Our Man in Vienna

The Golden Anniversary of the Annexation
(Ditto for the 80th Anniversary)

At the unveiling of the monument commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, speeches of regret were read by political luminaries, Church dignitaries, public figures and high-ranking military men. Poets read epics about the slaughter of the victims and an oratorio was played and sung for the occasion. While those present vowed that what had happened must never happen again, a Jew was beaten by thugs in the midst of the ceremony. No one could hear the blows or his cries due to the chorus of raised voices. Nor could the beating be seen since the bystanders’ sight was blurry from the tears that were being shed.

 

Ein halbes Jahrhundert nach dem Anschluß
(Da Capo für den Achtigzsten)

Bei der Enthüllung des Denkmals für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus gab es Reden von Politikern, Kirchenfürsten und anderen distinguierten Bürgern. Dichter lasen Epen über die Opfer, und man führte
ein Oratorium zu ihren Ehren auf. Während alle schworen, daß das, was geschehen war, nie wieder geschehen dürfe, schlug man einen Juden neben der Bühne nieder. Niemand hörte die Schläge oder seine Schreie, weil der feierliche Schwur lauter war. Und niemand sah, was geschah, weil die Danebenstehenden feuchte Augen hatten, die ihre Blicke trübten.

– Herbert Kuhner

The Myth

Just as East Europe was freed from Nazism
but not freed,
Russia (or the Soviet Union, if you will)
was freed from Communism
but not freed.

There’s a myth circulating that President Reagan and Pope John Paul II
brought down Communism in the Soviet Union. That’s a half truth.
They helped prevent the liberalization of society
in a Union that had been a dictatorship.

When Mikhail Gorbachev took the reins of the Communist Party in 1985,
he set about introducing civil rights, a free press and all the trappings of a democracy,
in what had been a dictatorship.

Instead of supporting him in these undertakings, the two ant-Communist heroes
undermined him. A totalitarian system cannot be changed entirely overnight,
but Gorby certainly did his best.

Unfortunately, the economy didn’t pick up, so Gorby wasn’t as popular at home
as he was abroad.

He was trying to take it step by step with the goal of forming a Soviet Commonwealth.

The West egged him on, and his friend, Ronnie said:
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,”
referring to the Berlin Wall.
The negotiator sent to make things happen fast was Condoleezza Rice.

What happened? Gorby cleared out of East Germany, let it go to NATO,
and got a pittance for doing so.

Now Gorby had more or less been brought to the edge.

The Russian generals said something to the effect of,
“This is madness. We have just lost World War II,
and we must put an end to having
a political Santa Claus in the saddle.”

A coup was staged in 1991.

Boris Yeltsin stepped onto the stage, put it down,
pushed Gorby over the edge and took over.
That signified the end of all the reforms.
Every republic wanted to go it alone, and some took a very bloody path.
And the blood is still flowing

Yeltsin was a drunk and a demagogue in that order.
He let things slide, and in 1999, when they got too far out of hand,
he turned the country over to Vladimir Putin, a former KGB man.

The Union is broken up; the reforms have gone down the drain.
Repression and terrorism reign supreme in Russia
and most of the former republics.

Russia is still equipped with a nuclear arsenal,
and Vladimir Putin is more erratic than his former comrades.

Since Gorby’s departure hundreds of journalists have been sent into the next world.[1]

Gorby has been relegated to speaking tours and doing TV commercials for Pizza Hut
and the Austrian National Railways, too humiliating to describe.

The world would have been a lot better off if Gorbachev had taken
the slow but certain road – minus the ads.
But what’s the sense of wishful thinking in hindsight?
We’ve got the world that we have.

Thank you Ron and John!

 

Putin’s Proof

Putin proved that a communist
can be the best capitalist.
It’s all about power and money.
Money and power are synonyms.

 

Whitey

If you’re black, brown, red, yellow or a non-Gentile,
you can’t be a WASP,
but you can be Whitey,
otherwise known as The Man.
(And of course gender
is no obstacle
to qualify for that appellation.)

All you have to do
is put your own kind
behind you
and join those who formerly
put you in your place.

They need you now.
There are ticklish situations
to be taken care of.
And nobody is as well-suited
as those who used to be excluded.
Their enthusiasm is unparalleled.

– Herbert Kuhner

Bill Maher, Vietnam in Retrospect

Bill is thumbs down on Iraq and thumbs up on Vietnam. Guess Dick and Henry are his men.

“I’ve been hearing nothing but Vietnam was a wasted war – we should never have gone.
I think it was a necessary war….What won the Cold War is that we demonstrated to the bullies of the world that we put ourselves on the line and spend lives. The Vietnam War didn’t have to be in Vietnam, but it had to happen somewhere….The Russians lost 20 million people in World War II.” [1]

That’s right, Bill, 65 thousand American and 2 million Vietnamese lives were spent to show the Russians that we meant business. “Squandered” is a better word than ”spent.” Bad luck for the Vietnamese that it happened there! Good luck for the countries where it didn’t happen!

Do you remember that the war ended in a rout? We were routed and we couldn’t or wouldn’t evacuate the majority of Vietnamese who were on “our side.” The end was a horrible and humiliating disaster.

Yes Bill, we showed the Russians all right. We showed them that David could stand up to Goliath – only David wasn’t us. It was them – the Vietnamese.

And the Russians guffawed, along with the others who bore ill will towards us. They slapped their thighs and called us a paper tiger.

As we know, Johnson and his Kennedy cabinet were negotiating to come to an end. Then Nixon scotched the negotiations, and he and Kissinger prolonged the war, with the bombing of Hanoi and the incursion into Cambodia.

Good luck for the Democrats that the final chapter came under Ford’s presidency.
Now, as for 20 million Russian lives lost, that was due to Stalin’s purge of the Soviet general staff and the ouster of Trotsky, a capable military commander, in the Thirties – as well as Stalin’s faith and trust in his erstwhile ally, Hitler.

The Russians were on the run when we bailed them out with weapons, food and military pressure from the West. What the hell did Stalin care for the millions of lives lost?! Had the Soviet Union been prepared for war, there would not have been the initial rout – there’s that word again.

Maher also approves of U. S. support and interventions for unsavory right-wing dictatorships that occurred under Republican administrations to “stop Communism.” Yes, Bill, rape, torture and murder were all for a good cause.

And by the way, fighting Communism was Hitler’s pretext for invading the Soviet Union.

Sounds like Dick and Henry are your men. Go on over to Fox News, Bill! They can use you there! Only, not even they are that foolhardy concerning past blunders, with the emphasis on fool.

Question

Why would anyone who is opposed to the Iraq misadventure approve of the Vietnam misadventure?