American Views Abroad

 
A number of years ago at what everyone back then thought was the worst of the Balkan war's bloodshed, I attended a speech given by a German member of the SPD, Freimut Duve, who was also very involved internationally in the Balkan question. I recall how he compared the Balkans at that stage to Germany in 1945. He was upbeat that once money for construction and economic renewal started flowing in, all sides --- all completely exhausted from the worst of what war brings --- would not want anything more than peace, a decent way of making a living, and thus there was no other alternative than an end to that war. He spoke passionately about what war does to a people who live it day in and day out and I left thinking he has to be right. It was both logical and emotional but, unfortunately, it turned out to be totally wrong. The worst was yet to come. I can't help but think of his speech this week, particularly in light of those young children in Iraq who were slaughtered by a suicide bomber when accepting candy and toys from US soldiers. I could never tolerate the argument comparing Germany back then to Iraq today for many reasons, the primary one being it completely ignores the complexity of what the world is like outside US borders. Being a country of immigrants does not guarantee an intimate knowledge of the rest of the world. Rather it sees it within a highly selected prism. Add to that the fact that not everything can be won or controlled on economic or military terms. German children were not slaughtered in 1945 and thereafter when accepting candy from US servicemen. During the Berlin airlift, images of children on top of rubble with outstretched arms anticipating the daily dose of candy being sprayed on them is imbedded in history.

Yesterday on page 2 of the IHT in a news article on Falluja, I read the following:

'....Just as disturbing, even residents of Falluja who favored purging the streets of insurgents last November are beginning to chafe under the occupation. An Iraqi is quoted saying 'Some preferred the city quiet, purified of the gunmen and any militant aspect, but after the unfairness and injustice with which the city's residents have been treated by the American and Iraqi forces, they now prefer the resistance, just so they won't be humiliated.'

Just so they won't be humiliated. It's terrible to be humiliated. It's far too complex and one almost never talks about it. Yet I have learned one thing living here and it's that many things can humiliate, even the fact of being liberated by others and having to acknowledge you couldn't or didn't liberate yourself. Of course, the Germans were able to come to terms with that and take a very hard look at themselves or to be more refined the West Germans took a very hard look at themselves and their history and it was the East Germans who (finally) started their own liberation movement. One of the first things my German husband wanted to see in Prague in the early 90s was the German Embassy which thousands of East Germans stormed and he wanted to know exactly what it was like in Prague where thousands of those infamous Trabby cars were parked clogging up those old streets. Recently in Prague I passed that Embassy and saw a statue of a Trabby at the entrance. It was a true liberation, not an enforced one.
- posted by Gloria @ 1:20 PM