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German Intellectuals "flawed reasoning" behind the Support of the Iraq WarPosted by Joerg Wolf in German Politics, US Foreign Policy on Wednesday, May 9. 2007
Gustav Seibt wrote about German intellectuals who supported the Iraq war. Sign and Sight provides a translation of his Sueddeutsche Zeitung article from February 2007:
The motivations behind the powerful intellectual support of the war should be analysed in retrospect, and not only because the hopes that were invested in the Iraq War were so disastrously disappointed. We should be concerned, for one, with monitoring the success rate of our prognoses but more importantly, with exploring the argumentative basis of our war confidence in the West. Only then will the "war of ideas" between the Western public and the Islamic world that the essayist Paul Berman been demanding since 2001, seriously begin.Andrew Hammel makes an observation concerning Seibt's article in German Joys, which I believe is true for many debates: I noticed the same pattern as Seibt did. I think part of the explanation is that the hawkish intellectuals who supported the war engaged not with the serious critiques from war opponents, but with the goofy arguments of the weird left. They then built their case for war on a refutation of those silly arguments, rather than a carefully-reasoned argument why the war itself was necessary or desirable. "Because the anti-American, anti-Semitic wacko left is strongly against this war, and because I despise those people, the war must be a good idea. How can those people, whom I've spent my life criticizing, be right about anything?" Welcome! You are reading the ATLANTIC REVIEW -- a Press Digest on Transatlantic Relations combined with commentary and analysis by three young professionals from Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. More about us. The horizontal menu bar at the top helps to navigate this site. Subscribe to one of our RSS-Feeds or to our newsletter, which is emailed twice per month.Trackbacks
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Don S
- #1 - 2007-05-09 12:43 -
I see a certain note of smugness in all this Iraq post-morteming 'We told you so'. Well, not exactly, and I think many of the lessons of the past five years have yet to be discerned. The full fruits of this 'mean and dishonest decade' (Orwell) will show themselves in their full glory. Comments ()
Detlef
- #1.1 - 2007-05-09 17:58 -
You forgot "Alea iacta est". :) Comments ()
Don S
- #1.1.1 - 2007-05-09 19:12 -
Detlef, Comments ()
Detlef
- #1.1.1.1 - 2007-05-10 18:25 -
Don S, Comments ()
Don S
- #1.1.1.1.1 - 2007-05-10 19:03 -
Detlef, Comments ()
Pat Patterson
- #1.1.1.1.2 - 2007-05-11 07:44 -
I can only respond to a few of the this list; 5th Group Special Forces was indeed withdrawn from Afghanistan but were tasked to find saddam Hussein, which they did. and in the normal course of events they have been redployed for a tour in Afghanistan to replace the units that replaced them. Comments ()
Axel
- #1.1.1.1.2.1 - 2007-05-11 10:57 -
1. "So yes, UNMOVIC could report no weapons much as the blind man described an elephant." Comments ()
Pat Patterson
- #1.1.1.1.2.1.1 - 2007-05-11 21:02 -
I think I can safely stand by my earlier comment. The link to the DOE experts does not quote any DOE officials, in fact it says that, "Several Evergy Department officials familiar with the aluminum shipments declined to comment." Comments ()
David
- #1.1.1.1.2.1.1.1 - 2007-05-11 21:52 -
Your labored efforts to justify this disasterous war are pretty comical. It amazes me that there are still folks out there drinking the koolaid. Comments ()
Pat Patterson
- #1.1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1 - 2007-05-11 22:27 -
What "labored efforts" did I make? I pointed out that some of the reasons Detlef gave for opposing the war where in fact not as he represented them. Axel made a serious but I think debatable effort to somewhat justify the original posts. But if name calling is the preferred method then count me out. Comments ()
Detlef
- #1.1.1.1.2.2 - 2007-05-12 00:55 -
Pat, Comments ()
Pat Patterson
- #1.1.1.1.2.2.1 - 2007-05-12 02:08 -
Detlef-Thanks for taking the time to reply. The 2002 budget was essentially drawn up the year before, before 9/11, and is thus essentially the previous administrations spending plans. This does not mean I am suggesting any kind of misfeasance on Pres. Clinton's part but simply the way the US budget is created. Which more or less is also true of the 2003 budget though the new administration has much more time to change some spending, at least on those areas of the budget not considered entitlements. Comments ()
Don S
- #1.1.2 - 2007-05-10 12:23 -
If Germans really wish to examine their own mistakes vis Iraq they could do worse than examine the defeat of the treaty for US entry to the League of Nations in the US Senate. Comments ()
David
- #2 - 2007-05-09 16:22 -
"anti-American, anti-Semitic wacko left" Comments ()
Don S
- #2.1 - 2007-05-09 19:01 -
"anti-American, anti-Semitic wacko left" Comments ()
Pat Patterson
- #3 - 2007-05-09 17:22 -
Would belonging to an anti-Semitic organization qualify? I nominate Gunter Grass for inclusion in the "anti-American, anti-Semitic wacko left." Comments ()
David
- #4 - 2007-05-09 17:54 -
Which anti-Semitic organization does Grass belong to, and what has he said or written that is anti-Semitic? Comments ()
Pat Patterson
- #5 - 2007-05-09 19:35 -
Waffen SS! Couldn't get much more anti-Semitic than them. Comments ()
David
- #6 - 2007-05-09 20:12 -
When he was a kid, and he has a self-reckoning in his autobiographical "Peeling the Onion". Comments ()
Zyme
- #7 - 2007-05-09 21:55 -
americans discussing about anti-semitism of Grass :D Comments ()
bob
- #7.1 - 2007-05-09 22:46 -
Well, if your point is that this is a German problem and should only be discussed by Germans, I disagree; but, if you are referring to the fact that most people havent read all of Grass' novels, you may have a point. If you made it through that crappy novel set in Berlin where the Stasi narrator thinks he's Fontaine in the 1880s, you, Sir, are a God. Besides, at least no one is talking about this: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,481898,00.html. Your laptop's silence does not mean yes. Bad Germans, bad Germans... Comments ()
Zyme
- #7.1.1 - 2007-05-10 00:49 -
My point was that I thought it would be even more "scheissegal" to americans what Günter Grass thought about jews more than six decades ago than it is to most germans. Comments ()
David
- #7.1.1.1 - 2007-05-10 02:50 -
"who is that guy?" - just the author of one of the greatest novels of the 20th century - Die Blechtrommel. Comments ()
Zyme
- #7.1.1.1.2 - 2007-05-10 12:03 -
Well for foreigners such books might be interesting if they want to experience the history of german literature. But we germans have plagued our society with such books long enough. It is time to move on. Comments ()
David
- #7.1.1.1.2.1 - 2007-05-11 01:29 -
Well, it's sad that an American has to defend Grass against the spurious accusation of anti-Semitism. Comments ()
bob
- #7.1.1.1.2.1.1 - 2007-05-11 04:14 -
Oh, come on. If your finest work, the Danzig trilogy, is predicated on the elegiac assumption that many Kashubians were unfairly deprived of their heimat because as he was wont to say 'we were too Polish for the Germans and too German for the Poles' and then you turn out to have volunteered for the Waffen SS, that seriously undermines the foundatonal credibility of the man's works. Comments ()
Zyme
- #7.1.1.1.2.1.2 - 2007-05-11 18:03 -
"Well, it's sad that an American has to defend Grass against the spurious accusation of anti-Semitism." Comments ()
Pat Patterson
- #8 - 2007-05-09 22:47 -
The question was regarding statements, I asked if association with anti-Semites counted. The correct answer would have been no, but Rohrshach commentary seems to be more fun. Comments ()
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