From: Hubert Mania (humania@t-online.de)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 07:53:21 MST
Mitch said:
>>>So basically, I am inquiring, how are we US fascist exploiters to be punished, to be corrected, so we can be forced to conform to the "proper" way of thinking? The Russians had an expression called Kto Kogo, which means "who, whom?" It asks the question; who can do what, to whom? Perhaps a disinvestment in US companies, the closing of embassy's, a military assault? I am pretty confident that protests and rallies, however persistent, and televised will not suffice to change American policy against our poor victims, so...?<<<
There may be 0.05 % Germans who might really *hate* the Bush administration. But nobody really has in mind to close embassies or executing assaults on US properties. But the friendship between Germany and the US has got some serious rifts. We don't want to be treated like some compliant, submissive vasall, when - for the first time in 58 years of friendship - we do insist on a position that is contrary to the Washington stance. I happened to be on the Central railway station in Hamburg two days after the WTC crash. Lots of public groups and political parties had called for five minutes of silence on September 13, 2001 at 10 o'clock. Every waggon on every train and every subway on this huge railway station stood still and forgot about their timetables (one of the most holy cows in this country). They had black ribbons on every door in memory of the WTC deaths. The public life in Germany came to a complete halt that morning at 10 o'clock. The cars stopped in the streets, people stood silent. As far as I can judge, this closeness to the American people is not gone, but there is a healthy measure of distrust towards the US government.
So, this mail exchange between you and Kai was about democracy, right? I remember one very young guy at the Berlin rally this weekend, where 500.000 people protested against a war on Iraq, maybe he was 19 or 20. He carried a poster that said: "Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity". When a reporter asked him about his political stance he said: "I believe in democracy. That's what my parents learned from the USA. And if my trust in the American democracy is justified, George Troubleyou Bush will end his life in a prison as a war criminal."
Mitch, you see, we Germans have learned our lesson and do oppose governments who are about to commit a crime with a preemptive war.
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