Category: the nation

It is amazing to think that a few veterans of the first World War still provide a living link to the war that provided the blueprint for the bloody twentieth century. Naked aggression and empire-building, chemical warfare and ethnic holocaust and official lies, deceit and stupid propaganda all marked that war, which left millions dead in its wake and the world’s people and governments vowing – briefly – never to do it again, only to do it again and again. Armistice Day – which marks the end of that war – was soon enough re-christened “Veteran’s Day” to honor the bravery of all the poor kids who fought in the bloody wars that followed the war to end all wars.

It is ancient history, but, conversely, still a living history and we would do well to heed certain lessons. Before he died today, Alfred Anderson was the last man left alive in this world who participated in the unofficial Christmas Truce of 1914, where French, British and German soldiers embraced in No Man’s Land, exchanged pictures from home, sang carols and even played a game of soccer.

Queen Victoria’s grandchildren had only that summer quashed any concerns about their inconvenient lineage in order to drum up nationalist fervor to recruit cannon fodder for their imperialist war mongering. Predictions of speedy victory, as is their wont, resulted in protracted stalemate, as the warring sides dug in for trench warfare in the French countryside. The trenches of December 1914 were not the elaborate network of tunnels and bunkers depicted in films like “Paths of Glory” and “A Very Long Engagement.” Those came later. These were shallow holes dug in bloody mud. It was likely as miserable an experience as a man could ever expect, and it’s hardly a surprise that the men could not muster enthusiasm to go on killing on that Christmas eve.

Gunfire was so sporadic, the air so quiet, and with only a few hundred feet between them the soldiers could at last hear each other’s voices. In their rusty second languages, soldiers called out to each other. They wished each other happy holidays. They talked about their families and girlfriends back home. Finally, they told each other, “we won’t shoot if you won’t” and all came up out of their putrid holes and met in between.

This story is something of a pacifist fairy tale, although it is true. It confirms our hopes about man’s better nature. How can a man swear another man is his enemy and must die because he wears a different uniform, after he has met him and discussed his family and life with him?

The same thing that gives us hope terrified the generals, who forbade the continuation of the truce and punished participants. Soon the fighting resumed, escalated and dragged on for four more years. Future truces would be officially sanctioned breaks to collect the dead from No Man’s Land and re-dig trenches after territory shifts.

I wonder if Alfred Anderson preferred the tributes of Veteran’s Day to the mourning of Armistice Day. Interviewed for this past November 11, he gave a hint: “I felt so guilty meeting the families of friends who were lost. They looked at me as if I should have been left in the mud of France instead of their loved one. I couldn’t blame them, they were grieving, and I still share their grief and bear that feeling of guilt.”

The Bush administration’s deep problems don’t quite feel like a good reason to celebrate. Lies and incompetence have caught up with Bush, whose presidential approval rating hovers around Watergate-Nixonian levels, while Dick Cheney’s even less popular, after his chief of staff’s indictment.

“I divide time now between BSI–Before Scooter’s Indictment–and ASI–After Scooter’s Indictment,” says Working Life blogger Jonaathan Tasini. First of all, I’m not sure if we’re witnessing the crucifixion or the martyrdom of Bush-Cheney’s henchmen. If Vice President Heart Attack chooses this time to “take one for the team” and resign for “health reasons,” does it really hurt the Republicans, or does it simply give Bush an opportunity to appoint an heir-apparent VP who could be spared a bruising 2008 primary, and who could tap into conservative fury over the “railroading” of such conservative superstars as Cheney and Rove.

And secondly, can the Democrats – our “opposition party” by default in Washington – actually capitalize on Bush-Cheney’s crimes? Do they have the guts to prosecute Cheney even after he resigns, forcing Bush to pull a Gerald Ford and issue an unpopular pardon? Hell, do they have the guts to vote for the resolution House Republicans are threatening to introduce, calling for a speedy withdrawal from Iraq? The Republicans are calling the Democrats’ bluff and daring them to vote against this unpopular war. They should vote yes – in large numbers.

Nevermind. The results just came in. The resolution calling for speedy withdrawal failed 403-3. Remind me, what do the Democrats stand for, exactly?

Bush may yet pull this one out. Even if he doesn’t, I don’t consider the fall of the Bush administration to be any kind of “success.” The only person, clearly, who can defeat George Bush is George Bush. Millions of us marching in the streets couldn’t prevent him from starting this stupid war. And after he leaves, we’ll still be left with new rules in Washington that say it’s okay to buy, rent, lease and borrow the media and journalists to sell an administration’s lies. We’re still left with so much of the world pissed off at our empire. We’re still left with gutted environmental standards, a dead Kyoto and a melting polar ice cap. We’re left with no moral authority on torture and weapons of mass destruction. We got more chickens coming home to roost long after Bush fades from the scene.

Before 9/11, before Bush, we had our own issues. We set our own agenda. Remember the Teamsters and the Turtles and the WTO? Nader and the Green Party? Day Without the Pentagon?

It’s going to take so long to go back to setting a people’s agenda. Alas, we’ll be cleaning up after Bush – with luck! – for many years.

As token gestures go, this one is particularly insulting. Executives at Delphi, the financially troubled auto parts producer that was spun off from GM a few years ago, are voluntarily cutting their million dollar salaries by as much as 20% as the company goes through bankruptcy procedures and seeks to void its union contracts and slash the pay of its workers by as much as two-thirds. This magnanimous act was meant to make up for the previously announced (now retracted) executive bonuses meant to “entice” these brilliant captains of industry to remain with the company through the hard times that they caused.

The workers at Delphi make around $26 an hour. The business community likes to toss around the figure of $70 an hour, which would include the cost of payments for medical insurance, pension funds and other benefits. Delphi says these wages make the company uncompetitive, as similar workers in Mexico make one tenth of that. They probably wager that the public at large aren’t as sympathetic to these greedy union members who make too much money.

Well, think about this. $26 an hour probably translates to around $50,000 annually, more with overtime. That’s enough to support a family, maybe buy a house and have some expectation to send your kids to college. That’s not wealthy, folks. That’s not too much money. That’s the elusive American Dream. Ten dollars an hour, on the other hand, would result in an annual income that would qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. For welfare, in other words. That’s the kind of change that the two-thirds pay cut that Delphi’s executives seek would produce in their workers: from the middle class to the welfare line.

What kind of sacrifice does a 10% reduction of a million dollar salary produce? One less trip to Paris? A smaller yacht? Delphi’s token gesture towards shared sacrifice is a total insult, and it makes my Bolshevik blood boil. How about a 10% reduction of their actual persons, starting right at the top. Off with their heads!