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June 27, 2005
WB: Military Secrets
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The key thing in all of this is the bit about the US sheeple with ba “memory hole” in their heads.
In fact, it’s not a “memory hole” but a much more severe problem, a collective denial of US history, based on generational layers of ignorance and naive Captain America mythomania.
I’m sure the French and the Brits have no problem internalizing what they did in India and Algeria, and there was never as much of a disconnect between them and their colonies; they did what had to be done, including packing it in when realpolitik demanded it.
What we have in America is a population ignorant of the fact that we’re arguably as bad as any other colonial power in history and that makes us really really prone to Norman Bates-fit of disconnect.
Vietnam was a thin crack in the veneer of the illusion of mild-mannered sanity, Normal hearing Mother’s voice in the distance; Iraq is the full-blown shower scene, hack, hack, cut, to carry on with the analogy.
Honestly, I don’t know how you resolve this.
I think even Hiroshima didn’t quite pulverize the notion of exceptionality and superiority that the Japanese had/have; their recent inability to deal honestly with their Chinese bloodbaths does not inspire confidence.
If two atomic bombs didn’t hammer sense into them, what will?
So ultimately, realpolitik will prevail (it always does) on the foreign front, and I’m sure our leaders will do what it takes when they have no choice.
But domestically, I don’t know what we can do. Maybe we can shove Mother in the basement again, but is that an answer?
Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 27 2005 8:26 utc | 1
Lupin: Contrary to Germany, Japan wasn’t invaded, mainland (well, main islands) didn’t see a sea of Soviet tanks, didn’t experience mass rapes and looting by invading armies, and actually didn’t lose much original national territory, with millions of refugees coming from there. Basically, they knew a bit about the nukes, but the imperial surrender still was a bit of a surprise – probably not as much as the German surrender of 1918, but clearly wasn’t the obvious end that 95% of the Germans knew was coming months before May 1945. Basically, the humiliation wasn’t big enough, and of course the post-war period was mostly wasted because the US needed Japan as an ally and a bulwark against the communist expansion in East Asia – so they got a free hand for many crap, like worshipphin the worst of their war criminals, keeping the Emperor, and going on maybe not with historical revisionism but mere historical amnesia. Germany got a whole different treatment – if only because it was just a small part of the Western Europe defense system, backed notably by UK and to some extent by France or even Spain and Italy.
Of course, some empires didn’t need such horrendous actions and crimes to learn the lesson, but if you look at the Austrian Empire, it merely dissappeared; it would be like if Japan were to consist merely of half the main island, or as if the US was cut in 5 or 6 parts, wary of each other, and always suspicious that others would try to expand at one’s detriment. And not even that may manage to completely erase the militaristic and expansionist tendencies, if one looks (for instance) at Turkey and its revisionist taking of the Armenian genocide, its bullying of Cyprus, Greece, Kurds – though the expansionist tendency seems to have been hugely reduced; one could even take Putin’s Russia, though here the carving up was limited compared to Austria or even Ottoman empire. I coul even come up with UK, who lost a huge empire and is still mostly acting like an arrogant bully dreaming of ruling Europe, since it can’t anymore rule the world.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Jun 27 2005 10:55 utc | 4
Anthrpologist Clifford Geertz became famous for his championship of the “thick description” – a methodological ideal that places primacy on the detailed, tightly contextualized empirical description that must go before any attempt at generalization. In doing so he asks us to look deeper into issues and their nuances to find a deeper truth. In doing so we discover the ideals behind the idea. Thus we now have the “thick description” of the gutting of public radio in Ken Tomlinson and the CPB. Is Blacklisting Next?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 27 2005 12:06 utc | 5
Small-time Napoleon’s shattered his knees
But he stays in the saddle for Rose
And all his disciples, they shave in the gutter
And they gather what’s left of his clothes.Tom Waits, “Diamonds and Gold”
Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 27 2005 13:41 utc | 6
Lupin,
Basically, the humiliation wasn’t big enough .., so they got a free hand … like … keeping the Emperor ….
The decision to preserve Japan’s Imperial house was made by MacArthur, as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers under the Occupation. The Japanese administration was hardly negotiating from a position of strength, and the decision was made before the “reverse course” to which you aver.
If you think that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were too nearly like a slap on the wrist, consider that the US air command was surveying towns with populations of 30,000 and less for bombardment at the time those weapons were unleashed — as Donald Rumsfeld might have said, there were no good targets left in the cities.
In any case, I don’t see how wishful thinking about Nanking today could have been averted by prolonging the slaughter elsewhere in the past. For me, at least, it doesn’t connect.
Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jun 27 2005 14:30 utc | 7
I really wish we could stop with these sweeping generalizations about entire countries and populations. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were immane tragedies which deeply affected Japan for generations, if not only for the effects of radiation on children. To day, Japan is one of the most peaceful nations on Earth, with an army so small (and binded by law to pure-defense aims) that it puts to shame 99% of the “first world”. Confronting how Germany/Japan reacted to a total defeat with how the U.S.A. reacted to Vietnam, you see who really is the “bad loser”: not even 10 years passed, and Reagan was all over Nicaragua.
And anyway, it’s really not relevant to Billmon’s post.
I really wish we could stop with these sweeping generalizations about entire countries and populations.
I second that.
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Jun 27 2005 16:06 utc | 9
@Jassalaca: The quote you excerpted was not from my message but from Clueless Joe’s.
@Giacomo. I’m not sure exactly what you are responding to. Could you be clearer?
In any event, my original point specifically quoted Billmon and went on to discuss a serious disconnect in the American psyche which, I fear, is at the root of many of our problems.
The comparison with pre-war and post-war Japan offers certain similarities which I think are interesting, esp. the notion of exceptionalism/superiority.
Coincidentally, this article on Common Dreams develop a similar argument.
You might want to read it.
@swedish. To a large extent democracies are built on generalizations.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 27 2005 16:28 utc | 10
I just posted this @ Atrios before hitting Billmon…
Old Rummy Meet New Rummy
Has anyone else noticed ??
von Rummy seems to be losing it of late.
He is no longer the cocky ‘daytime tv star’ of the old days. He seems very unsure and he actually plods through replies to questions instead of answering a set of his own questions.
Never mind the stupid rhetoric and words..Nothing more revealing than body language. In Rummy’s case, he looks and acts like he was locked up in Gitmo or Abu Ghraib for a while..None of that swagger, that corny machismo..He looks and sounds almost broken..I assume that the uniformed folks must have shown him the middle finger long ago..He reminds me of one of those guys from Nuremberg..Pale, tentative, confused..
half-senile..The best he could do to Kennedy’s questioning was..”But I’ve already resigned twice..” in that schoolboy tone..Pathetic..Almost feel a little sorry for him, but I know more fun is on the way where von Rummy is concerned..
Pompous ass…
Posted by: Chamed Ahlabi | Jun 27 2005 16:48 utc | 12
Sorry about the bold font in the last post. Stupid fingers…Stupider HTML..
Posted by: Chamed Ahlabi | Jun 27 2005 16:50 utc | 13
Vis-a-vis the above discussion, today’s Boston Herald, originally a Murdoch tabloid and still very much of the New York Post persuasion, has an interesting lead in 72-point type today:
link here ,
and here:
http://news.bostonherald.com/galleries/?title=PrintEditionNews“>link here
Bush’s speech tomorrow on Iraq ain’t gonna turn this tide absent another spectacular non-linear event (aka: “9/11 The Sequel”)
Posted by: McGee | Jun 27 2005 20:12 utc | 14
@Lupin,
Sorry for the miscue. Misclue, rather.
Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jun 27 2005 22:08 utc | 17
The Secretary of Defense is now fighting to achieve independence from Iraq. Very odd.
Posted by: Jassalasca Jape | Jun 28 2005 5:46 utc | 18