BATTLE OF DRESDEN

Reuters goes on to say:

The sight of far-right marchers angered and dismayed many residents, who later spelled out in flickering candlelight "This city is sick of Nazis" in letters five yards high. [See photo.]

Jan -- There are more and more people in Germany who are not Nazis, but who would say, "Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden and today Baghdad." I regularly heard similar comments even during the first Gulf War, and they were from people throughout the political spectrum.

As you note, the whole line of thought is fraught with problems. The concept of total war -- which includes massive bombings of civilian populations -- is one of the 20th century's contributions to history, but no one really understands this issue and all that it means and implies. It will take much more time for us to morally define the concept of total war. But it is revealing that the United States of America is the only country that has continued bombing cities after World War II.

Twenty-five years ago, few in Germany spoke of the bombings as wrong or as war crimes, but that has slowly changed, based in part on historical research completed since then. Of course, Germans shy away from saying the bombings might have been wrong when they see Nazis harping on it, because they do not want to be associated with such loathsome people and all of their hidden agendas and specious arguments.

It would, however, be an error to let aversion to the Nazis influence any discussion. They deserve no influence at all. Instead, the bombings should be considered in thoughtful ways, and the neo-Nazis simply recognized for their loathsome arguments and falsifications of history. And then they should be ignored.

For their part, Americans need to at least be aware of the increasing belief even among average Germans that the bombings [of Dresden] were in some respects wrong. Based on what I have seen, it is a theme that might become more important than we might suspect. Americans need to think about how they are going to address this issue.

They also need to think more about a lot of other things. But as Bob Herbert writes this morning in his column about Arthur Miller, "The Public Thinker," the odds are heavily against their thinking about anything unless it can be said "in 30 seconds."

Thinking itself is "a notion that appears to have gone the way of the rotary phone," he notes. "Americans not only seem to be doing less serious thinking lately, they seem to have less and less tolerance for those who spend their time wrestling with important and complex matters."

Ignorance is in. The nation is at war and its appetite for torture may be undermining the very essence of the American character, but the public at large seems much more interested in what Martha will do when she gets out of prison and what Jacko will do if he has to go in.

Herbert goes on to say:

Mr. Miller understood early that keeping the population entertained was becoming the paramount imperative of the U.S. We're now all but buried in entertainment and the republic is running amok. Mr. Miller is gone, and if we're not wise enough to pay attention, his uncomfortable truths will die with him. (He felt, among other things, that most men and women knew "little or nothing" about the forces manipulating their lives.)

Anyway, the Grammys were last night and Michael Jackson's trial resumes today.

Having fun yet?