Iraq v. WW II

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 1:47 AM
Subject: Iraq v. WW II


> on 3/6/03 10:08 PM, Otto at ottosell at yahoo.de wrote:
>
> > It has become obvious that neither the Yanks nor the Brits had sure
> > information about WMD's. Only because there is no other way than
> > international cooperation we old Europeans will forgive, but not forget
what
> > the Bush-administration has done. And of course we're all happy that
Saddam
> > is gone. That the reason for the war has been an outright lie is
headline in
> > every important European newspaper today.
>
>     " ... more likely there is some eccentric justice lately
>     begun to operate out here which it would behoove Slothrop
>     to look into. There are rumors of a War Crimes Tribunal
>     under way in Nürnberg. No one Slothrop has listened to is
>     clear who's trying whom for what ... " (GR 681)
>
> So, perhaps another instance of right result, wrong reasons?
>
> best
>

Hi Rob,

indeed, but I don't expect that Bush & Blair will be appear before a court
too for starting an illegal war like the nazis did. But following the
initial words of the main prosecutor (Robert Jackson) would require to do
so. I have it only in German but I'm sure somebody can provide the English
text. Jackson would call the latest Iraq-war a crime too because there
hasn't been a proper UN-resolution:

"Die moderne Zivilisation gibt der Menschheit unbegrenzte Waffen der
Zerstörung in die Hand . . . Jede Zuflucht zu einem Krieg, zu jeder Art von
Krieg, ist eine Zuflucht zu Mitteln, die ihrem Wesen nach verbrecherisch
sind. (...) Lassen Sie es mich deutlich aussprechen: Dieses Gesetz wird hier
zwar zunächst auf deutsche Angreifer angewandt, es schließt aber ein und
muß, wenn es von Nutzen sein soll, den Angriff jeder Nation verdammen, nicht
ausgenommen die, die jetzt hier zu Gericht sitzen."

The difference is that the allies pretty well knew what was going on in the
nazi death camps, but WW II wasn't fought to save the European Jews & nobody
had claimed that before. But the Nürnberg-trial showed the world that the
Holocaust was the biggest crime of all in WW II.

Otto