For those who assumed that the practice of retired generals publicly weighing in on matters of war and peace, was a recent development, I offer the following...
"We owe no explanations to anyone. Whatever act is committed by our troops for the purpose of discouraging, defeating, and destroying the enemy is a brave act and fully justified. Germany stands the supreme arbiter of her own methods. It is no consequence whatever if all the monuments ever created, all the pictures ever painted, all the buildings ever erected by the great architects of the world be destroyed, if by their destruction we promote Germany's victory. War is war. The ugliest stone placed to mark the burial of a German grenadier is a more glorious monument then all the cathedrals of Europe put together. They call us barbarians. What of it? We scorn them and their abuse. For my part, I hope that in this war we have merited the title, barbarians. Let neutral peoples and our enemies cease their empty chatter, which may well be compared to the twitter of birds. Let them cease to talk of the cathedral at Rheims, and of all the churches and all the castles in France which have shared its fate. Our troops must achieve victory. What else matters?"
Wow. And to think, the author of that astonishing declaration was not even a Nazi! Retired Major General von Disfurth penned that broadside during the opening stages of WWI, as the German Army was smashing it's way through Belgium and France. The General was delivering a response to allied propagandists who were having a field day denouncing the German Army's brutal methods.
At the very least, you must admire von Disfurth's candor. No prattle about "just causes" or "humanitarian intervention" for him. If only our present-day TV generals were as honest about the business of war. Actually, Colin Powell came pretty close during the Persian Gulf War when he bluntly stated his plan for dealing with Iraqi forces: "Our strategy in going after this army is very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we are going to kill it." That seems to fit nicely into the von Disfurth school of thought.
There are those, like commentator Pat Buchanan and author Thomas Fleming, who insist on trying to mitigate Germany responsibility for starting both wars. In both cases, no other nation wanted war, or was as prepared for it, as Germany. It isn't hard to fathom the reasons why this is so. The German nation was born through a series of wars of unification, which were then followed by a quick victorious war against France. Therefore, the Germans concluded that they could make war pay and behaved accordingly.
Two brutal wars, in which they came out on the losing end both times, have effectively cured the Germans of any such illusions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the one nation that still seems to believe that war pays is the United States. But, that is for another post.
