Okay, this probably won’t be much of a blog entry, but I came across something this evening that I thought was worth a comment or two.
Sometimes when I’m bored, I like to look up random shit on Wikipedia, follow the various links to other Wikipedia articles, and just see where the path leads. It’s fun, and sometimes I even learn something. Tonight’s topic: the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, partly inspired by Ken Burns’ epic documentary, The War, which I had the pleasure of watching on PBS.
All the circumstances and events surrounding that battle are far beyond the scope of this diary, but one particular aspect of it caught my attention as I was reading the Wikipedia article.
During the battle, the 101st Airborne Division and portions of the 10th Armored Division were under siege in the town of Bastogne, with minimal food or ammunition, surrounded by German forces. The German commander sent the following letter to General Anthony McAuliffe, offering terms of surrender:
To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.
The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.
There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.
If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours’ term.
All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well known American humanity.
The German Commander
[emphasis added]
McAuliffe famously wrote “NUTS!” on the back of the letter and sent it back to the Germans, but that isn’t the point of this diary. The point of this diary is the portion of the German letter highlighted in bold above.
Just to be clear, this letter was written by a fucking Nazi, and yet the “well known American humanity” was something even the Nazis were forced to acknowledge at the height of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.
Think about that for a minute.
I don’t need to recount all the ways that George W. Bush has squandered America’s humanity over the past seven years. Patriot Act, shock and awe, Abu Ghraib, FISA, Blackwater, Katrina, you name it. I’d argue that our humanity was our greatest weapon against the Nazis during the Second World War, and that the loss of our humanity has been the greatest boon to our enemies in this era.
The scary part, though, is that Al Qaeda or Saddam Hussien didn’t do this to us; it’s something that we did to ourselves following the events of 9/11, aided and abetted by an administration all too willing to sacrifice our collective humanity at the altar of American jingoism, with the help of a compliant mainstream media.
Of course I’m preaching the choir here, but it’s worth pointing out that this election is about so much more than the mortgage crisis, the economy, global warming, or Iraq. It’s about more than infrastructure, healthcare, or education. Those are important things, but they’re pieces of a larger whole.
Above all else, this election is about restoring America’s humanity in the eyes of the world — a humanity that even civilization’s greatest threat and America’s darkest enemy was forced to acknowledge and contend with.
(Cross-posted at the Daily Kos.)