By James T. Phillips
YellowTimes.org

In 1996, fifty-one years after the end of World War II and the demise of the Nazis in Germany, Daniel J. Goldhagen wrote a lengthy book about the people of Germany during the Nazi era. Relying on old records and new research, Mr. Goldhagen, in his controversial book "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust," claimed that the people of Germany were not ignorant of the genocidal actions of the Nazi war machine.

In the best-selling book, Goldhagen wrote that the Good Germans, the average folks who also suffered under the Hitler regime, did know about the destruction of Jews by soldiers, policemen, citizens and mercenaries acting in the name of the Third Reich. Their claims of ignorance were, according to Goldhagen, self-serving lies and distortions.

Whatever the merits of Goldhagen's argument, and regardless of the difficulties of finding a kernel of truth in the field of propaganda that was the media in wartime Germany, the stories of genocide were true. Millions of innocent people were murdered by Bad Germans and their axis of evil during World War II.

The Good Americans, however, will not be able to claim ignorance about the crimes of war committed by Bad Americans during the Cold War, Bush War I and Bush War II, the so-called war on terrorism. Fifty years from now, when the perpetrators of America's wars are as dead as their victims, there will not be any need for a Daniel J. Goldhagen. Exposing the sins of the fatherland is a daily occurrence in the alternative - and patriotic - press of the United States of America during the early years of the 21st Century.

Although the major media has become nothing more than purveyors of propaganda, news and information about crimes of war committed by Americans is regularly published on the Internet and in progressive and libertarian magazines. There is no lack of news about detailed and confirmed accounts of atrocities executed by citizens of the United States and their assorted allies. The Goebbels-inspired flacks of the major media might want to ignore facts, but journalists and writers who work hard to speak truth to power are manning the frontlines in the battle for the hearts and minds of the American people:

"It's a matter of human rights and conscience. The U.S. always talks about human rights but they have committed many war crimes against humanity in the name of 'international laws' all over the world. I see two faces of America. The U.S must pay for their deeds sooner or later. Their atrocious acts will not be forgiven." Hee Kyoung Chun

"War is deadly, demeaning, and debilitating for soldiers. That should be a sufficient clue as to its danger for the society that commits acts of war. Too long, this Western culture has given glory to and glamorized this act of state brutality. War is equally dangerous, demeaning and debilitating for countries and societies." Robert Marcom

"The Gulf War was particularly pleasurable to elite groups because there was a guarantee that they [Iraq] weren't gonna shoot back. It wasn't a war. A war is something where two sides shoot at each other. This was just a slaughter." Noam Chomsky

"The war NATO picked with Yugoslavia was more than that - it was the first war to be fought by the Nintendo generation who probably didn't see the difference between pushing a button to annihilate a computer-generated monster or a bridge in a sleeping city. It was also the first war to be fought so strongly by propaganda, and by lies, half-lies and prevarications intended solely to keep up the public support for an otherwise unsupportable war." Aleksandra Priestfield

"The Anglo-American attack on Afghanistan crosses new boundaries. It means that America's economic wars are now backed by the perpetual threat of military attack on any country, without legal pretence. It is also the first to endanger populations at home. The ultimate goal is not the capture of a fanatic, which would be no more than a media circus, but the acceleration of western imperial power." John Pilger

"I'm beginning to suspect that 11 September is turning into a curse far greater than the original bloodbath of that day, that America's absorption with that terrible event is in danger of distorting our morality. Is the anarchy of Afghanistan and the continuing slaughter in the Middle East really to be the memorial for the thousands who died on 11 September?" Robert Fisk

Mr. Goldhagen, in his 1996 book, wrote about the deeds committed by "ordinary Germans" during World War II: "We know little about many of the institutions of killing, little about many aspects of the perpetration of the genocide, and still less about the perpetrators themselves. As a consequence, popular and scholarly myths and misconceptions about the perpetrators abound…" The Nazis did not allow a free press to question authority, yet the Good Germans, asserted Goldhagen, although ill-informed and misinformed, were certainly aware of the criminal actions of Hitler's regime.

Many courageous writers and journalists have written similar words concerning "institutions of killing" created by the United States of America during its rise as the world's most powerful nation, and they have attempted to inform their readers about the crimes of war perpetrated by American war criminals. The Good Americans, unlike the Good Germans, will be unable to claim ignorance; the truth is being reported daily and the freedom of the press guaranteed by the United States Constitution has yet to be crushed under the weight of the Patriot Act.

[James T. Phillips is a freelance reporter. He has covered conflicts in Iraq, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.]

James T. Phillips encourages your comments: james@unet.com.mk