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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>ACTING LIKE NAZIS</span></font></b><span
lang=EN-GB><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Collective Punishment Isn't Self-Defense<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'>SAN DIEGO</span></font></st1:City><span
lang=EN-GB>--As commander of a Nazi<i><span style='font-style:italic'>
einsatzgruppen</span></i> death squad in occupied <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Poland</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Dr. Werner Best came to
believe that the most effective response to terrorism was collective
punishment. After the fall of <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>
he went on to draft the Third Reich's counterterrorism policy for countries
occupied by <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Towns where acts of "passive" resistance such as the cutting of
telegraph cables had taken place were placed under curfews, fined and slapped
with travel restrictions. "Active" resistance--the killing of a
German soldier--would be met by reprisal killings of local civilians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Dr. Best was trying to protect German troops. Rather
than be cowed, however, leaders of European resistance groups saw Best's
ruthless policy as their chance to radicalize moderates who were still on the
fence about their German occupiers. The insurgents stepped up assassinations of
German troops. The killings prompted the Germans to shoot more local
businessmen and political leaders. The cycle of violence was spiraling out of
control.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Eventually Hitler himself got into the act. Convinced
that collective punishment was failing because it wasn't severe enough, the
führer issued a September 1941 order to use "the harshest
measures" against civilians in areas where the Resistance was active. Arguing
that "only the [collective] death penalty can be a real means of
deterrence," Hitler ordered that 50 civilians be executed for each German
soldier killed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Some in the German high command argued that punishing
innocent civilians in large numbers would alienate the local population and
lose the battle for hearts and minds. Although they were eventually proven
correct, they were overruled. New reprisals, each worse than the last,
strengthened the resolve of the resistance and gained them new recruits. By the
end of the war, reprisals had assumed grotesquely lopsided ratios of murdered
locals to dead Germans. Entire villages--Lidice in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Czech Republic</st1:country-region> (340 killed), Oradour-sur-Glane
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> (642), Kortelisy
in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ukraine</st1:place></st1:country-region>
(2,892)--were wiped out.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Even right-wingers who'd supported the Nazis were
appalled. Support for the Germans and their puppet regimes declined with each
new campaign of "counterterrorism." Public opinion wasn't decisive;
no nation occupied by the Nazis during World War II could solely credit its
resistance for its liberation. Still, collective punishment was an unequivocal
tactical failure. Resistance groups and their sympathizers hastened the defeat
of Nazi Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Neither the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region> nor <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> is equivalent to Nazi
Germany, yet both countries have adopted a Nazi-like obsession with collective
punishment. Israeli Defense Forces, which subject centers of Palestinian
resistance in the occupied West Bank to curfews and encirclement by barbed-wire
fences, taught their techniques to <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>
occupation troops in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
After Islamist suicide pilots killed 3,000 Americans in the September 11
attacks, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
government justified the killing of 200,000 Afghans and Iraqis as an act of
"self-defense."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>George W. Bush exceeded Hitler's 50-to-1 ratio.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Now <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
is "reacting" to the capture of two of its soldiers by the
Palestinian resistance organization Hezbollah by invading and bombing <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Death
tolls that fall disproportionately heavily upon Palestinians have long been a
hallmark of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During the 2000-03 intifada, for
example, at least seven Palestinians were killed by Israelis for every Israeli
killed by a Palestinian. Now, as of this writing, more than 500 Lebanese
civilians have been killed by Israeli bombs. On the Israeli side, 15 civilians
have died in Hezbollah rocket attacks and 14 soldiers have been killed in
combat.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Current ratio: 30-to-1.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>"<st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
has a right to defend itself," Bush said at the start of the current <st1:place
w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> crisis. No doubt. But the Israelis aren't
defending themselves any more than the Bush Administrative is defending us. Each
is using a crime--the kidnapping of two soldiers, the 9/11 terrorist
attacks--as an excuse to wage war against innocent people who had nothing to do
with it. Meanwhile, the criminals--the kidnappers and those behind 9/11--are
allowed to get away scot-free.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>In response to criticism that <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> was using "disproportionate"
force against <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>, its
ambassador to the United Nations told a cheering mob in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:State>: "You're damned right we
are!" Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) chimed in: "Since when should a
response to aggression and murder be proportionate?"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Congressman Nadler ought to catch up on his reading. Article
33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which has been signed and ratified by both
Israel and the United States and was drafted in response to the kinds of Nazi
atrocities described at the beginning of this column, specifically prohibits
collective punishment. As a treaty obligation, it is <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> law. It is Israeli law.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Nothing prevents a nation from defending itself or
going after those who commit heinous crimes--which include kidnapping--against
its citizens. Understanding the difference between self-defense and collective
punishment is what separates <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
and the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>--on
paper, anyway--from the Nazis.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>(Ted Rall is the editor of "Attitude 3: The New
Subversive Online Cartoonists," a new anthology of webcartoons.)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>COPYRIGHT 2006 TED RALL /TED RALL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Source: http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span lang=EN-US
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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