United States government (I'm sure) wold have LOVED to keep the whole Japanese internment thing a secret if they could. They would love to have everyone believe that we "fought the good fight" for the liberation of Kuwait (can you smell the oil?), and I know for a fact that they have done (and still do) things that the public would SCREAM BLOODY MURDER if they knew about. So has England, Finland, Russia, and every other nation on earth.
I have a close personal friend who served in the Red Army during WWII and later in Checoslovakia during the crisis there and he has not only admitted that atrocities against the German people happened, he admits he took part in it... and he is not the least bit remorseful, nor does he think he did anything wrong. He was taught that the Germans were evil and should be dealt with as cruely and harshly as possible. Could this have been an isolated incident? Sure, but I doubt it.
The Germans considered the Russians, Jews, and basically anyone that wasnt German as "untermensch" (sub-human)... so why should Germany be the only one that realized that if you teach your people to hate then they will be more ready to fight?
The British set up their own concentration style camps for German prisoners and were considerred some of the most barabric POW internments in all of WWII - you dont read much about that in history books.
The US and the British both had situations where surrenderring Germans were mowed down deliberately (sure it didn't happen in large scale situations and probably not often, but human beings are still human beings no matter what uniforms they wear).
The Japanese had a brutal history, so did the Chinese and the Italians... everyone did.
It's just that we are told what the government wants us to hear.
In the Korean war, Vietnam, and Desert Storm, the US government acted in colusion with other Allied nations to test out chemical weapons on our own troops - don't believe me? Join the military and see if one of the first things they have (read 'make') you sign is permission to test drugs and other agents on you without your knowlege or consent. Of course they didn't shell formations with chemical artillery or anything so severe... they simply had us (I was in Saudi) inject ourselves with agents that were supposed to inoculate us from Iraqi weapons - YEAH RIGHT! [and I guess Agent Orange was nothing more than a harmless pesticide]
When over half of my unit was puking and leaking from every orafice within a day, and we all went to different hospitals and were isolated (Something tells me this wasnt a normal inoculation).
Our schools tell us that the American Civil War was all about freeing the slaves, yet Abraham Lincoln himself said "If I could preserve the Union with slavery intact I would do it, if I could save it with slavery in some states and not in others I would do that too, if I could save it and abolish slavery I would do that as well"... he even went to the extent of saying that once the war was over he opted to ship ALL of the blacks to another country (Madagascar was mentioned)... is this what we are taught in our history classes? Hell NO!
Basically what I am saying is that based on what ENO has been taught and told by his nation, I don't blame him at all for feeling like he does. I personally feel that what he is saying is terribly incorrect, but no more so than what the majority of the German people truly believed when they were faced with the extermination policy of the Jews - not many were even aware or could believe it happened,
It is just an example of how effective propaganda and political ciriculum can be.
Just my two cents worth.
BTW, my opinions are my own and should be no reflection on ANYONE else,
Bob
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"That which does not kill me usually leaves me wishing I was dead!"
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