22 December 2010
By Jacob G. Hornberger Consider this opening paragraph from an article in
last Sunday's edition of the New York Times:
After World War II, American counterintelligence
recruited former Gestapo officers, SS veterans and
Nazi collaborators to an even greater extent than
had been previously disclosed and helped many of
them avoid prosecution or looked the other way when
they escaped, according to thousands of newly
declassified documents. From the time that American children are forced
into the public (i.e., government) schools, one of the
important things that are drummed into their heads is
the moral underpinning of World War II. It's the "good
war" they repeat ad infinitum in the government
schools. Let's go back to World War I. After that war, the
American people were disgusted. They had seen the U.S.
government sacrifice more than 100,000 American men
for nothing. The war had been sold as a way to end all
wars into the future and to make the world "safe for
democracy." It accomplished neither. World War I was a
total waste of American life. The good news is that
American interventionists never brag about American
intervention in World War I, undoubtedly because
they're embarrassed or ashamed about it. In fact, it was U.S. intervention in World War I
that contributed to the conditions that gave rise to
Hitler and the Nazis, including the total defeat of
Germany and the vengeful Treaty of Versailles. From the first grade on up, it's ingrained in
Americans that World War II was a great victory for
freedom. Yet, the Poles and other Eastern Europeans
don't quite see it that way. Let's not forget the reason that Great Britain and
France declared war on Germany: Germany's invasion of
Poland, which Hitler justified by Poland's refusal to
renegotiate the Polish Corridor that had been
established in the Treaty of Versailles. England's and
France's aim: to free the Polish people from Nazi
totalitarian dictatorship. What was the result after World War II? It is true
that the Poles were freed from Nazi tyranny, but what
U.S. interventionists call a great victory for freedom
was the fact that Poland and Eastern Europe were now
under the domination of the Soviet communists, rather
than the Nazis. Why would anyone consider communist control and
domination to be freedom? The idea is that because the
United States was partners with the Soviet communists,
when the Soviets occupied Eastern Europe that meant
that "we" had brought freedom to the Poles and Eastern
Europeans. It's easy to see why the Poles and other
Eastern Europeans felt otherwise. U.S. interventionists say that Hitler and the Nazis
were so evil that it was necessary to take sides
against them, even if it meant partnering with the
Soviet communists. They also say that it would have
been wrong to negotiate an early peace that would have
entailed replacing the Nazis with a liberal regime and
keep Eastern Europe free of Soviet domination because
that would have been double-crossing "our" Soviet
partner. Let's consider that New York Times article
again — the one that points out that U.S. officials
were secretly partnering with Nazis, whose evil has
always been used to justify U.S. intervention into
World War II. At the end of the war, the U.S.
government was partnering with those evil people. It
was all kept secret of course, until now. National
security! What the reason for the partnership between the
United States and the Nazis? To wage a new Cold War
against the U.S. government's former partner, the
Soviet Union, a war that would mean ever-growing big
government in America. Here began the major, non-stop expansion of the
U.S. military, the military-industrial complex, the
national security state, the CIA, and the imperial
role for the U.S. government. In the process, the U.S.
government collaborated with Nazis in order to oppose
its former partner and new enemy, the Soviet Union.
I'd be remiss if I failed to point out that U.S.
intervention in World War II also led to the Korean
War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. It also failed
to save hardly any European Jews from the Holocaust,
but of course, as we all know, the U.S. government
didn't care about the plight of the Jews anyway,
either before or during World War II (See my article
"Locking Out the Immigrant.") The U.S. partnership with the communists and then
the Nazis would not be the only unsavory partnership
for the U.S. government. In 1963, the year that John
Kennedy was assassinated, the CIA partnered with the
Mafia, one of the most vicious, cruel, murderous
criminal organizations in history, with the aim of
protecting "national security" by trying to
assassinate Fidel Castro, the communist ruler of Cuba,
a country that had never attacked the United States or
even threatened to do so. Don't forget also the U.S. Empire's post-World War
II collaboration with other brutal dictatorial
regimes, such as in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Latin
America, and elsewhere. As America continues headed toward economic
bankruptcy, partly due to the ever-growing military
establishment, it's time for the American people to
reflect on what the turn toward militarism and empire
has done to our nation. Time has proven that President
Eisenhower was right when he warned us about the
growing threat from the military industrial complex.
It is bankrupting our nation, turning the world
against us, making us more unsafe, and threatening our
freedom, privacy, and democratic processes. Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The
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