Jeffrey Goldberg argues that the Iraq war was justified because the Kurds were in favor of it.
Glenn Greenwald says that proves nothing, because the Sudeten Germans favored the rape of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
Goldberg quotes alleged scholar Yaacov Lozowick:
Here's my input, on a point no-one else seems to be noticing: There was no Nazi invasion of the Sudetenland, no invasion of Slovakia, hardly one of Austria and even less of Bohemia. Nazi Germany brutally invaded many countries, but those weren't among them. Go check the history books and see if I know what I'm talking about. Glenn Greenwald surely doesn't.This is ... very odd. As Brad DeLong notes. DeLong quotes Hitler on the subject; I'll settle for the Shorter OED:
invade: (2) Enter or make an incursion into (a place, a country, etc.) esp. in a hostile manner, in large numbers, or with armed force; attack.Resistance to the incursion is not an element of invasion, any more than fighting one's attacker is an element of rape.
For the final ironic icing, Lozowick titles his post "Ministry of Truth" and observes that "George Orwell must be dancing in his grave" (whatever that means).
Kevin Jon Heller takes a nail gun to the coffin, as it were.
If the Albanians are entitled to Kosovo, why shouldn't the Germans have been entitled to the Sudetenland. Whatever Hitler's wrongs, and they are legion, allowing self-determination for the citizens of the Sudetenland was not among them.
ReplyDeleteThere was no "self-determination." There was no plebiscite. 750,000 Czechs were annexed into German territory (no "self-determination" for them), and the country lost its border fortifications without compensation.
ReplyDelete"Self-determination" was not the issue; the whole "crisis" was a pretext to take the first bite out of Czechoslovakia, a country Hitler had vowed to destroy.
Yes, but the overwhelming majority of those annexed into Germany wanted to be annexed. They were Germans. How can we say that was wrong and then say Serbia has to give away the cradle of their civilization, Kosovo. If it was right to expell the Germans from the Sudetenland, then it is right to expell the Albanians from Kosovo.
ReplyDeleteRebelyell, I'm not defending the Serbian loss of Kosovo, tho I suspect that had something to do with Serbian aggression, war crimes, and genocide. Whereas Czechoslovakia had done little if anything to oppress the Sudeten Germans (who were free to move to Germany for that matter) or to intimidate its neighbors.
ReplyDeleteIt seems odd to me to let a polemical attitude towards recent history move you to the point of excusing Nazi crimes.