History Unfolding

This is not mine, but a confirmation of exactly what I have been saying fort the past five years by a man much more educated and scholarly than I. It was forwarded by a good friend, and it speaks volumes to anyone out there willing to read and listen. This isn't me talking; this is a man with a Doctorate in History from Harvard, and has taught there and at Carnegie Mellon. Those are credentials EVERY liberal loves! RGB

History Unfolding

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why? We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy... Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten...And we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change.. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning!

As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s In those times, the "savior" was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.

And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly (Much like Obama's SEIU thugs are doing today, RGB). And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course.

How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and ........ change. And the people surely got what they voted for.

If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.

So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.

Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.

I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.

I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.

David Kaiser
Jamestown , Rhode Island

David Kaiser is a respected historian whose published works have covered a broad range of topics, from European Warfare to American League Baseball. Born in 1947, the son of a diplomat, Kaiser spent his childhood in three capital cities: Washington D.C., Albany , New York , and Dakar, Senegal. He attended Harvard University, graduating there in 1969 with a B.A. in history. He then spent several years more at Harvard, gaining a PhD in history, which he obtained in 1976. He served in the Army Reserve from 1970 to 1976.

He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the United States Naval War College. He has previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams College and Harvard University. Kaiser's latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the Kennedy assassination, was just published by Harvard University Press.

World War II Stories in Print, on Film and as Oral History

In the past few years there has been a surge of new and interesting books and movies on the Second World War. I guess this should really be expected as so many of the "Greatest Generation" are leaving this World. Productions such as "Band of Brothers," "Saving Private Ryan," "Defiance" and the highly fictional "Inglorious Basterds" have helped to bring the greatest military cataclysm in history to a new generation. Additionally, I have encountered some amazing books recently such as "The Mascot," an incredible true story about a young Russian-Jewish boy who became the beloved mascot of a Latvian SS unit in World War II. Additionally, I have encountered some living personal histories here in Germany that are fascinating.

Just yesterday, I spoke with a Briton who spoke of his father, a Pole who fought at Arnhem in the 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade fighting with the Brirish Army. The Poles were nearly destroyed by the defending Nazi SS troops (this action was dynamically portrayed in the classic "A Bridge To Far") when they made their much delayed jump into the Netherlands. This man fought in France at the beginning (he was there working in his father's business), was captured and sent to a concentration camp and escaped during a British air raid. He then found his way back to France and then to England where he was able to join the Polish Army in exile. This man's son, the man I met, became a British Para (as the British refer to their airborne troops), and is now retired and working as a contractor in the IT field here in Germany.

Then there is the landlord of one of my colleagues, who was eight when the "Amerikaner Panzers" (tanks) arrived in Sandhofen, less than ten miles from here. His mother warned him to "stay away from the Americans! They're here to kill Germans!" When he and his mother went to bed that night the American tanks were 100 yards down the road. When he awoke in the morning (before his mother awoke), an American tank was in their front yard. He quickly dressed and as most any eight-year-old boy would do, ran out to see the tank. "The soldiers gave me food and chocolate," he related to me in his broken English and my broken German. "I loved the Americans," he told me through a huge, chuckling grin.

Today, I rented a 'New Release' at the Army shoppette called "Max Manus, Man of War." I have seen this DVD over the past month sitting on the shelves and finally rented it. I looked at the cover and sort of expected another film in the same vein as "Inglorious Basterds." Instead, I found a gem of a Norwegian film based very closely on the exploits of a Scandanavian national hero. (In retrospect, I can imagine Warren Zevon using this man as the model for his 'Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.' If you've never heard it, check out Zevon's 1978 album "Excitable Boy." It was also the last song he ever performed publicly.)

Max Manus was a Norwegian mercenary infantry volunteer who went to Finland to fight the Soviets in the Winter War of 1939-1940. Despite odds of around 14-to-1, a lack of armor and a small, obsolescent air force, the Finns scored a miraculous tactical victory in the 3 1/2 months of war, fighting the communists to an embarassing and bloody stalemate. Nevertheless, sheer numerical superiority led Finland to relinquish nearly a quarter of its territory in the ensuing peace talks. Upon the German invasion of Norway in April of 1940 all the Norwegian volunteers, including Manus, were discharged from the Finnish military and sent home.

Upon his return to Norway, Manus and a boyhood friend formed a nascent resistance group that was eventually incorporated into the larger national resistance led by the Norwegian King Haakon 7, and his government- and military-in-exile.

It's a fascinating look at a small nation's efforts to stand up to overwhelming evil and might, and how the efforts of a few individuals can have far-reaching and positive effects despite truly overwhelming odds. It's a timeless story that, sadly, unfortunately, has lost most of its cachet in our current society.