Powered by WebAds

Sunday, September 13, 2009

What Marc Garlasco forgot to mention

At Huffington Post, Human Rights Watch military analyst Marc Garlasco responds to some of the charges that have been made against him by the blogosphere over the past week. But Marc leaves out a few things.
I've never hidden my hobby, because there's nothing shameful in it, however weird it might seem to those who aren't fascinated by military history. Precisely because it's so obvious that the Nazis were evil, I never realized that other people, including friends and colleagues, might wonder why I care about these things. Thousands of military history buffs collect war paraphernalia because we want to learn from the past. But I should have realized that images of the Second World War German military are hurtful to many.
I think Marc knew quite well that "other people might wonder" why he cares about these things. In fact, before he wrote his book, the following exchange took place on a website called GermanCombatAwards.com (via NGO Monitor):
Flak88: So I am trying to figure out what to do. My book is clsoe to done, but I am not sure if I should put my name on it. If folks at work found out I might very well lose my job. That is the reality, so don't dwell on it - ok? But this is a small group of people - should I worry? And shouldn't I stand up for myself? And if I use a psyeudonym isn't that worse, like I am trying to hide something?
A poster named “Skip” responds:
Skip: Put your name on it and F**k ´em.

I don´t think theres much chance of anybody outside of this hobby just happening to pick such a book up. Of course, if they google you it will probably turn up but hey, like everybody said, its a reference book and not a political work.

Don´t forget in the foreword to mention how terrible war is and that your book is to remind people of this fact. Yes, WE all know this but a lot of non-historically minded people might not understand otherwise.
If he really felt revulsion, would he be wearing that sweatshirt?

5 Comments:

At 4:16 AM, Blogger Sunlight said...

Marc Garlasco said in his rebuttal that "My first investigation took me to the bomb craters in Iraq and brought me face-to-face with the survivors and other victims of the strikes I helped plan." My question is whether he studied the gassing of the Iraqis by Saddam or visited the mass graves, etc. that were found in Iraq presumably after he started writing for HRW... the thing about these people that scares me is that they will leave whole populations (including any of us!) to our fate with machete people or dictators so that they don't have to feel squeemish.

 
At 5:43 AM, Blogger NormanF said...

If Garlasco truly felt revulsion would he be even collecting Nazi memorabilia in the first place?

The fact he is tells us all we need to know about him and the organization for which he works.

 
At 11:07 PM, Blogger Chrysler 300M said...

Garlaso participates on www.germancombatawards.com Luftwaffe-Flak site, there are medals for

Bandenbekämfpung (meaning murdering Jews and Partisan)

and medals for Einsatzgruppen (murdering Jews and Gipsies)

http:// www.germancombatawards.co...344afd6cb48354a

nuff said....

 
At 7:12 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

NormanF, the iron cross wasn't part nazism. try flame harder next time by researching it...which is what he is doing, he is researching it so he knows what is means. Looking at history and trying to censor everything that has a bad reputation doesn't make you different from dictators

 
At 7:13 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

NormanF, the iron cross wasn't part nazism. try flame harder next time by researching it...which is what he is doing, he is researching it so he knows what is means. Looking at history and trying to censor everything that has a bad reputation doesn't make you different from dictators

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

Google