OK, I was not going to post anything today, since I did not want to get dragged into discussing September 11 of two years ago, and I did not think I could post and simply not mention it. Then slate.com, through the MSNBC web page went and published something I largely agree with. Stupid lousy media.
Anyway, the author of this piece counsels us to maintain, "a steady, unostentatious stoicism, made up out of absolute, cold hatred and contempt for the aggressors, and complete determination that their defeat will be utter and shameful. This doesn’t require drum rolls or bagpipes or banners." In other words, look to London during the Blitz, and the United States after Pearl Harbor for how to approach this conflict, not a post-Super Bowl rally. As this author says, the time to commemorate war dead is *after* the war, and we sure aren’t there yet. Not by a long shot.
Of course, this author also relates the following gem: the French had a saying during the period when the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were lost to them: “Always think of it. Never speak of it." This is supposed to teach us something because Elsaß and Lothringen are now French again. Well, he left out the part where the French were basically flat on their backs in World War I with no real hope of recovering these territories until the United States entered the war and Imperial Germany sued for peace. In fact, the French were mauled so badly in World War I that they were rapidly destroyed in World War II (at which point they again lost the provinces until the Americans again returned them). Maybe the French example is not so good after all . . .
He also has a bunch of other political crap in the article that is frankly stupid and irrelevant. Most of it is the same pseudo-Marxist straw man that lazy right wingers use to attack lefties who have never believed in it anyway. However, his admonishment to "dry your eyes, sister. You, too, brother. Stiffen up" is certainly good advice.
Anyway, the author of this piece counsels us to maintain, "a steady, unostentatious stoicism, made up out of absolute, cold hatred and contempt for the aggressors, and complete determination that their defeat will be utter and shameful. This doesn’t require drum rolls or bagpipes or banners." In other words, look to London during the Blitz, and the United States after Pearl Harbor for how to approach this conflict, not a post-Super Bowl rally. As this author says, the time to commemorate war dead is *after* the war, and we sure aren’t there yet. Not by a long shot.
Of course, this author also relates the following gem: the French had a saying during the period when the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were lost to them: “Always think of it. Never speak of it." This is supposed to teach us something because Elsaß and Lothringen are now French again. Well, he left out the part where the French were basically flat on their backs in World War I with no real hope of recovering these territories until the United States entered the war and Imperial Germany sued for peace. In fact, the French were mauled so badly in World War I that they were rapidly destroyed in World War II (at which point they again lost the provinces until the Americans again returned them). Maybe the French example is not so good after all . . .
He also has a bunch of other political crap in the article that is frankly stupid and irrelevant. Most of it is the same pseudo-Marxist straw man that lazy right wingers use to attack lefties who have never believed in it anyway. However, his admonishment to "dry your eyes, sister. You, too, brother. Stiffen up" is certainly good advice.
posted by David at 9:36 AM
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