Forgetting our own noble legacy is terribly sad to see. Those half- wit pseudo-patriots like Dick Cheney and his merry band of neocons are very poor historians. By an odd coincidence two of my Scots-American ancestors fought in "that one", probably under the leadership of the ancestor of one of my good friends, the descendant of General Cadwalader of Pennsylvania. I find myself able to not salute her, but her suitability to command men, women, crowds, inanimate objects and large geological features is so pronounced that it gives me a clear sense of what her great, great, great, great, great grandfather must have been like. But the great thing about the Continental Army is that they went about their business of revolution, insurrection and military conquest while exhibiting far better moral character than their enemy, so much so that many of the mercenaries who supported the British came to change sides in the end and become useful citizens. A fluke, something that could not happen ever again? Yeah, but German prisoners of war were shipped to Nebraska and other parts of the midwest during the war and put to work on farms that were short of manpower. Did it work? You bet. They were far happier to be working than sitting in a prison and a good number formed personal bonds and... stayed on after the war, in fact to marry in some cases the farmer's daughters they had worked beside.
Decency and good conduct can be the most potent weapon of all. It has been our most potent weapon, I hope to God it can become so again. George Washington thought it was what distinguished us from our foe. I think so too.
Decency and good conduct can be the most potent weapon of all. It has been our most potent weapon, I hope to God it can become so again. George Washington thought it was what distinguished us from our foe. I think so too.
Arthur
2 comments:
"Decency and good conduct can be the most potent weapon of all.....blah blah blah.
But what about "...poor historians" that don't tell the whole story?
Well now who can argue with that touching little quote above or the heart rendering prose of the Jungen der Wehrmacht tilling the fields of Nebraska and porking the farmer's daughter? These of course were the uniformed common german soldiers swept up in battle and yes we treated them with decency.
Now let's talk about the 'enemy combatants' who enter this country under false ID and cover, without uniforms and their express mission is to wreak havoc, death and destruction upon the United States. Did we send them to Nebraska to weed the corn rows?
June 1942, Operation Pastorius, is one example.
No. Six of the eight were executed after conviction by a 'military tribunal'. President Roosevelt approved the sentences.
"A fluke........." "Did it work? You bet."
UPDATE ON "exhibiting far better moral character than their enemy" and of those "enemy aliens" who didn't get to sow the fields of WWII Nebraska.
Too bad the nostalgic patriarch of this tender bit of revisionist history hasn't followed the course of the honorable Russ Feingold's laborous attempts to pass his ammendment to the 'Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act' of 2007 and even his most recent request to add it to the 100 year commemoration of Ronald Reagan's birth legislation before the senate.
It is called "The Wartime Treatment Study Act Amendment"
These are Senator Feingold's words not mine:
"The Allied victory in the Second World War was an American triumph, a triumph for freedom, justice, and human rights. The courage displayed by so many Americans, of all ethnic origins, should be a source of great pride for all of us. But we should not let that justifiable pride in our Nation's triumph blind us to the treatment of some Americans by their own Government."
"Most Americans (Arthur included herein) are probably unaware that during World War II, the U.S. Government designated more than 600,000 Italian-born and 300,000 German -born U.S. resident aliens and their families as ``enemy aliens.'' Approximately 11,000 ethnic Germans, 3,200 ethnic Italians, and scores of Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians, or other European Americans living in America were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps. Some even remained interned for up to 3 years after the war ended. Unknown numbers of German Americans, Italian Americans, and other European Americans had their property confiscated or their travel restricted, or lived under curfews."
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