1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Monroe" <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>
To: "Otto" <ottosell at yahoo.de>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: 1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"


> Not radical.  Reactionary.  On the one hand, I have
> friends in the military I certainly wish no harm to,
> and even am in little to no disagreement with
> politically.  On the other ...
>
>    (...)
> "You know, it's not always a good idea to 'support
> the troops.' Were there people in 1930's Germany who
> said, 'I'm opposed to Nazism, but support the
> brownshirts?' (The Bush Administration has made so
> many Hitler analogies in its rhetoric about the Iraqi
> regime, that surely I'm entitled to at least one.)
>    "(Ironically, you may have noticed, it's the
> Pentagon that has done a rather dubious job of
> 'supporting the troops.' I would argue that when you
> deploy a force too small to protect its own supply
> lines, you're not exactly 'supporting the troops.')
>    "Of course it's true that this circular, tedious,
> non-discussion about 'supporting the troops,' is
> leftover guilt from the post Vietnam era. And yes, it
> was reprehensible then when individual soldiers were
> treated poorly on their return home from Vietnam. Of
> course that wasn't very nice. And yes, sure, I make
> this promise: I will never, ever, shout, 'baby killer'
> at a returning veteran. I promise.
>    "But it's also worth pointing out that there are
> more than a few men and women among our troops that
> think this war is a bad idea. Before we get too
> carried away talking about our 'all-volunteer' army,
> we need to remember that that label is not a
> completely accurate one. The American military is
> disproportionally comprised of poor, lower working
> class recruits - more often white these days than
> minority, believe it or not -men and women who joined
> the army because it was the only job in town. If you
> want to call that 'volunteer,' go right ahead.
>    "My uncle is a veteran of the Vietnam War, and I
> recently asked him for his views on the 'support the
> troops' rhetoric. He felt very strongly that one could
> support the troops and oppose the war. He told me that
> when he saw reports of war protests during Vietnam, it
> did not disturb him at all; rather, he said, it gave
> him a certain comfort to know that there were others
> out there who understood that the war was crazy."
>
> http://www.the-press.biz/columns/cook.html
>

Of course war is generally crazy:

"Shrink, I wanna kill."
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/alice.html

For the moment the world really seems to be a safer place when even Rummy
dares to go to Baghdad.

I begin to like the comparison of the recent war against the Saddam-regime
in Iraq with the Vietnam War because at first glance both wars seem to be so
absolutely different. Vietnam had been a mess in every objection while this
war has been fought very quickly and efficiently, giving the warmest
feelings to everybody who like me has a heart for the military.

[By the way the war has always been a very prominent factor in my life,
determining simple facts of life and intellectual development. When I was
born my father just had joined the new Bundeswehr in 1956, the fourth army
in his "career" after the German Wehrmacht, Her Majesty's Forces and the
USAF. I grew up at and near several military bases. It goes without saying
that I - humming 'you can anything you want ...' - became a draft resister,
being questioned three times before being allowed to do some 'civil
service', in my case delivering 'meals on wheels' for elderly people.
Sorrily they never introduced me to a shrink. After meeting my father they
decided that 18 years of military service at home simply were enough.]

But what will come out of the latest war is most likely a fundamentalist
government in Iraq so that we've driven out the devil with Beelzebub and
that's what makes even this quick victory questionable. That this country
too will most likely get the government we hoped to avoid the most is what
makes this war comparable to Vietnam. While we all do agree that the Iraqi
population must choose its rulers, that no imposed system will work, we have
difficulties accepting that the majority in a country deliberately chooses
totalitarianism. It's been very strange watching the Shiites (who most
likely will be the next oppressors) celebrating a major religious feast
freely for the first time in 25 years & demonstrating against their
liberators on that occasion. This is no free expression of a political
opinion but Doublethink too that limits my optimism concerning Iraq. They're
really paranoids in the sense of proverb 5 after more than a quarter of a
century of oppression.

I did not join the anti-war demonstrations this time because I didn't want
go give my support to the Iraqi tyranny in any way and because I had missed
the anti-Saddam demos in the past too -- if there have been any which I
don't remember. But I remain critical and I don't see yet that this war has
been a success except in that it's been short. I wish David may be right and
I'm wrong.

Otto