Democratic Veteran

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December 04, 2003

Lidice

Once again I bow to Atrios for a tidbit that can't be passed up. Seems a Doctor, as in MD-type wrote this to the Tuscon Citizen:

Executions would halt killings

We can stop the murders of American soldiers in Iraq by those who seek revenge or to regain their power. Whenever there is an assassination or another atrocity we should proceed to the closest mosque and execute five of the first Muslims we encounter.

After all this is a "Holy War" and although such a procedure is not fair or just, it might end the horror.

Machiavelli was correct. In war it is more effective to be feared than loved and the end result would be a more equitable solution for both giving us a chance to build a better Iraq for the Iraqis.

- EMORY METZ WRIGHT JR., M.D

I was just going to leave a comment in the post, but the more I thought about it, the more I figured that this "Doctor" must have lead a sheltered, pathetic life if he never heard of this:

The intention of Memorial Lidice is to take care of permanent retainment of the extermination of town Lidice and the suffering of its residents who 10.6.1942 became the victims of the fascist violence and to keep the name of the town Lidice as a world symbol of all victims of war malefactions.

Here's the brief history of the reasons to remember Lidice:

The lot of the Czech nation was complicated by the decision of the Czechoslovak government in London to get rid of Heydrich. The operation by Czechoslovak parachutists in which Heydrich was, mortally wounded on May 37, 1942 brought reprisals which shocked the whole world.

The vague contents of a letter, addressed to a woman employed in a Slaný factory and held back by the factory co-owner. F. Pala, roused the suspicions of the Kladno Gestapo that there was some connection between Heydrich's assassination and the Horák family in Lidice who had a son serving in the Czechoslovak army in Britain. Although investigations and a house-search produced no compromising material, weapons or transmitter, the Nazis needed to carry out an act of vengeance for the death of "an outstanding man of the German nation", and for this they chose the people of Lidice.

The tragedy ot this little village and its 503 inhabitants began on June 10, 1942 a few hours after midnight. The events of that summer day are recorded in a documentary, filmed by those who actually carried out that brutal crime against innocent people. Although a silent film, it can be understood by all people, irrespective of their colour or tongue. This film served as document No. 379 at the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi German leaders in 1945. Parts of the film are shown on a video recording at the Lidice museum.

At the orders of K. H. Frank 173 Lidice men were shot on that fateful day in the garden of the Horak farm. The women and children were taken to the gymnasium of Kladno grammar school. Three days later the children were taken from their mothers and, except for those selected for re-education in German families and babies under one year of age, were poisoned by exhaust gas in specially adapted vehicles in the Polish extermination camp at Chelm. The women were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp which usually meant quick or lingering death for the inmates.

Having rid the village of its inhabitants, the Nazis began to destroy the village itself, first setting the houses on fire and then razing them to the ground with plastic explosives. They did not stop at that but proceeded to destroy the church and even the last place of rest - the cemetery. ln 1943 all that remained was an empty space. Until the end of the war the sight was marked by notices forbidding entry.

Is that who the "doctor" wants us to become? When you shoot five for retribution, do you stop at 500? 5000? Half a Million?

posted by Jo Fish on 12.04.03 at 12:27 AM

Comments:

my god...thank you for that comparison, as awful as it is. It puts some of these people in perspective, and how some have lost sight of the sheer horror fascism was.

posted by: terry on 12.04.03 at 01:11 AM [permalink]

The wonderful world of the self-absorbed 'Amurikan'. I've had some serious flareups with local village idiots here in Arkansas who voiced this same opinion; and when I (and others, thankfully) point out this is exactly what the Nazis and *COMMUNISTS* did, these self-same idiots get offended by being compared to 'Commies'!

I am always amazed at the obliviousness of Americans who have never left this country but know what is best for other parts of the world.

posted by: Smaug on 12.04.03 at 05:40 AM [permalink]

Has the "good" doctor violated the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm."? The "side effects" for his prescription would probably refer to Mein Kampf.

Shag from Brookline

posted by: on 12.04.03 at 07:04 AM [permalink]

Straight out of The Untouchables!

posted by: Sadly, No! on 12.04.03 at 07:31 AM [permalink]

Stupidity knows no borders. A recent letter to a local paper stated that putting a "terrorist" in jail for ten years would teach them that this is a free country. The writer was sincerely ignorant of his words, just writing his thoughts as they came to him.

posted by: serial catowner on 12.04.03 at 09:57 AM [permalink]

Everyone can play the doctor's game. Apparently he does not remember September 11, 2001.

posted by: dave on 12.04.03 at 11:45 AM [permalink]

No serious person would write a letter like this. It has to be a joke.

posted by: Steve on 12.04.03 at 06:28 PM [permalink]

i have to wonder where people like these will focus their hatred should the Dems win back the White House in 2004.

it also terrifies me that whomever they choose to focus their hatred on will be sanctioned by the powers that be, should Bush be reselected.

i also wonder which i would choose to do, should Bush remain in power; flee the country and lay low in Australia, or stay and try to help set things right.

i've been watching the Babylon 5 dvds again recently, and the parallels between what's happening now and the events that struck Earth Gov in seasons 2 and 3 boggle the mind; this "doctor's" declaration echoes nearly verbatim a resolution set forth after the Narn surrendered to the Centauri: "any attack on any Centauri by any Narn will result in the executions of 500 Narn, including that Narn's own family."

Rove is known to be a huge fan of the series, which bothers me on a number of levels. but i have a faint glimmer of hope that if things don't work out in favor of sanity in the 2004 elections, we may yet still see a similar outcome as seen in the 4th season episode Endgame, something that wouldn't be impossible should a draft be reinstated for the sole purpose of enforcing a widening footprint of imperialism.

but that's just me.

posted by: DesertJo on 12.05.03 at 12:33 AM [permalink]

And according to a website dedicated to the 82 Lidice children gassed by the Nazis at Chelmo, the Czech people were obviously repulsed by the Nazi brutality, but they also were so upset by the action of the Czech resistance in murdering Heydrich that the Czech government-in-exile in London denied all involvement in the assassination - even after the war.

"Thou shall not kill." That's pretty specific. It doesn't say "thou shall not kill unless..."

posted by: a sane Ohioan on 12.05.03 at 07:53 PM [permalink]

Yes, let's kill them when they kill our soldiers. Let's make our feelings really clear by going to a mosque to get our victims. That way almost all the Muslims in the world will hate us! Maybe that'll produce another 9/11 or reduce our international popularity to the level of the Nazis in WWII. Sad so sad.

And remember this letter to the Tucson newspaper came from an American with a college education - not some high school drop-out.

That ought to make all boards of education and educators think about the value of teaching knowledge of and tolerance for all - even non-Western and non-Christian civilizations. This definitely relates to a story in a Portland, Maine newspaper this week in which a social studies teacher is suing the local board of education for giving in to "some local Christian fundamentalists" who created a curriculum in which he couldn't teach about non-Western and non-Christian cultures. Ignorance is alive and well even in 2003. And worst of all it is allegedly being pushed by a board of education in perhaps the most progressive region of America.

posted by: a sane Ohioan on 12.05.03 at 08:33 PM [permalink]

How sick, and sad...but I am sure this is no joke, as one person suggested. I hear this kind of rhetoric all the time from seemingly nice, intelligent people. I continually remind these people over and over again that the Iraqis are human beings, not recalcitrant puppies to be trained...but to no avail. The sheer ignorance and arrogance will not be broken by little old me, that's for sure.

Read a sickening comment the other day by an Army j.o...words to the effect that the Arabs only understand force, respect force. Spoke of the "Arab mind" as if Arabs were from another solar system. All this to justify ringing Iraqi villages with barbed wire and treating the inhabitants like caged animals. To justify razing houses and imprisoning wives and children of "suspects" to intice them to give themselves up. And yet, here at home, it's all Christmas and Michael Jackson. And my friends can't figure out why I have turned into such a misanthrope.

posted by: Yasmin on 12.07.03 at 10:36 PM [permalink]

This story was no joke. I would understand if the comment was made by an uneducated American who hasnt been outside his own backyard. But a so called doctor giving these views. Unbelievable!

posted by: kaz on 10.14.04 at 03:04 PM [permalink]