- A great, civilized nation democratically elected a fanatic demagogue, who preached war.Actually, he did not really receive the majority of votes, but, somehow, his ascent to power was arrangednevertheless.
- Soon after assuming power, he manipulated a dramatic incident in order to tighten his gripupon the country and prepare for attack on smaller nations. An immense propaganda machine turned"enemies" into devils, the incarnation of evil.
- The call for war enabled him to unite the whole people behind him, to silence allopposition, gradually abridge human rights, overcome the economic crisis and embark upon a voyage towardsworld dominion.
- He loved being photographed in uniform, walking along lines of soldiers, pretending to bea great military leader
I mean, of course, Adolf Hitler.
The German people, which gave him power and followed him with closed eyes even when hecommitted heinous crimes, paid a heavy price. It has learned the lesson. Now it abhors war, any war, from thedepth of its soul. Hundreds of thousands - young people, children, grandchildren and grand-grandchildren ofthat generation - march these days through the streets of Germany to protest against Bush's war. Their leader,Schroeder, was reelected solely because he expressed this deep longing for peace. The most warlike people hasturned into the most anti-warlike.
That's great, isn't it? Not at all! American and British leaders condemn Germany for itsrefusal to go to war. The Israeli government heap scorn on its head. Wet rugs, these Germans! Damn pacifists!Cowards! Pitiful people who refuse to fight!
All this less than 60 years since Hitler's suicide. Who would have believed.
And this is not the only miracle that is happening these days. Not by any means.
A personal memory (excuse me if you have read it before): when I was 8 years old, two yearsbefore my family fled Germany after Hitler's coming to power, I was a pupil in the third class of anelementary school in Prussia, a Social Democratic bulwark at the time.
Once the teacher told us about Hermann, the national hero, who had succeeded in 9 AD to lurethe Roman army into a trap and annihilate it. The Roman commander, Varus, fell on his sword and AugustusCeasar uttered his despairing cry: "Varus, give me back me legions!" On the spot where the historicbattle was supposed to have taken place, there stands now a huge statue of Hermann.
"Hermann stands with his face towards the Erbfeind (hereditary enemy)!" our teacherproclaimed. "Children, who is the Erbfeind?" All the pupils in the class shouted in unison: "Frankreich!Frankreich (France)!"
Now Germany and France, the hereditary enemies, stand together, shoulder to shoulder, againstBush's war plans. The Americans curse and abuse them, but they stand firm: Enough of war. Enough ofdestruction and bloodshed. Other ways to solve problems must be found.
That is another miracle. But even this is a minor one compared to the third, historic miraclethat is happening in front of our eyes:
President Putin appeared in Berlin and Paris, embraced Chirac and Schroeder and added hisvoice to theirs. One front from Cherbourg on the Atlantic to Vladivostok on the Pacific. That has neverhappened before.
From earliest times, European history is full of alliances of some states against others.Germany and Russia divided Poland between them. France and Russia allied themselves several times to containGermany. Napoleon tried to unite Europe and did not succeed. The Texan cowboy is succeeding where the Corsicanemperor has failed.
Bush has invented the childish term "Axis of Evil" to group together Iraq, Iran andNorth Korea. That's nonsense. But in the meantime a French-German-Russian axis has come into being and isfacing the United States.
(The term "axis" to design a coalition of states was also invented at the time ofHitler. The original axis of evil included Germany, Italy and Japan. When using this term, Bush intended torecall that memory.)
It is too early to say if this new axis will hold on and if it will be strong enough to facethe enormous might of the United States. But even if it will be broken this time, its very birth is aharbinger of things to come.
These three countries, contemptuously called by the American Secretary of Defense "OldEurope", are, on the contrary, united by considerations pertaining to the New Europe. This Europe worriesthe Americans. It is becoming an economic superpower, able to compete with, and perhaps overtake, the UnitedStates. A symbol of this is the fact that the euro has indeed overtaken the dollar.
As I remarked in a previous article, the war in Iraq is primarily a war against Europe andJapan. The American occupation of Iraq will ensure American control not only over the vast oil reserves ofIraq itself, but also of the Caspian Sea and the Gulf States. The hand on the oil tab of the world can chokeGermany, France and Japan, because it can manipulate at will the price of oil throughout the world. Lower theprice, and you choke Russia. Raise the price, and you choke Europe and Japan.
Therefore, preventing the war is an essential European interest, in addition to the profoundlonging for peace of the European peoples.
Washington does not even hide its desire to bring Europe to its knees. Lately, there is acrude American effort to create a coalition of peripheral countries in order to oust Germany and France fromthe leadership of the European Union. America is organizing a bloc of the former Communist nations, who areabout to join the Union, together with the UK, Spain and Italy. The Paris-Berlin axis, aided by Moscow, isdesigned as a defense against this ploy, too.
This war, then, goes much beyond the Iraqi problem. It is not a war against Saddam's microbes.It is, quite simply, a war for world dominion, economic, political, military and cultural. Bush is ready tospill a lot of blood to achieve this (as long as it is not American blood).
Israel is involved in this game without quite knowing what it is doing there, a boy in a gameof world-league bullies. It has nothing to gain, it can only lose
