Update to Remagen Post 10-6 and The Dogs of War. US and Vanishing Atrocities.

Remagen, Germany, where the bridge was

 Remagen. 

The place once spanned by a vital bridge.

Shakespeare's Antony spoke of the dreadful consequences of the dogs of war, in "Julius Caesar:" "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war." Question here: is atrocity another of the dogs of war, that we - as well as our "enemies" - fall prey to, or intentionally indulge in?

That cry, to havoc, signified the shift in old military campaigns from conquest to pillage - to be given permission to cross the fine line that holds back the dogs, and that then the dogs only need only be allowed to "slip" - an almost inadvertent act. Just let them slip. Nobody really responsible.

1. Earlier post, we think, was wrong.


The focus of an earlier post 10-6 criticized the tape recording, at the bridge base, that claims that allies committed atrocities against German prisoners. This apparently is part of the exhibit at the museum that had closed by the time we got there, so we put the coin in the slot for the recording instead.  It sounded, at first, unfair, and misrepresentative of what happened.

2.  We now believe there may be truth in the German tape at Remagen, there that we simply ignore.  

With knowledge now that our own government tortured at Guantanamo (this is a further update January 2009, Obama now president), we look back further.

Explore with us more on that issue. 

We looked up

• Andersonville, the prison during the Civil War operated by the Union; see the Angelfire site at ://www. angelfire.com/ga2/Andersonvilleprison/; and 
• Vietnam My Lai, see hnn.us/roundup/entries/5285, 
• Iraq and Abu Ghraib, and other instances in Iraq. Look up your own news on that.

3.  An invitation.  Help find out.  We want to quantify facts to see what might be true about the Remagen tape recording.

• How many German soldiers were captured and in allied POW camps. 
• Then ask how many were returned. 
• Ask what happened in between. 
• How are the deaths accounted for? Should not be that difficult. But it is.

4.  Your own research.  Try these to get started.

Sites: Disappearing Atrocities.

4.1. Start at nizkor.ort/hweb/people/b/bacque-james/ambrose-.001 (from"Ike and the Disappearing Atrocities", New York Times Book Review, February 24, 1991, on James Bacque's 'Other Losses', a Review by Stephen E. Ambrose).

At this website, claimed atrocities (active and passive death-dealing of prisoners) by the allies are addressed, resulting in the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of German prisoners.

Early numbers about the gap were huge, later numbers were far less - or denied altogether. And the issue is carefully counter-argued. But it still does not go away. In this era of spin and cover-up being the norm, satisfy yourself on your own.

4.2. Then go to Niall Ferguson's War of the World, see review from Amherst college's journal, The Inicator, at halogen.note.amherst.edu/~theindicator/articles.php?date=12072006&page=13.

Or search for Niall Ferguson War of the World. The TV series based on it is outlined at www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/t-z/warworld.

From a fast overview, I understand that German prisoners preferred being caught by British rather than Americans, because word had spread that their survival with Americans would be far less likely.
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Wonderful. Who are we serving when we pretend/turn away/deny, so that each generation of soldiers marches in anew, with an unrealistic view of what they, good folks like us, may well become, when faced with the dogs of war.
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5. Now, you take it from here.

Now we have Gitmo and the pattern continuing - laws of atrocity apply to others.  Will President Obama follow along?

Do we serve the next generation by hiding reality, and so continue in enabling war; or is war such an inevitable part of life that we must hide its reality (say, in over-stressing the heroism and patriotism) in order to dupe impressionable young soldiers to go to war for us at all.

The real "war of the world" may be against untrammeled testosterone.