#979 – Dick Bernard: The Paris Attacks. An Opportunity, Once Again, to Learn, including from the Past.

/0 Comments/in , /by

In the annals of humanity there have always been unspeakable tragedies perpetrated by human beings, one or more against others. The increasing sophistication of instant world-wide communication about everything, including atrocities, may be a blessing, but can be a curse as well. We have to be wary of being manipulated; to slow down, and try to make calm, reasoned assessments of apparent realities.
(click to enlarge)

Je Suis Charlie, Paris France Demonstration, January 11, 2015, photo by Christine Loys

Je Suis Charlie, Paris France Demonstration, January 11, 2015, photo by Christine Loys


Thursday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune main front page story caught my interest: “TERROR SHOCKS PARIS” with two subheadlines, “IN EUROPE Attack is likely to fuel anti-Islamic sentiment” and “IN PARIS 1 gunman surrenders, huge hunt for 2 more”. Most of the content of five of the twelve pages of the world news section were dominated by the story about the killing of a dozen people by two brothers and a third person.
The Saturday paper brought news of a second attack in suburban Paris, with lots more printers ink.
Twenty people (including the killers) lay dead in the Paris metropolitan area of over 12 million people. Paris is one of Europe’s largest cities, and truly one of the worlds most ancient and celebrated cities.
I wrote an e-note of support to a good friend of mine, Christine Loys, whose home is Paris. Her reply*, printed below with her permission, does not need editorial comment except that she asked me a question which I have answered.
There is nothing remarkable about the tragedy in Paris this week. Examples of similar past tragedies are abundant: for instance, two years ago, 20 school children and 6 adults in a school in a prosperous suburban community were killed by a crazed gunman (Newtown CT). In 1999, 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton CO were killed by two fellow students, who subsequently killed themselves as well.
A complete list would go on and on and on.
The trial of the Boston Marathon bomber is now beginning….
Each time such crises happen, a great deal of attention is paid to them as a spotlight shines on them; then life goes on, until the next tragedy, which will certainly happen somewhere, for some reason.
Each time much effort is exerted to attach meaning to the madness – whose fault is it, who can be blamed. What is worse, as is happening now, is that the tragedy is used as an opportunity to organize around one’s particular belief.
But in the end, we usually seem to learn little or nothing from these truly isolated tragic episodes, and we could learn so much. The overwhelming vast majority of us are good people, who can make the needed changes, where we live. But mostly we don’t, and won’t, for reasons each of us know within ourselves (“I can’t do anything about it….”, etc. etc.)
Over 40 years ago, at a workshop I attended, the instructor distributed a handout which I have always found instructive at times such as this. It was called Crisis Sequence, and the original version appears below (click to enlarge).
Handout from a circa 1972 workshop.

Handout from a circa 1972 workshop.


Time after time in those 42 years I’ve seen the applicability of this chart to any number of Crisis situations, the most dramatic being 9-11-01. As we so well know, especially from 9-11-01, such Crises can be exploited easily, and take on a new life of their own.
Almost every American approved the bombing of Afghanistan in 2001: Afghan War Oct 2001001. History everywhere is full of examples of excessive response to such tragedies.
In my opinion, those who are shocked by what happened in Paris this week (which is all of us) should spend time learning from Paris, and all the other crises we have experienced during the “media age” in which we are immersed. There are many lessons we can learn, and they are immersed in that old handout reprinted above. Then, as Gandhi said, we must become the change we wish to see in the world.
* Here’s Christine’s comment from Paris, received earlier today:
“[Y]ou will be surprised that ALL of us Parisians were deeply traumatized first by the assassination of the artists from Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning (they intended to kill freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of talking…no less) and then by the hostages double drama that took place 48h later on Friday that ended up with 20 people killed !!! My friends and my family, at work or from home could not do anything else than follow the events on television or radio, live…we all were talking on the phone to each other at the same time. It has been a horror time with much fear… Children did not go to school when possible and people did not work or move from home when it was possible not to. I went to do some grocery shopping close by on Thursday afternoon and there was NOBODY in the streets of Paris… I felt like in a horror movie, quite frightened by the silence. Sales people in the cloth shops were expecting a huge amount of people for the sales, (it was the first day, usually the most crowded) but there was no customers….. Unbelievable….
Now all is over but it remains a very uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty, that it could start again anytime anywhere….
The authorities say that we should not enter into psychosis but it affects all of us in every way…. The trouble is that at the same time they say that they know it is going to happen again soon and we need to be prepared….. How would you react?”
Christine asks, “How would you react?”
I’m not sure how I’d be reacting now, if Parisian, and in Paris. It is doubtless a very traumatic happening, threatening personal safety.
I do know that my son and family lived one mile from Columbine High School when the student gunmen attacked the high school in 1999, and I was certainly concerned about my granddaughter who was then 13. A week later I was with them walking up “Cross Hill” above Columbine. So I guess I joined a “demonstration” of sort, out of grief for and solidarity with the victims and their families and community. (Originally, someone had put up 15 crosses on Cross Hill, including the killers, but someone else had torn down those two crosses. It was unfortunate that the two crosses were removed.)
Christine’s words remind me of American reaction to 9-11-01, beginning immediately after 9-11-01, I felt we Americans had grossly overreacted in our response to the tragedy of 9-11, and our collective grief was exploited and manipulated, much to our detriment (first the Afghanistan, then Iraq, Wars the prime, but by no means only, examples). In effect, a large tragedy (9-11) was magnified and we and others have suffered from the effects of misuse of this tragedy ever since.
In fact, I wrote about 9-11 then, immediately after the attacks: Post 9-11-01001. Now, more than 13 years after 9-11, I would say the same things I did then.
POSTSCRIPT Jan. 11, 2014: Perhaps my bottom-line worry for France and all of us remains as I expressed in two very short essays about the U.S. after the tragedy of 9-11-01. They remain accessible here.
POSTNOTE Jan. 12, 2014: My favorite blogger, Alan of Just Above Sunset, who I’ve always gathered considers Paris a favored city, summarizes world views on the situation, here.
COMMENT
from Stephanie, Jan 12: It has been a horrible time indeed for the French and for the entire world. What is the answer? I don’t know.
Close friends of mine live in Montrouge, where the policewoman was killed. I spoke with them last week. They had gone to pick up their grandchildren at school, which they do every Thursday. The kids, ages 6, 8 and 9, were hyper…their teachers had told them all about what was happening, even that Kalishnokovs were the weapons of choice. Needless to say the grandparents, both retired educators, were not pleased.
My dear friend Marie-Christine was at Porte de Vincennes, picking up her granddaughter at preschool just prior to the massacre at the grocery store.
The sister-in-law of another friend lives at Porte de Vincennes and shops often at the take-out shop next to the grocery store.
I wrote to a cousin who lives in a Paris suburb not far from Montrouge. She replied
“En effet ces événements nous ont tous choqués, mais ce qui est rassurant est que les français se sont montrés très solidaires dans leur réaction ainsi que de nombreux pays étrangers. ”
(These events have shocked us all, but we are comforted by the fact that the French are very united in their reaction, as well as so many foreign countries.)
When I was in Paris in August I saw a man on the street who was wearing a yarmulke. He was about 40 years old. I asked if he felt in any danger or if he felt his head covering made him a target. He said no. He said he usually doesn’t wear a yarmulke but was on his way home from Saturday morning prayers. I have made it a habit to try talking to people in France who are identifiably Jewish, either because they are wearing a yarmulke or a Star of David. None has expressed a desire to leave their home in France to move to a foreign country. Some have said they feel that anti-Semitism is on the rise. I guess I think that in the US there is a rise in intolerance and anti-Semitism, so this is not a surprise to me.
I don’t have any confidence on our intelligence community or, for that matter, that of any country. Radicals are going to continue…when you don’t fear death and think you are right you can and will do anything. I have plans to go to Australia Feb. 2-26. My family doesn’t want me to go…but I will. Who would have thought that 9/11 would have happened? Or the bombing in the Canadian Parliament? Or in a café in Sydney? Is there any safe place? I don’t think so.
Sorry this is not a happier e-mail.
from Emmett, Jan. 14: Very interesting write-up and perspective. I try not get too wrapped up in this stuff. I can’t remember if I have told you that I am attempting a book on religion, but I am finding the greatest challenge is dealing with the “H” word, Hypocrisy, which runs rampant around the world. We have Israel and other countries represented in the marching in that parade in France who are known to have assassinated journalists. And just a few months ago, Israel bombed a Christian Church and three Mosques and a UN shelter in Gaza, killing around 500 Christians and another 1500 Islamic Palestinians, 700 of total being children. And all that after being told over a dozen times by the UN that these facilities were designated shelters for the besieged Palestinian civilians. I didn’t remember any parade of world leaders after that tragedy. So I just go about my life focusing of my charity work, my attempts at writing a book, and my scientific presentations to inspire students to pursue science and pretty much ignoring all the propaganda that is broadcast on the news channels.
Final Postnote, Jan 15: I try to keep tabs on Paris from afar. It appears that, so far, the general French reaction, public, government and otherwise, is similar to what happened in the United States in 2001. The Crisis Sequence model (above) holds true, as one would expect it would. We are all people, after all, in whatever country we live, whatever our ethnicity, language, nationality….
Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail there, and war fever doesn’t infect them, as it did the U.S. back then. There are no winners in such angry reaction. Especially today, who do we kill to get revenge?
The “War on Terror” as envisioned by U.S. government leaders in and even before created a monster for all of us.
It began with the stupid definition of “Axis of Evil” by the Bush administration, and continued with a so-called “Coalition of the Willing”, where there was a defined enemy, a country, specifically a leader of the country, to be taken out.
Back then, France was derided because its leaders weren’t sufficiently enthusiastic about going to war. The U.S. House of Representative passed a stupid motion renaming French Fries in their cafeteria as “Freedom Fries” (I wonder if they’re still so named.)
We all know how the War on Terror has turned out. Rather than erradicating “terror”, we have institutionalized it; we have empowered rather than eliminated its proponents.
Now any lunatic, anywhere, can disrupt and confuse entire populations, such as the killers in France did last Wednesday and Friday. A country goes paralyzed, as ours was in the fall of 2001 (and in too many ways still is). At some level, I’d guess, we all know what we did to ourselves by our national response to 9-11. Humans being humans, we won’t admit it.
There is need for change, and it won’t happen at the highest political levels, in my opinion. It is individuals and small groups in the countries of the world who will change things, not a few Presidents standing in solidarity for photo opportunities; or idealogues of all stripes attempting to fashion the crisis to fit their own ideology. Even in these few days following the attacks in France, there have been endless examples of this manipulating of a reality to fit a narrative.
After September 11, 2001, we Americans had a choice of two forks in the road ahead: to make things better, or make things worse. We chose the wrong alternative, in my opinion, attempting to beat the rest of the world into submission by our awesome power (which turned out to be not so powerful). Too many of us continue to deny reality: our feeling of superiority masks the reality of our own self-imposed impotence. We are part of the world, not apart from it.
(I keep thinking about one factor that contributed mightily to our governments course of action after 9-11. A few years earlier a bunch of influential people developed what they called the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), in which the U.S. would dominate the world. In my opinion, PNAC was used to implement our response to 9-11. 9-11-01, however it came to happen, was very useful to powerful American political leaders at the time.)
The website for PNAC has been suspended, which is why I link to Wikipedia, but the Wikipedia entry gives a good history, including the listing of the influential framers of the document: people like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, key architects of the War on Terror. It is useful to relook at this piece of our own history. A good short summary of this time in history can be seen in the latter half of my January 1, 2015, post on the United Nations. See Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg’s comments headed Plan C, and note especially Plan B.
Personally, I have one relic of 9-11-2011 in my office, and a big file of materials kept from the time of September 11.
The relic is a drawing of an American flag made by a 5th grade boy, Lester, in a suburban Minneapolis school in early October, 2001, during the time that teachers everywhere were helping their students talk about what happened on September 11 through all of the means that teachers use.
Here’s that flag Lester drew that day. He would now be 19 or 20. I wonder what has happened to him since….
Let’s work for a better world. It will take each of us to accomplish that better world.
Student drawing of an American flag, early October, 2001, suburban Minneapolis MN

Student drawing of an American flag, early October, 2001, suburban Minneapolis MN


Paris Sunday Jan 11 2015 courtesy of Christine Loys.

Paris Sunday Jan 11 2015 courtesy of Christine Loys.


President Obama to France? Had President Obama gone to France, he would have been criticized; had he sent someone else to France, he would have been criticized. Personally, I saw no reason why he would go to France; indeed, I found it to be respectful of the French themselves. There was no need for our President to be there. I don’t recall world leaders coming to the U.S. at the time of 9-11-01 even though many countries lost citizens in the Twin Towers in particular. In fact, at the time, my guess is that the U.S. administration would have preferred to have no one sharing the stage with them. After all, as pointed out above, we were led by people who wanted the U.S. to be the sole super-power in the world. Personally, I like the commentary of President Carter on the topic earlier today. You can read/watch it here.

#977 – Dick Bernard: 2015: A Good Year To Remind Ourselves That We Are Part Of A Global Community.

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The United Nations Building, snapshot, June 30, 1971, Dick Bernard

The United Nations Building, snapshot, June 30, 1971, Dick Bernard


Calendar/timeline for 2015, the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II spotlighting some significant dates in history: Community of Nations 2015 calendar March 2016 edition.
Following Dr. Schwartzbergs comments (below) are links to 55 posts in 2015 which directly related to International Issues.
NOTE TO READERS: An addendum to the original edition of this post, Jan 1, 2015, included comments by Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg with a succinct history of the United Nations System and his ideas for reform. The remarks were included, with his permission, at the end of the original post.
In recognition of Dr. Schwartzbergs upcoming Workable World Conference (Oct 9-10, 2015) I am moving his January 5, 2015 comments to the beginning of this revision, with other comments now at the end of the post.
Schwartzberg book001
Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, December 4, 2014

Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, December 4, 2014


DR. JOSEPH SCHWARTZBERG COMMENTS January 5, 2015
THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM: TIME FOR “ PLAN C”
In any given period, the international system is characterized by some minimally acceptable rules of order. These rules may be partially codified; but, to a large extent, they are tacitly understood, generally reflecting the balance of power perspectives of a small number of influential states. This essay considers systems in the period since World War II.
Plan A: Traditional Power Politics Plus a Weak United Nations System
The United Nations Charter, adopted in 1945, was not a democratic document. In the Security Council, the sole UN agency to enjoy binding powers, the so-called P5, the principal victors in World War II, were not only given permanent seats, but also the right to veto any resolution of which they disapproved. All other members reluctantly accepted this dispensation, relying for protection on their sovereign immunity from outside intervention. In theory, all states were sovereign equals. Each could do whatever it wished, no matter how immoral, within its own borders. Nor did it matter whether its actions were for the good of the planet. Nevertheless, most states behaved reasonably and the system worked well enough to help avert World War III and to provide modest benefits to needy nations.
In its early days, the UN was looked upon favorably by the United States, which, together with its allied and client states, mainly in Latin America and Western Europe, could win just about any vote in the UN General Assembly. The Soviet Union, naturally, frequently used its veto to block Western initiatives. But, as the UN expanded, mainly because of decolonization in Africa and most of Asia, the balance of power shifted. What had been a primarily East-West contest morphed into opposition between the global North and South. In the new power configuration the South won many victories, but they proved to be pyrrhic in that decisions were non-binding, unenforceable and largely ignored by powerful states. New agencies continued to be created to deal with issues of global importance, but they were typically under-funded and inadequately staffed. The United States continued to pay lip service to the importance of the UN, but we also made sure that it did not become a serious contender for global political power.
Overall, the planet continued to be wracked by political, economic and social injustice. Looming environmental dangers were ignored. Leaders and diplomats were largely oblivious to many mounting dangers and failed to recognize the sowing of the seeds of terrorism.
Plan B: An Abortive Pax Americana
With the unanticipated implosion of the Soviet Union in 1989, a seemingly promising new era dawned in world affairs. The United States emerged as the sole hegemon in a politically uni-polar world. Its capacity to lead was unprecedented. Many of our leaders, however, especially on the political right, perceived the global situation as enabling the establishment of a “New American Century,” a Pax Americana backed by worldwide acceptance of free-market capitalism and guaranteed militarily by “full spectrum dominance” (on land, sea, air, and outer space) and marked by pro-American, nominally democratic regimes on all continents. Remaining adversaries were to be hemmed in by a global network of hundreds of military bases. To be sure, it would be expensive; but it was a scenario we believed we could afford.
But there were problems. Nobody ever asked us to be the world’s policeman and political arbiter. We lacked the skill to export democracy to other lands. Most of the world did not buy into the neo-con myth that we were the “shining city on the hill” And then came 9/11! Our response was the unwinnable global War on Terrorism that has obsessed our political thinking ever since. Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other nations have wreaked incalculable death and devastation and drained our economy of trillions of dollars and precluded meaningful reforms in our own country and abroad. For all practical purposes, the UN was relegated to a bit and subservient part. And most of our political establishment still doesn’t get it.
Plan C: A Transformed United Nations System
All of the problems confronting our planet before 9/11 are still with us. Some, especially climate change, have become appreciably worse. Plan B isn’t working and needs to be replaced. We need truly global, not essentially unilateral decision-making. The United Nations must be transformed and strengthened. Decisions must be binding, democratically reached, accepted as legitimate, and enforceable. The global South deserves to have an appropriate voice in world affairs. Terrorism must be addressed, not by killing ever-greater numbers of presumed potential perpetrators, but by eliminating its root causes in global and local injustice. Ordinary citizens deserve to be represented in a World Parliamentary Assembly. Better ways must be found to tap the wisdom of civil society. Unilateral military adventurism must yield to duly authorized missions carried out by a competent standing peace force. The jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court must be made universal. The list goes on.
Happily, solutions are in sight. Suggesting how best to address these issues is the purpose of my most recent book, Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World. The book, published by the United Nations University Press in 2013 has been enthusiastically endorsed by numerous prominent world thinkers. You may easily order a copy on-line from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or the Brookings Institution Press.
*
(continuation of January 1, post)
Dick Bernard comments:
Do make it a priority to read Dr. Schwartzberg’s book on Transforming the United Nations System, and attend the Workable World Conference, which is based on the book.
Most Recent Related Blog Posts, since January 1, 2015: (earlier posts are found at the end of this page.)
47. Nov. 16, 2015 Paris, November 13, 2015
48. Nov. 18, 2015 Paris, the 6th Day.
49. Dec. 1, 2015 “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream…A Million Copies Made”
50. Dec. 4, 2015 San Bernardino
51. Dec. 5, 2015
 Christine Loys. A Message From COP 21, Paris, The Global Conference on Climate Change.
52. Dec. 7, 2015 December 7, 2015: “War” to Peace: Changing the Conversation.
53. Dec. 10, 2015 Muslims
54. Dec. 14, 2015 The Paris Climate Talks Conclude…and Continue, and Begin
55. Dec. 17, 2015 “Let There Be Peace On Earth And Let It Begin With Me.”
(click to enlarge)
UN vehicle in Hinche (Ench) Haiti, March 2006

UN vehicle in Hinche (Ench) Haiti, March 2006


The United Nations turns 70 this year, less than two months after the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.
WWII followed WWI by about 20 years.
The dreaded WWIII, which could easily destroy us, has not happened and I have to believe the very existence of the United Nations is a large part of the reason our human species has survived in spite of dire threats, and in fact will continue to survive as we cobble together ways to get along.
Most of us know little about the United Nations (UN), which is a shame. My personal learning curve has been recent. There is a great deal to learn.
To some, the UN is an enemy entity, even though it is not a country, and its structure mitigates against making imperialistic moves, if indeed its actors would even have an interest in such.
Perhaps it is because the UN was a coalition of partners which had a logical structure at the time of its formation: five powers have always dominated it, each possessing veto power. They are the countries which won WWII: United States, England, France, Soviet Union and China. There were 46 other founding nations in 1945; now there are 193. (Japan was admitted in 1956; Germany in 1973.)
I have noted that change happens within the UN system, though at a glacial pace. This is to be expected. Some observers wish the UN system would cease to exist; others expect miracles from it, including instant change. Given the enormity of its mission, it is a marvel it exists at all!
But the UN and its numerous associated agencies, like World Health Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, UNICEF, and on and on, contribute markedly and quietly to helping our diverse world not only survive, but thrive.
A key question, for me, is “where would the world be in 2015 without a United Nations?” I think we would rue the day the UN disappeared.
A new resource I highly recommend to those wishing to learn about the UN: Dr. Joseph Schwartzbergs 2013 book “Transforming the United Nations System, Designs for a Workable World”: Schwartzberg 2013001 (cover illustration above). This 364 page academic work is full of data, history, and ideas for “transforming” the UN and it is a book that is getting broad attention within the UN community of interest. Book is available on-ine from Amazon,Barnes and Noble, or the Brookings Institution. Inquiries and comment about the book to Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg at Workable World Trust.
POST NOTE #1: Some personal thoughts about the UN (yours are solicited as well).
My direct contact with the United Nations is very limited. Until 2006, the only direct exposure to the UN was a visit to New York City in 1972, part of which included a stop, as a tourist, at UN headquarters.
In March, 2006, we visited the interior of Haiti. It was my second visit, and a time of political uncertainty in the country. In the interior city of Hinche (Ench), we met and visited with a retired police officer from Quebec who was on assignment with the UN to help build a more effective local police force there. He saw his duty as a needed service.
Later we saw a UN vehicle on a Hinche street (a photo leads this post). The photo speaks for itself. I don’t know who was with the vehicle; at any rate, it was calm in the streets surrounding.
A few days later, enroute back to Port-au-Prince and in the town of Mirabelaise, one of our vehicles stopped to repair a flat tire. We took a break, and we met by coincidence a squad of UN Peacekeepers from Nepal. We had a very brief chance to visit with some of them, and I took this two minute piece of video of our interaction. There was nothing intimidating in our interaction or what we saw in the park. The voice-over you hear is mine. It was simply a spontaneous piece of history that I filmed – a different look at the stereotype of UN Peacekeeper. (Here is the same video, without crawl script.)
In this amateur video, you can get a sense of the humanity of the “peacekeepers”; young soldiers as you’d find anywhere in the world. That they are Nepalese came to be notorious a few years later when their encampment just east of the town, was identified as the probable source of the cholera epidemic that devastated Haiti in 2010. Instantly, that incident became another piece of evidence, to some, that the United Nations was no good.
But that chance encounter with those few young Nepalese has had a durable and positive impact on me.
POST NOTE #2: At the end December, 2012, I stumbled across a local incident which attracted my interest. The Commissioners of Hennepin County (Minneapolis and area) had taken down a United Nations flag which had flown on the plaza for 44 years. This story continues – you can read it here – and is fascinating mostly in the active interest in keeping secret who it was who pushed the Commissioners to take their unanimous action in March of 2012.
More recently, I noted that a flag I thought had been a UN Flag had been taken down at a major Edina Hospital. I inquired about it, and was informed that it wasn’t a UN flag, but rather the flag of the World Health Organization (WHO) (which is one of those UN agencies, now independent, whose flag essentially mirrors that of the United Nations flag on which it is based.
Again, someone wanted that flag down, someone probably threatened by its very existence there, but it is near impossible to find out the truth….
(click to enlarge, once enlarged you can further enlarge the flag and see that it is indeed the WHO flag).
Fairview Southdale Hospital Edina MN April 1, 2013

Fairview Southdale Hospital Edina MN April 1, 2013


(Continuation of Related Posts)
1. Jan. 16, 2015: Global Health: The Greatest Story Rarely Told
2. Jan. 15, 2015: The Paris Attacks.
3. Jan. 27, 2015: The 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau
4. Jan. 28, 2015:: Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Day After Yesterday.
5. Mar. 3, 2015: Netanyahu at Congress, March 3
6. 6. Mar. 6, 7, 8, 9, 2015: Series of posts about the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis MN.
Ten Videos featuring major speakers at the 2015 Forum can be accessed here. In particular, I recommend President Jimmy Carter’s Mar. 6, 2015 address, found at this link.
7. Mar. 10, 2015 Thoughts at 1000
8. Mar. 13, 2015 When Stupidity Triumphs
9. Mar. 18, 2015 Netanyahu’s “Victory”
10. Mar. 20, 2015 A Remarkable Evening remembering Vietnam War
11. Mar. 21, 2015 Visiting Selma AL Mar 7, 2015
12. Mar. 29, 2015 Esperanto
13. Mar. 31, 2015 Negotiations with Iran
14. Apr. 4, 2015. Death and Resurrection: Cuba and the Minnesota Orchestra.
15. Apr. 9, 2015. Flossenburg
16. Apr. 22, 2015. Earth Day 2015
17. Apr. 23, 2015. War is Hell. How About Waging Peace?
18. Apr. 28, 2015. An Hour With The Governeur-General of Canada
19. May 1, 2015. Memorial Day 1946, and the Residue of WWII
20. May 12, 2015 The Minnesota Orchestra Goes to Cuba, and Some Thoughts of the Early 1960s
21. May 23, 2015 Thoughts About the War About War
22. May 27, 2015 A Memorial Day to Remember in LaMoure
23. May 29, 2015 Catching a Moment in Time Saturday, March 18, 1905
24. Jul. 4, 2015 “God Bless America”
25. Jul. 7, 2015 Two Flags, Two National Anthems: Cuba at Minnesota Orchestra Hall
26. Jul. 16, 2015 Going to Peace. A Reflection on Detente With Iran
27. Aug. 4, 2015 Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg. Remembering India’s Early Support For “One World”
28. Aug. 6, 2015 August 6, 2015: The Atomic Bomb at 70. Reflecting on Peace.
29. Aug. 10, 2015 Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. A Message to the Peace Movement
30. Aug. 16, 2015 A Thank You to President Jimmy Carter
31. Aug. 24, 2015 Tom Atchison’s Memorial, and Two Upcoming Events [Hiroshima Nagasaki Exhibit at Landmark Center St Paul (ongoing) and Iran Nuclear Deal (see Aug 27)]
32. Aug. 27, 2015 Dealing With Differences. The Iran Nuclear Agreement, the Koreas, North and South, et al.
33. Sep. 5, 2015 That little Kurdish boy who drowned.
34. Sep 7, 2015 The Little Kurdish Boy Who Drowned (continued)
35. Sep. 11, 2015 September 11.
36. Sep. 18, 2015 The International Day of Peace 2015
37. Sep. 21, 2015 The International Day of Peace; A Pope and the Year of Mercy
38. Sep. 24, 2015 Creating a Workable World: Transforming the United Nations System
39. Sep. 27, 2015 The Pope’s Speech to the U.S. Congress
40. Oct. 6, 2015 A Conversation about the United Nations: Looking at the UN at 70
41. Oct. 7, 2015 Bombing the Hospital in Afghanistan. Who’s at fault about the killing at Roseburg, Oregon?
42. Oct. 12, 2015 Getting Perspective on the UN System at 70
43. Oct. 18, 2015 From Darkness to Light. A Journey Towards Peace and Reconciliation.
44. Oct. 26, 2015 Ehtsham Anwar: Seeking An Answer To A Disconnect. Americans as Peaceful People; and America’s International Image As Warmonger.
45. Nov. 5, 2015 Video from Workable World Conference Oct 9&10, 2015; Ehtasham Anwar Video Interviews of Minnesota Peacemakers, May & June, 2014
46. Nov. 11, 2015 Armistice Day, 2015

#975 – Dick Bernard: Four Popes and Fourteen Presidents*

/0 Comments/in , /by

Those who visit the content of this page frequently come to realize that two of my interests are my Church, the Roman Catholic, and politics as practiced in our American society.
So it would come as no surprise that on Christmas Day I was at Basilica of St. Mary for 9:30 Mass.
(click to enlarge)

Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis Dec. 25, 2014. Homilist Abp John Nienstedt.

Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis Dec. 25, 2014. Homilist Abp John Nienstedt.


This Church of mine is an endless source of curiosity (and other emotions) to many, whether Catholic or not.
Saturday morning, a regular men’s Bible study bunch was at my coffee shop. I’m not sure what denomination they are, but they would seem to come from what I’ve called “Evangelical Protestant”, definitely not Catholic. One proceeded to read from the Dec. 22 message of Pope Francis to the Roman Curia in Rome, and an interesting discussion ensued; more fascination than anything else: this Pope was shaking things up in Rome.
Like for the vast majority of Catholics, the official Church has always been a rather mysterious entity to me, over there in Rome, or even locally, in the Bishops residence, out of sight, hardly in mind except when it makes the news. Most likely I never would have paid attention to the links above cited, were it not for the casual conversation among Protestants the next table over!
But we all “feel the breeze” when something happens over there, and mostly it happens when the Pope says something and releases it for public consumption. What is obvious to the ordinary Catholic is that Pope Francis is shaking things up in Rome, and, thus, in the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church – my Church – is an immense institution. Usually, it is said that about 1,000,000,000 people say they’re “Catholic” among the world’s total population of seven billion. As used to be said of England, “the sun never sets” on a Catholic, somewhere.
But we aren’t all alike.
Neither are the Popes. The Church is no electoral Democracy – maybe we’re governed a bit like Communist China! – but it is not at all so simple. Run of the mill “Catholics” enter and leave, as they wish. The Catholic Church is an institution of free people. In a sense, it is rigid, but at the same time it is elastic. It has to be appreciative of differences, to survive at all.
The Popes are elected by the College of Cardinals, and for whatever reason in March of 2013, they elected a Jesuit from Argentina who chose the name Francis, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.
Recently I was at a Retreat where a retired Catholic Bishop used one of his talks to describe the three most recent Popes: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. One or other of these three have been Pope since 1978; all powerful personalities. Each were very different men, with their own gifts. The Archbishop described all of them in a complimentary way. Talented people. (The only one I ever saw, up close, was John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in 1998. By then, his health was already very frail. He was in the Popemobile.)
The present Pope, Francis, was described as the first Pope to have been ordained post- Vatican II, the watershed renewal of the Church set in motion by Pope John XXIII in 1962. He’s also the first Pope from the Western Hemisphere; the first from what is called the Global South.
John XXIII, 1958-65 “shook things up”, too, of course. (There have been two other Popes between 1958 and today. Can you name them without looking them up? Not all Popes become household names.)
It matters a great deal who those Cardinals elect to represent the Catholic Church as Pope. They know their candidates.
When they, surprisingly, picked Francis, they were, in my opinion, picking someone to set the “tone” of the Catholic conversation going forward, and in a sense, I’d say, they affirmed the work of Vatican II and Pope John XXIII.
Already in his first year, Pope Francis has shown a willingness to stir things up, and in so doing he has set a very good example.
People like myself are encouraged.
* – U.S. Presidents, like Popes, also set a tone for the national and international conversation. We elect our Presidents, and in so doing, we decide what tone will be set for our country during the term. Since 1958, there have been six Popes and fourteen Presidents. Relationships matter between these leaders, as they do with all of us. Most recently, of course, came news of the rapprochement between U.S. and Cuba, the Vatican being helpful in facilitating the conversation leading to the re-beginning of a relationship severed 54 years ago.
Nativity scene weaving at Basilica of St. Mary Pulpit, Dec. 25, 2014

Nativity scene weaving at Basilica of St. Mary Pulpit, Dec. 25, 2014


PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT THE FOUR POPES:
The serious looking Pius XII, was pontiff during my entre lifetime through high school. As a youth, he was simply a somewhat dour face you’d see at the back of the church.
John XXIII become Pope when I was a Freshman in College (1958). Before college (and Vatican II), “ecumenism” was a largely unspoken term in our small towns. Catholics and Lutherans and whomever were their own islands, relationships often hostile. In college, an inter-religious council was made official, and ecumenism began in earnest in our small town.
John Paul II came along in 1978, after the very short Pontificate of his immediate predecessor, John Paul I, and earlier Paul VI, neither of particular note. JPII was a charismatic leader in his early years, especially to youth. The future Pope grew up 20 miles from Auschwitz-Birkenau Poland, and World War II, and post-war Communism, had huge impacts on him (in my opinion).
Benedict XVI is often described as one of the modern Church’s strongest intellects. To me he always came across as rigid and authoritarian; a Rome insider. His background was growing up German during the Nazi times and unquestionably he was in a profound sense shaped by those horrible times.
Francis is making his own way, with great distinction, in my opinion.

#972 – Dick Bernard: The Dinner Party

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

There are several comments to the Cuba post, including a photo montage I’ve linked at the beginning of the Cuba section. See the additions here.
(click to enlarge)

Prior Lake MN, Franciscan Retreat Center, Dec. 14, 2014

Prior Lake MN, Franciscan Retreat Center, Dec. 14, 2014


Thursday evening we were invited to a small dinner party at the home of our neighbor, Don. He lives across the street so the commute was short. He had invited two other friends, Arthur and Rose, who we had not met before. Of the five, we were the junior members. The oldest was 84; the youngest 70.
We’re all well into the age when reminiscing is a common thread. Don, retired from a long career from a railroad office job with the then-Great Northern, had once, in his younger years, been a guest at a dinner party hosted by Elizabeth Taylor at her home in Hollywood. He was native of what has long been called the “frogtown” neighborhood of St. Paul.
Arthur came from a farm family of five in central Minnesota. He grew up in a log cabin, literally, he said. He named a tiny town I’ve been through, and said their farm was 12 miles east. I thought – I may have said – that is really in the boonies!.
His German immigrant grandfather was a carpenter and would load his horse drawn wagon with tools, and leave for sometimes as much as two and a half months, working on building this or that somewhere in the general area. “Commuting” with horses is not easy!
All the home windows, he said, were truly home-made, none of the fancy stuff we now demand.
Rose, also from a farm family, grew up near a little town that is now a Minneapolis suburb, and worked in a factory there.
As for us, I’m a tiny town ND kid, child of school teachers; Cathy is a St. Paul east-sider whose family basically could be called a “3M family”, from the days when that corporation often became a persons career.
As one might expect, our conversation was interesting and animated and covered lots of ground. Arthur became a meatpacker across the river in South St. Paul, and when the plant closed in the late 1970s, had a fairly long career driving a Metro Transit bus, often in neighborhoods that he deemed not safe.
Our social get-together ended, and we all went home. “Merry Christmas” to all.
I checked e-mails and there were three of special note:
Good friends Ehtasham and Suhail, both writing from Pakistan, wrote about the tragic bombing that killed over 100 school children in Peshawar this week. “Killing school children for political agendas has no parallel in history. The whole nation is mourning”, one said. The other: “Though I am safe along with my family, yet the kids who have lost their lives are all mine; they are my family as well. The level of frustration is so high that the things are looking gloomy and rays of hope are looking faint. I am currently working with Plan International, which focuses on child rights and child protection, and we have initiated an internal debate on how can we ensure protection to the lives of kids in Pakistan.”
Another e-mail came from a great friend, Said, a Syrian PhD in England, fluent in French, who I’ve been fortunate to know for years. “It is much better to make friends than enemies & especially in this world of ours with vulnerable internet/communications & weapons that are readily available and devastating! I have been investigating WWI a lot since it is a sad anniversary of sorts – except for the Christmas truce [of 1914] which moves me every time I read about it – I also watched a very good French film about it. I suppose instead of the war to end all wars that was the peace to end all peace (1918-19). Well I wish you & yours a Merry Christmas & a peaceful 2015.”
Eight different people, eight different life scripts, stories, differing cultures, backgrounds, religions…but with so many common threads to share. We are one human family; the overwhelming vast majority of us good people*, each who can make a positive difference each and every day.
A hymn I like so profoundly says: “Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”
All Blessings at Christmas and 2015.
POSTNOTE
* – In mid-November, I attended a workshop by Paul K. Chappell, in which he cited research that found 98% of soldiers were averse to killing other people, even in battle. This left, of course, 2% who had no such scruples, called psychopaths. The research expanded to include civilians – our own U.S. population. The same results: 98% and 2%.
In other words, anywhere there are humans, of whatever race, or creed, or nationality, or country, 98% comprise the prevailing side of humanity.
There are a lot of people in the 2% of course, and they are everywhere, but the 98% overwhelmingly have it in their power to minimize the influence of the 2%.
I asked Mr. Chappell for a citation on the source of his data: “Roy L. Swank and Walter E. Marchand, “Combat Neuroses: Development of Combat Exhaustion,.” American Medical Association: Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 1946, 244”.

#971 – Dick Bernard: Experiencing History. Cuba, Iran, North Korea and other places.

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

We are, I think, in a very significant time in international history. And it is a good time, but very scary for those who need enemies to be scared of, and dangerous because of a desire to maintain the historical status quo of enemies and war as a solution..
It is a good time to look at the pre-history (that which occurred before the recent history that we are directed towards.) There is a tendency to ignore bad decisions long before that lead to the present. For instance, WWI, the war to end all wars, had a lot to do with creating WWII….
President Obama continues to make very good calls on very complex international situations. Without doubt, he’ll be vilified for all of them, because he’s plowing new ground. As I said in the previous paragraph, it is a good time, for each of us, to start brushing up on history, the history we won’t easily find or hear about, since some things are considered by official dispensers of information to be best left unsaid….

Some snippets, from a bystander (I could easily make this post much, much longer):
1. Added Dec. 19, from reader John Noltner: “I thought I’d share a little of the Cuban beauty I found when I was there a couple years back.” You can view his montage here. John’s work, A Peace of My Mind, can be found here.
CUBA. I was in college when Fidel Castro took over Cuba (1959), and when President Eisenhower made Cuba an enemy state (1960).
Last night I looked at the college newspaper I edited then, and found the article on the front page about the “Afro-Cuban Review” which came to the college in summer 1961. I reread the article, and found the performers were from “Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad” – apparently no Cubans….
Back in those days, of course, having black people in our town was very unusual, a novelty, one could honestly say. Cuba then and now was a black country. So, also, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad, though, unlike Cuba, they weren’t Communist.
Interesting.
(click to enlarge)
Viking News, Valley City ND State Teachers College, July 5, 1961 page one
In 1962, in an Army barracks below Cheyenne Mountain in suburban Colorado Springs, I watched President Kennedy address the nation during the Cuban Missile Crisis (mid-October, 1962). Colorado, then and now, bristled with military installations and was in the bulls eye, so the Rocky Mountain News reminded us. It was a very nervous time for we young GIs, but it passed quickly.
Ultimately Presidents Kennedy and Khruschev decided there were better ways to deal with their relationship than pointing missiles at each other. We didn’t want Soviet missiles in our backyard much like, I suppose, the Russians are not keen on having NATO missiles in their backyard in Ukraine or such today.
And need I mention how it all started, with Teddy Roosevelt’s “charge up San Juan Hill” and the Spanish-American War which began in 1898, the pretext being the supposed bombing of the USS Maine in Havana harbor.
My Grandpa Bernard didn’t go to Cuba, then, but he did spend a year in the Philippines 1898-99, part of the Spanish-American War which gained for the U.S., Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines, and created the largely ignored part of Cuban-American history we need to read for the first time, between 1898 and 1959….
2. NORTH KOREA. Last night Nora O’Donnell’s (CBS Evening News) voice went dead on-air while talking about the apparently connection between North Korea and the hacking of Sony Pictures and the cancellation of the movie “The Interview” scheduled for Christmas Day. It was a long and distinct enough breach so I wondered: was that brief time of dead-air not a coincidence….
There is lots of pre-history here, too.
A week or two ago I had lunch with an executive of a major corporation here, and was moved to ask a dumb question.
He was South Korean by birth and upbringing, much younger than the Korean War, and I asked him, because I didn’t know, how it was that North and South Korea came to be.
Easy.
Korea at the time of WWII was part of the Empire of Japan; many of the soldiers killed in places like China and the Pacific Theater were Korean conscripts, he said. As I mentioned at table, “cannon fodder?” Of course.
After the War the victors, split Korea into two: North and South. “The victors”, in this case, were what have been since 1945 and presently remain the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: Russia, China, U.S., France, United Kingdom. Not long thereafter came the Korean War, and the deadly military adventure there, including General McArthur’s being fired by Eisenhower for exceeding his authority, and over 60 years of history where we apparently have preferred having an enemy, than working towards resolution.
Check it out.
3. IRAN. History begins where political leaders want it to begin.
It is that way in all regimes, whether good guys or bad.
Our public history of Iran begins with the U.S. Embassy Hostage Crisis of 1979, which was very useful in bringing down President Carter in the 1980 election.
You have to look a bit further to find the back-story: the overthrow in 1953 of democratically elected Iranian President Mossadegh by covert organizing by the West, especially somebody by the name of Kermit Roosevelt, is mostly overlooked.
The objective: to protect western oil fields in Iran. The Shah of Iran was installed, and was hated by the people he governed. Near his end, he was hospitalized in the Mayo Clinic, in our own state. In effect, we welcomed the leader Iranians hated.
I somewhat haplessly crossed through an interesting demonstration by Iranians when President Carter came to Minneapolis in 1978 for a political event. Their heads were covered with grocery bags, and the demonstration was completely peaceful, but serious. This was before the hostage crisis a year later….
4. ETC.
In this post, I give no links. I didn’t even fact check the specific dates, since I lived some of them and have learned the others over the years.
Take some time to see where history began in these and other circumstances.
I applaud President Obama for his move towards normalizing relationships.
May it continue, regardless of the political hysteria it will excite.
COMMENTS:
from Jeff: Nora O’Donnell… wow, I saw that, Bridget mentioned it and I said “you must have touched the mute on the remote” (she did have it in her hand)… she said she didn’t. I never thought of that connection. And it’s odd as I/we seldom watch the network news at 5:30…
I think the Sony decision was amazing… now it is said to have come from N Korea…a commentator on CNN said expect to see the USA and international financial community cut off all financing for N Korea…apparently they did that several years ago and in 2 to 3 weeks they couldn’t pay the Generals…things changed quickly.
Cuba: good op/ed in the NYT saying basically the GOP is following old thinking per usual. Actually I suspect that except for the Florida crew and Menendez from NJ, and of course, Cruz, there are few against this. The GOP in the new Congress might try to scuttle it but its insipidly stupid. Has been for years… the logic of having on going relations with Russia, Japan, Vietnam, Germany, Venezuela, etc. after and during times of enmity is so overwhelming its beyond speaking. We bankrupted a country and people. The moneyed criollo class who came here post-Castro have called the shots for years and the yokels have eaten it up.
Personally I think the change has a lot to do with the current Russian situation…I think the handwriting is on the wall for Cuba… Russia is heading toward a complete economic meltdown and that is not good for Cuba.
Korea: I don’t know the history of the conscripts of Japan… of course I know the history of the “comfort women” and the general historical enmity between Korea and Japan. My guess is Korean conscripts largely died in China during the war.
Philippines: the war there has been mentioned several times as a complete precursor to our Iraq expedition. Imperialism based on ignorance and blithely turning a population into an enemy.
From SAK: Many thanks for drawing attention to #971 – I agree it is much better to make friends than enemies & especially in this world of ours with vulnerable internet/communications & weapons that are readily available and devastating!
I have been investigating WWI a lot since it is a sad anniversary of sorts – except for the Christmas truce [1914, 100th anniversary this year] which moves me every time I read about it – I also watched a very good French film about it. I suppose instead of the war to end all wars that was the peace to end all peace (1918-19).
As for Mossadegh & other oily business a French/German channel recently broadcast a couple of episodes:
“La face caché du petrole”
1. dividing the world here; and
2. manipulations, here.
from David: Thank you for your peaceable perspective.
President Truman canned Dug Out Doug-ie. That is what my Chief Petty Officer called the fade away soldier. A member of our Chapter 154 (Vets for Peace Fargo-Moorhead) has an anti-war brochure on the Philippines. Horrendous anti-terrorist and insurrectionist atrocities there. I call us the run-to-the-gun Nation.
Blessings on all — animal mineral vegetable.
from Flo: Yesterday, when I heard President Obama on MPR telling us of his executive orders to make the changes he could in our relations with Cuba, I cried for joy! Then I pulled out our photo album with pictures and memorabilia of our 2012 Lexington Institute educational tour to Cuba with about 30 returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Yes, the government of Cuba must make changes, too, but the Cuban people certainly don’t deserve the sanctions and the embargo imposed by our own government. Neither do we, who declare ourselves FREE. The instructions we received on what we could and couldn’t purchase and bring back with us to the USA and what we could and couldn’t do required a full page of small print!
My fervent parting hope for Cuba was that the American embargo be lifted and the curtain separating our countries be shredded. Thank you, President Obama, for giving my hope wings!
***
More from Dick:
An amusing footnote: Back in the 1990s I was having a conversation with a valued relative, my Dad’s cousin, who was a retired bank president in a major Minnesota town, an executive type who had been President of the Minnesota Bankers Association, and before that rose briefly to Colonel in the WWII Army in the Pacific, right at the end of the War.
Somehow or other we got to talking about Castro and Cuba.
“You know”, Marvin said, “back in 1959 I made a $5 bet with a friend that Castro wouldn’t last six months. Guess I got that one wrong.”
A not so amusing footnote: Our complete dependence on the cyber-world (internet) is perhaps our major vulnerability as a country. Imagine your world, today, without computers. In my opinion, it is unimaginable.
The only fail-safe I see is that the world is now so tied together – so interdependent – that an attempt to destroy one countries capabilities would be as destructive to the enemy as to the target. The internet is, in a sense, even more our mad, mad world, than the insane nuclear arsenal we still find a need to have.
An awful footnote: In this same fortnight came the intersection of two events: the terrible tragedy of the bombing of the school in Pakistan, with more than 100 dead; and the grotesque defense of torture back in the good old days by Dick Cheney and company, and the quiet acquiescence of a distressingly high percentage of Americans to that practice of torture.
In this age of misinformation, disinformation, false flags and the like, it is risky to believe any narrative put forth by anyone about anything.
In my opinion, we forfeited our innocence and goodness the first time we tortured someone to attempt to extract information, and even if we now totally outlaw the practice, it will be a very long time for us to restore our standing as even slightly righteous.

#959 – Dick Bernard: The Ukraine, Russia, and US.

/0 Comments/in , /by

PRE-NOTE: My choice in reflecting on talk such as described below is to never attempt to interpret the expert. So, after the talk, I asked Dr. Tonoyan if he had “any recommended available sources of further information I could share with my list?” He responded almost in short order: The best and the most level-headed analysis on the conflict is done by a good friend of mine from Baylor Serhiy Kudelia. You cannot get anything better at the moment. His articles appear here.”
A reflection on US (as in “we, the people” of the United States.)
Thursday evening a dozen of us gathered to hear Dr. Artyom Tonoyan speak on the topic of “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict: Causes and Consequences.”
I sent around the flier to my own mailing list, saying “This promises to be a very interesting program. Stop over.” Of course, I didn’t know if it would be “interesting”. It’s common to pre-conceive: “What does HE know?” This is a regrettable pre-judgement we often make about this-and-that. You can’t know if you’re right or wrong till you actually show up.
I’m very happy I showed up. The evening was extraordinarily rich in information and food for thought.
(click to enlarge)

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan, Nov. 20, 2014

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan, Nov. 20, 2014

We came, and a couple of hours later we left, my sense: all of us were well satisfied. I knew about half of the folks in the room, and they, and me, and the others, were riveted on the account of this Armenian native, with family in the Russian east of the former Soviet Union country of Ukraine. A hook for me to attend, frankly, was that airliner that went down over eastern Ukraine some months ago. I asked him to show the approximately location on the map he had projected. It was in the north part of the Donetsk region, the dark brown (most heavily Russian) of the eastern provinces. That was Dr. Artoyan’s only mention of the plane.
I go to sessions like last nights quite often. As with this one, I always take a pass on trying to do a review of what the speaker had to say – it is an impossible task to accurately do soundbites about, as in this case, hundreds of years of local and regional history, and multiple players . Suffice, that the situation in Ukraine – a country Dr. Tonoyan described as about the size of Texas – is exceedingly complex*.
In our country we tend to boil down “complexity” into headlines, or one or two minute summaries on the evening news, with content chosen by editors who can include or exclude anything that they wish, including whether to even mention a national or international happening. You don’t get depth by 144 character twitter feeds, etc. But that is how we seem to make many of our judgments as people.
As it happened, just a few hours before the meeting I had sent a handwritten letter (my choice of style when I’m serious about something) to Scott Pelley of CBS Evening News and CBS’ Sixty Minutes. It was a simple one page letter, and I raised a complaint about CBS news-editing, in particular the tendency I’d seen on his news program to use judgement laden words to describe certain people or situations. What led to the letter was his recent reference to “Obamacare”, as opposed to Affordable Care Act. Or almost casual labels like “terrorist” and “dictator” to refer to some vague “them” in a piece of news footage. Decisions like what words are used are decisions deliberately made.
But it takes time to be informed, and most of us don’t take the time to get informed; and worse, we make snap judgements based on someone elses analysis.
We left the meeting room last night much better informed than when we came. Dr. Tonoyan helped fill in the blanks of this regional crisis.
There are many legitimate sides to every story. We know this from our own lives. “Truth” can be an uncertain commodity, very hard to find.
The Ukraine, Russia and US is very, very – much more than how do Putin and Obama look at each other when the cameras are running.
We can’t be well informed about everything. Best we (US) can do is to avoid falling into the trap of judging the entirety by a fragment.
The program I attended is part of the Third Thursday Series of the Citizens for Global Solutions MN. I’m a member of the Board of that group. I encourage your participation.
Thank you, Dr. Tonoyan.

Nov. 20, 2014 Minneapolis MN

Nov. 20, 2014 Minneapolis MN

* – Here is the CIA Factbook entry on Ukraine.

#939 – Dick Bernard: DRAFT Sifting through the tragic mess that is the Middle East

/2 Comments/in , /by

NOTE October 8, 2014: This post will likely continue to be preceded by DRAFT. My apologies to Prof. Beeman if I missed his point(s). The very interesting additional opinions (below) are as expressed (interpreted) by the writers, including myself.
Last night (Sep 18, 2014) I was one of about 35 persons who had a great opportunity to learn a bit more about the tangled web of people, countries, events and history that make up the contemporary Middle East. Our teacher was William Beeman of the University of Minnesota. The program was part of Citizens for Global Solutions MN “Third Thursday” program. It seems a good time to dust off a couple of maps I had cobbled together about the region, in 2005 when the Iraq War was raging, and more recently, in May, 2013, when the Syria Crisis was in an earlier phase, and I found a map to at least define the area in a blogpost.
Iraq environs ca 2005001 (click on link to open)
and
Syria and environs in 2013 (below):
(click to enlarge)
Syria001
These maps preceded ISIS (or ISIL) as the case might be.
Professor Beeman of the University of Minnesota gave us an endless stream of information which could be interpreted in 35 different ways (by every one of us in the room) and millions of different ways by anyone else who has even the slightest interest in the topic. The greatest gift of a good talk is to encourage the recipient to think….
Prof. Beeman (photo below) is an acknowledged expert on the area, and respected as a scholar who understands and appreciates the culture (also diversely defined). He gave us many insights and well-informed opinions. I won’t even try to pretend that I have correctly “translated” him. What I offer are some fragments I gleaned from our two hours, and I’ve invited others I know who were there to add in their own fragments if/as they wish.

William O. Beeman, September 18, 2014

William O. Beeman, September 18, 2014


The Middle East is yet another example of the failure of colonialism and ignorance and disrespect by the western powers. For instance, England and France basically carved up the land that now makes up the Middle East, without any regard for the diverse cultures living within the area. As Dr. Beeman said, they “worked from a map” when they decided who would get what after WW I.
He was highly complimentary of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), and especially Gertrude Bell, both of whom understood the peoples of the region from having lived among them.
It is impossible to pick out a single one or two points that were most significant. I paid special attention when Beeman took some time to point out that the word “Christian” includes a great plenty of differing beliefs, albeit centering on a dominant personality, Jesus, and Islam with Mohamed is really no different. Yet, I will hear people, Christians usually, regularly clumping all Muslims as if they were all the same even though, Muslims are as diverse as Christians.
The discussion of tribal cultures was also very interesting. In my opinion, in the United States, from an ethnic standpoint, the word “American” no longer has any particular “tribal” meaning in the ethnic sense. But tribes are useful from the standpoint of dividing people for the purpose of gaining a competitive advantage, so in our country there are constant attempts to create “us” versus “them” scenarios (“tribes”, as it were) for the purpose of winning. This becomes particularly intense during this absurd American election season: the Republican “tribe” versus the Democrat “tribe”.
Dr. Beeman suggested that a crucial actor in resolving the ISIL and other regional dilemmas in the Middle East is likely Iran.
Of course, much has been invested over many years in making Iran, along with Cuba and North Korea, part of the infamous “Axis of Evil”. So the U.S. blunders along, ill suited to get a solution, even at the point of weaponry, and its major client state, Israel, is not very helpful.
There are so many facets to the current problem that it is hard to devine what might end up being a solution. Of course, enter partisan politics. Crisis is good, and having somebody to blame for the crisis, is even better.
We must do better.
COMMENTS
from Gail H, Sep 21 (referring to above session): At the Third Thursday Forum last Thursday, “America’s Confusion in the Middle East”, William Beeman provided an excellent overview of the historical, cultural/religious, and geopolitical context of that region to help us understand what’s been happening there recently.
For those who missed it or would like to hear more from Dr. Beeman, [here is] an article by him that was published in the Huffington Post, U.K., on July 31, 2014 BeemanShiaSunni. The article, “Will There be a Shi’a-Sunni War in the Middle East? Not Likely”, includes some of the same information.
from John B, Sep 19: The Citizens for Global Solutions meeting in Minneapolis last night was interesting, informative and, yes, a bit frightening. One take-away for me is that the USA seems to be led around by the nose by the radical Zionists in Israel. Their complicity in the geopolitical machinations and trumped up fear of Iran have made the USA look, once again, like bumbling stooges. I agree with many, who express the opinion, that Israel is standing in the way of developing an effective strategy to deal with ISIL which could include Iran, possibly Turkey, maybe even Russia. There are many other matters of conflict which the the Middle East countries and religious bodies need to work out. Not the least is the ongoing aparteid involving Palestinian interests and Israel.
A necessary disclaimer: I am not anti-Semitic. I admire many things about modern IsraeI. I love the Jewish religion, its culture and highly regard the contributions many, many Jews have made in science, government and the arts. If, in fact, the Ancient Israelites were GOD’s Chosen people, does that give modern Zionists the right to bully American politicians and wield its power in the halls of our government? By all accounts this is what is occuring. This is an “undiscussible”. It is yet another example of our broken political system. Maybe this is what America deserves; this could be payback for our meddling in the affairs of so many nations over the years. Lots of dirty hands need washing.
I stand opposed to any US involvement in the ISIL, Syria and Iraq situation. Yes, to some extent our nation has directly contributed to the mess in the middle East. Let’s not make it worse. A very ugly possible future is lurking in the background.
response from Dick B: I agree with John’s sentiments. I’ve been to Israel (1996, right before Arafat was elected, before the Wall). I’ve visited Auschwitz and other horrible places of the Holocaust in 2000, with a group of 40 that was half Jews and half Christians. (I turned 60 the day we were at the ovens in Auschwitz. It is impossible to describe adequately how it felt to be in that horrible place, and others such as the Schindlers List camp near Krakow, and Terezin, Czech Republic, etc.) But the Israelis idea of a short term solution is catastrophic for everyone, including themselves, long term. Just my opinion.
There is an unfortunate “no talk” rule about this issue. I’m glad John brought it up.
from Joe S, Sep 19: Thanks for your candid remarks, with which I generally concur. As one of the more faithful attenders of our Third Thursday Forums, you are probably ware that we have discussed Israel/Palestine on several occasions and will, I would guess, do so again.
from Gail H: I very much appreciate your comments, John and Dick, and your courage in raising this issue! Those who criticize Israeli foreign policy (which, by the way, is led by an ultra-Right government) are no more Anti-Semitic than those who criticize American foreign policy are unpatriotic. I agree that it has been ‘taboo’ to openly and candidly examine Israel, although that has begun to change as Israel’s excessive violence has become increasingly difficult to defend.
I joined CGS-MN because those who attend Third Thursdays seem thoughtful, well-educated about global affairs, and unwilling to accept without question what we’re told by our politicians and by our media. They don’t ‘stand’ on ideology, but want to hear from scholars such as William Beeman who can expand our understanding of events with historical, cultural, and geopolitical information and reasoned analysis.
In my opinion, Professor Beeman’s talk last Thursday, the questions asked by audience members, and the discussion which here has ensued shows CGS at its best. I am so proud of our organization!
from a retired lifelong American who’s also lifelong Moslem and grew up in a vibrant Moslem community in rural America: (His comments refer to a film in progress about Arabs in America. You can view the film trailer here. Included with his comments were these two items: British Mandate Summary and Lord Balfour_r3
(To the film producer) Thank you. I enjoyed the trailer very much.
A few things mentioned caught my attention:
My Dad and his brother also immigrated here to escape induction into the Ottoman Empire’s army as one of the persons in your trailer indicated
There were words from a Palestinian girl that reminded me of the British Mandate. She may be able to expand on it. I am having an interesting discussion with a couple of past co-workers on the Middle East mess created by the British. One is from England and they have provided me with much information that helps me understand the conditions that led to the immigration of so many Arabs from that part of the world. The first attachment [link above] is a summary of the British Mandate and the second is more descriptive of the background. Further back in history, the Ottoman Empire resulted from a local Turkish leader named Osman organizing an army to drive the Crusaders out of the middle east after 500 years of slaughter by wave after wave of Crusaders. But in short, all the problems we now experience in the Middle East were caused by the British, that same entity that felt they should rule the US before the Revolutionary War that the British still call an insurgency. It bothers me that we have become the new Great Britain feeling we are the ones to go around the world and tell other nations what to do and believe.
I’m sure you know the story of Lawrence of Arabia, the trusted soul that got the Arabs into WWI, but if not, I can expand on that for you.
There was discussion of Christians in the Middle East. The Middle East populations were predominantly Christian until the crusaders slaughtered most of them. There is an interesting article in the June, 2009 issue of National Geographic on the Christian Exodus from the Holy Land. Most Lebanese Christians live in the central area of Lebanon. They align themselves with Hezbollah because they do not trust the US and its western allies. We label Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorists, but both organization we created as relief organization to aid the victims of the US backed Israelis attacks. My grandfather returned to his Lebanon birthplace to live out the rest of his life after my grandmother died. After a few months he returned to N Dakota. The reason was that the Israelis would fly over southern Lebanon and kill the occupants for target practice during periods of calm. As the result of our foreign policies and undying support of Israel, Hezbollah has taken a more active role in military defense of their people. Hamas on the other hand has focused mainly on relief activities. We still refer to them as terrorists to appease Israel. But they are hardly militant. They have been shooting these small rockets into Israel to draw the world’s attention to their plight after the withdrawal of Jewish settlements and the establishment of the siege. Notice how quickly the news media shifted from the recent Gaza incident. The people of Gaza have the choice of sitting back and starving to death, or raising a bit of ruckus every now and then to draw attention to their plight
If you are a student of biblical history, the siege is the process that Moses and his people used to claim the homeland of the ancestors of the Palestinians 3000 years ago. Canaan consisted of a series of small city states and the Hebrews would besiege one and when their armies would come out to drive the intruders away, the people of Moses could easily defeat them, then they would go into the city and kill slaughter the women, children and elderly males, and then occupy the city as their home. This continued through five generation from Joshua through Gideon. Much on that subject on the web.
Note comment from Howie, in comments section below. This illustration applies to the comment and my response to it.
from Understanding the Catholic Faith, An Official Edition of the Revised Baltimore Catechism No. 3, 1955

from Understanding the Catholic Faith, An Official Edition of the Revised Baltimore Catechism No. 3, 1955

#932 – Dick Bernard: International Day of Peace, September 21, 2014

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

(click to enlarge)

International Peace Day at Loring Park, Minneapolis, September 21, 2003

International Peace Day at Loring Park, Minneapolis, September 21, 2003


Eleven years ago, sometime in August, 2003, a group of peace and justice folks at Minneapolis’ First Unitarian Society had an idea: let’s do a Peace Day at Loring Park on the International Day of Peace, September 21. Their plan involved enlisting churches in the downtown Minneapolis neighborhood.
I volunteered.
“Peace Day”? September 21?
It wasn’t until later that I learned of Jeremy Gilley, a young Englishman, who had done the inconceivable: an ordinary citizen convincing the United Nations to fix a specific date for its annual International Day of Peace as September 21 each year, rather than the third Tuesday in September, or even other dates, which had been the practice since the day was established at the United Nations in 1981.
The first Peace Day observed on September 21 had been the previous year, 2002. Somebody in the Twin Cities had heard about it, and here we were: planning one for the Twin Cities in its second year, 2003.
(NOTE: Sunday, September 21, 2014, is this years International Day of Peace. The complex and fascinating story of Peace Day is told in a free 80 minute on-line movie, “The Day After Peace”, accessible here.)
By September, 2003, I had become active in the peace and justice committee at Basilica of St. Mary, one of the downtown churches, and I agreed to help out with the Peace Day event, which came to be called “Peace on the Hill” (First Unitarian is, in fact on Lowry hill, a couple of blocks up from Loring Park).
As I recall, the committee was having trouble finding somebody to be a speaker.
On the day itself, Sep. 21, 2003, the weather was uncertain, and maybe a couple of hundred of us gathered in a circle, some local musicians inspired us (photo above), and then-Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak came at the last minute and gave a very good speech. He had made a special trip to the event as this was his wedding anniversary weekend, and they had made other plans.
Peace on the Hill was a very good event, and my friend Madeline Simon, and her colleagues at First Unitarian, deserve the credit for a very good idea. (My personal thoughts, written a few days after the event, are at the end of this post.) I still have the t-shirt from the day: Peace Day 9-21-03001
Events like Peace on the Hill are difficult to put together, and it is even more difficult to sustain interest. So, to my knowledge, the first day was also the last. There were other efforts, but they were only sporadic and scattered.
Assorted “bugaboos” known to anyone who has ever organized anything interfere with long term success.
There were plenty of reasons for Jeremy Gilley to give up on his noble idea of a specific day set aside for peace.

By tragic irony, the United Nations adopted September 21 as the International Day of Peace on September 7, 2001, effective in 2002.
Four days later, on September 11, 2001, as the UN was celebrating the 2001 International Day of Peace, outside, on a pleasant day, the Twin Towers just down the street from the UN were hit.
It all could have ended, then and there. But it didn’t.
From all indications, in 2014, Jeremy Gilley has the focus and the momentum. His goal now, and it’s an attainable one, is that 3 billion people, half of the worlds population, will be aware of September 21 as the International Day of Peace.
Simple awareness is a large step towards victory.
Watch the movie, and commit to do something this International Day of Peace, and every day following.
*
POSTNOTE: Thoughts written after International Peace Day September 21, 2003.
Dick Bernard, September 29, 2003, P&J #460 “Who’ll be speaking?”
Note especially the bold-faced section beginning at #4.
A suggestion: I am reading a little book, and near the beginning was a paragraph which caught my eye:
“…if we so choose, we can always postpone the jump from thought to action. We really need to acquire more information, read another book, attend one more conference, hold further conversations, in order to “clarify the issues.” Then we’ll act. So if the action looks risky, there is always a good reason to postpone it: we don’t know enough yet.
“We are fooling ourselves: we never actually “postpone” the jump from thought to action. For, paradoxical as it sounds, not to act is to act. It is to act by default for whoever is in charge. People who did not oppose the Nazi gassing of Jews were supporting the Nazis: “See,” Hitler could say, “nobody is objecting.”….”
(From Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes, by Robert McAfee Brown. Check it out.)
What to do?
Some Actions among many we all can easily take:
1. Actually write a real letter to your Congressperson and Senators and editor, etc., about the $87,000,000,000 and the additional immense deficits. Make it brief and to the point. It will be read by somebody, and they will pay attention.
2. Do something for Peace and Justice YOU consider to be a bit outrageous – outside of your comfort zone, even if only a little. That is the only real way to get into action…to be at least a little uncomfortable. For sure don’t be stymied by a need to know everything (see the book quote above). As we are becoming more and more aware, the “big deals” probably know less than we do – yes, they may have more information, but their “blind spots” are huge – their ego causes them to miss the obvious…and then deny its existence long after it is obvious to others.
3. Pay much more attention to today’s quiet masses than to the loudmouths. I think the quiet multitude among us – the vast majority – is starting to wonder if Iraq, the economy, etc makes any sense. In a sense, they might be like the ordinary passengers on the Titanic who might have been on deck and wondering about those icebergs out there, but said to themselves “they must know what they’re doing”, and expressed concern to nobody. Of course, “they” up on the bridge of the unsinkable Titanic apparently didn’t have a clue, and the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. We are, collectively, on our own Titanic…. There is a temptation – I feel it myself – to say “see, I told you so”. Avoid the temptation. The nature of humans is to not want to admit they’ve been wrong.
4. Make a commitment to SUPPORT activities in your area that SOMEBODY like you is investing a lot of time, personal effort and even money in to make a success. Attend those demonstrations, and programs, etc., etc., and by so doing you show your support of somebody’s hard effort for peace and justice. Thank the people who made the event happen even if it might not have been perfect. Ditto for requests people make of you. (Personally, I will be giving you a couple of invitations in the near future: it will be a good opportunity to practice your skills of acknowledging/accepting/declining! Stay tuned.)
The importance of Active Support came close to home for me at an event I was helping coordinate in Loring Park in Minneapolis on September 21, Peace on the Hill. The event turned out to be a real success, but before it began one of my fellow volunteers was talking about a party he’d been to the previous evening. A number of peace and justice activists were at the party, and he invited them to come to the get-together. “Who’ll be speaking”, they asked in a variety of ways, suggesting that they’d consider coming if the program would be sufficiently “interesting”. At the time, we couldn’t guarantee any speakers – in fact, our focus was not speakers, rather music, and my presumption is that the activists my colleague was talking about were not in evidence at the Park during our program.
“Who’ll be speaking?”. In a real sense, the speakers that cool and overcast Sunday afternoon were the several hundred people who actually came with no expectations. (Ultimately, the Mayor of Minneapolis, R.T.Rybak did come to our Peace on the Hill event, and spent a lot of time with us, and gave a great speech as well. It developed that he couldn’t absolutely commit to coming beforehand because of a family commitment, and he had to drive home early to be with us. Rather than passing the duty off to an aide, he felt it was important enough to attend in person. He deserves gratitude.)
Some of you came to Peace on the Hill, and I was grateful to see you. It was acknowledgement that the event was important, even though there were many other things you could have been doing. Event organizers notice things like that, even if they’re too busy to chat at the time. The musicians noticed that the audience was an appreciative one, engaged. That was important to the musicians – who performed for nothing.
“Who’ll be speaking?”
How about you, in any of sundry ways?
Have a great week..

#920 – Dick Bernard: Some brief comments on two items of "old" news.

/2 Comments/in , , /by

1. The Central American Children as Illegal Immigrants.
July 12, I filed a post on this topic: here.
As I clearly state in the post, I had very little information about the specific facts of the issue.
My basic note was that this is a complex situation, and I included an inset map showing how difficult it would be to simply get from Central America to the United States.

Adaptation of an old map to show relative scale of Central America to Minnesota. 1961 maps

Adaptation of an old map to show relative scale of Central America to Minnesota. 1961 maps


So, where are we today, three weeks later?
The U.S. Congress delayed its five week recess by a single day to pass a bill on Friday which everyone knew would go nowhere, except into political campaigns. It was a total act of political theatre, taking no action on a crisis, preparing for the election in November. The Saturday Minneapolis Star Tribune carried a story on page four about the impasse. You can read “Congress exits after a display of dysfunction” here: Congress 2014001.
Way down towards the end of the article: “By traditional measurements the 113th Congress is now in a race to the bottom for the “do nothing” crown” [passing- “just 142 laws – 34 of them ceremonial…The original “do-nothing” Congress of 1947 and 1948 passed 906 laws.”
2. Israel/Gaza Strip and Ukraine.
July 26 I filed this post. The day I wrote the post, there was one Israeli casualty, later increasing to 13, with hundreds of deaths in Gaza.
About a week later, there is a catastrophe in Gaza, and the Israeli population by and large supports the Israeli government in this internal war.
Yesterdays Just Above Sunset gives a good rundown of the awful current situation there.
We think in shorthand about such places, if we think about them at all. Israel, a place I visited in 1996, is a state less than one-tenth the size of Minnesota, mostly desert, with about 8 million people (Minnesota population 5 million). Gaza is about a dozen miles square in size (it is rectangular), and has nearly two million people, growing very rapidly.
There seems some Israeli fantasy that an entire population of Gaza can be bombed into permanent submission; some even think it can be eliminated. History teaches over and over that it just doesn’t work that way. The saying goes: “What goes around, comes around.”
But…what do I know?
In Ukraine, things are more quiet. International experts are at the site of airplane disaster, picking up body parts and belongings of those killed.
Politically, things seem a bit quieter, and that is always good. It is easier to negotiate quietly than through news media.
It’s a nice day here. And a birthday party soon for a 15 year old.
Life is good.
But that depends on where one is, and on their own particular point of view.
Keep engaged.
POSTNOTE: here’s an uncomfortable commentary on Israel/Gaza.

#917 – Dick Bernard: The Hermit as Metaphor for US. With Comments from Wilhelm and George about Israel-Gaza and the Ukraine-Russia situation.

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

My summer has taken on something of a theme: most of my thinking, and a great deal of my time, has related to an old farm 310 miles away. My Aunt Edithe, born there in 1920, died in February; and her brother, my Uncle Vince, is in Nursing Home Care and no longer can even visit the farm on which he lived for over 81 of his 89 years.
It’s fallen to me to deal with the multitude of issues that relate to such a transition. This is not a complaint: it is simply a reality.
On the road there’s no computer for me (a deliberate choice), and usually no TV (too tired), and ordinarily no newspaper either (available, but otherwise preoccupied). So in a small sense I’m like that hermit I came across in the Tarryall section of the Rocky Mountains during Army maneuvers in 1962. He lived in an isolated log cabin, no electricity, no phone, and once a month he walked to the nearest town far off in the distance, to provision up. One of his provisions was the entire previous month issues of the Denver Post. Each day he would read one of the newspapers. So, he was always up to date, just 30 or so days behind.
(click to enlarge photo)

Hermit Shack at Tarryall Rocky Mountains Colorado June 1962. Dick B in photo. Visited with the hermit, but didn't have the nerve to ask to take his photo.

Hermit Shack at Tarryall Rocky Mountains Colorado June 1962. Dick B in photo. Visited with the hermit, but didn’t have the nerve to ask to take his photo.


In the hermits mind, perhaps, what happened out there in the world was not his concern. He had his patch, his cabin with door and window, his dog, his goat, and all was okay. Some day he’d die and when he didn’t show up in town, somebody would go out to recover his carcass.
His life was in control. He seemed pretty happy, actually.
Sometimes I think we Americans, in general so privileged and so omnipotent in our own minds, think that we can pretend that what’s happening inside our tiny sphere is all that matters; and if we do care, in any event, we can’t do anything about it anyway, so why bother?
Of course, it matters, and we can impact on it, but once settled in to routine, as the hermit was, we tune out. In the end, it will be our own loss that we didn’t pay attention.
In recent weeks I’ve written here about the Central American immigrant crisis; and the Israel-Gaza catastrophe at the same time as the downing of the Malysian Airliner over the Ukraine.
*
Even when I’m off-line the material just keeps flowing in to my in-box, and back home I take some time to just scroll through. Sometimes something catches my attendtion.
For instance, yesterdays Just Above Sunsets here goes into a too-little known facet of certain Christians and Israel.
A friend, Wilhelm, who grew up in Germany, made some pertinent comments about how he sees the Israel situation.
“I feel I have to reply to [some] remarks [seen quoted in] “My favorite blogger’s commentary about the Israel-Palestine situation”
According to [the quote] the Germans had the right to defend themselves against the French Resistance or the Russian Partisans even if it was inadvisable or strategically not the right thing to do. Or even the final destruction of the Ghetto in Warsaw after several and seemingly unending up risings. But maybe I have it all wrong here. The difference might be the reason why people are put into a ghetto in the first place. Some reasons might be legitimate, some might not? I really do not know.
But the I read the following: Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked published on Facebook a call for genocide of the Palestinians. It declares that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and justifies its destruction, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”
She quoted Uri Elitzur, who died a few months ago, and was leader of the settler movement and speechwriter and close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”
It strikes me that this could have emanated from Berlin at a earlier time just as well .
But if I am right then this is also relevant:
“Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be “governed” without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes – crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure – reach the light of day?” First Leaflet -The White Rose Society – Munich, 1942
A little later, Wilhelm sent this:
Chris Hedges as usual cuts through the fog of propaganda and handwringing. His article is well worth reading!
Then, last night, George, a retired electrical engineer and native of Hungary, wrote about his experience as a young man in the Hungarian Army, then part of the Warsaw Pact nations.
There is nothing unusual here, especially for anyone who’s been in the U.S. military, but George’s commentary gives an unusual perspective into the relationships between powers, and how people in the military operate:
“Even in the old Warsaw Pact Countries, like Hungary, ROTC University students received training in operating and servicing anti-air defense/attack systems. During summer we did our practical training. As an EE [Electrical Engineering] student I was training to both eventually manage the servicing and train regular enlisted men to operate this kind of equipment at the combined arms battalion level while being assigned as a technical officer to the staff of a combined arms division. If I did my job properly by age 30 I could have been promoted to a Brigadier (1 star) general level and be in charge of the ‘heavy arms artillery regiment’ of the division (ground attack mobile rockets and long range artillery).
The Soviet military and its Warsaw Pact allies after WW2 were gradually reorganized into combined arms divisions (tanks and mechanized infantry) using the old WW2 German Panzer Division as the model!
To save on costly training and extra manpower the country’s civilian and military manpower was completely integrated based on the University trained ROTC graduates. University education was free and was supported by free scholarship to all accepted into a university program. Women were encouraged to go into medical and law professions and did not go to summer training camps. We did have several women in my EE faculty who attended military class-room instruction but not the summer’s practical training camps.
I don’t know what they did instead of learning how to goose-step, learn to live with an always dirty rifle (as per my drill-Sargent), and go on 3AM to 9PM full backpack load walkabouts! — George (ex-staff Sargent of the ex-Hungarian Peoples Republic Army)
PS. The only time Soviet military’s training, tactic and weapons systems were tested was the 1973 war waged by Egypt and Syria against Israel. These armies were trained and equipped by the Soviet Union. Initially they beat the Israeli army and air force. On the Golan, Syria’s Russian Style Army took the Golan Heights and was within ~20 miles from reaching the Mediterranean Sea. Its APC [Armored Personnel Carrier] mounted mobile SAM’s [Surface to Air Missiles] managed to neutralize Israel’s vaunted Air Force and only because the 2nd-wave Iraqi Divisions were halted by the Kurdish army in the mountains of Northern Iraq did Israel survive! They were eventually destroyed by the Israeli army reinforcements from the Egyptian front. The Egyptian Army was also trained and equipped by the Soviet Union. They re-crossed the Suez canal and their light infantry used Soviet wire guided infantry portable missiles to hold back the Israeli tanks while the Egyptian Soviet T55 tanks were also shipped across using Soviet bridging equipment and barges. This deployment was covered by Russian heavy SAMS from fixed positions on the Egyptian side of the Suez Canal and also destroyed most of the Israeli air force! The Israeli army had to withdraw into the Sinai mountains and because of a technical problem of the T55 tanks they managed to halt and eventually destroy the Egyptian Army. The T55’s guns could only be elevated ~15 degrees because they were designed for the flat German and Russian plain. The Israeli tanks looked down on them from the Sinai escarpment and destroyed most of the Egyptian tanks at long distance who could not even defend themselves! Also the heavy duty Russian SAMs were not mobile and could not protect its mobile tank units when outside their range. So now the Israeli air force came back into action and completed the destruction of the Egyptian tanks! An Egyptian general predicted the outcome of this battle but President Nasser, with Soviet advice, overruled him.
After the initial battles both sides were fought out and needed new equipment to continue. President Nixon did not believe the huge losses suffered by Israel and did not want to completely destroy Egypt, a Russian ally! He was worried that the Soviets would directly intervene by sending troops and that the local war could grow into WW3! We sent our U2 spy plane to survey the battle field as did the Russians send their equivalent plane. Both the USA and Russia started resupplying their respective allies and also ‘advised them’ to start peace negotiations! The most complicated position was that of President Nasser’s whose direct order, against those of his general’s led to this disaster! So the Egyptian public was never told about the disaster that was disguised as a great victory! This was also the reason why President Nasser was the only one on the Arab side who accepted the Israeli Peace offer, originally proposed by Secretary of State Kissinger. He even went to Russia to start the negotiations on behalf of President Nixon.
George’s comments remind me of our own longstanding relationship with Israel, an unhealthy co-dependency which enables the current behaviors. History dies hard (but in this business of killing each other with every more sophisticated means must end, otherwise we’ll all be goners.)
*
Then, there is the radical rabble that is feeling its oats in our own United States. Given their own surface-to-air missile, they’d launch it somewhere on our own ground.
There is an interesting, troubling video about goings on at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the monument to where President Kennedy was assassinated. You can access it here. Its a ten minute watch, and one can only wonder what goes on in these folks minds….
We are a nation, and a world, of very decent people.
But sitting on the sidelines is an invitation to extremists to take over.
POSTNOTES:
From Wilhelm, Jul 26: “If I was an Arab leader I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal, we took their land. It is true that God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we come and we have stolen their country. Why should they accept that?”
That statement—which would certainly outrage the current government of Israel and most of its supporters–was made by David Ben Gurion (1886-1973), revered as the father of the State of Israel.
If that is the case where is the call for justice
No peace possible without justice.
In light of what Ben Gurion admitted it sounds a little timid to ask for divestment or boycott of anything associated with Israeli Settlements. It seems the whole State of Israel is responsible for the policy and should be held responsible. This means any action has/ should include all of Israel or it is but self serving window dressing. Another action that says we are ding something and occupy the moral high ground but we are not doing any harm or damage.
The above quote was taken from the article:
OK. So, What Would You Do About Hamas? By Barry Lando
Just something to consider as one ponders what to do, what to do ….
Wilhelm