Walking west from Sutton Place, we were prevented from crossing
First Avenue and going about our usual Saturday business by the
hordes of people demonstrating in the name of peace. Looking over
the crowds, and putting aside the unworthy thought that there was
not a handful of them that we would even want on our side if we
were in the Army, it occurred to us that these were the same sort
of historically myopic people that in 1939, 1940 and 1941
demonstrated against this country entering war against Hitler and
Imperial Japan.
It is estimated that 40 million people died in the Second World
War. Millions of others were displaced, their treasures stolen,
their homes destroyed, their lives and those of their children and
future generations disrupted, never to be put right again. Yet as
Churchill observed, there never was a war in history that was
easier to avoid.
The shame of Munich, the flagrant violations of the Treaty of
Versailles, the abandonment of Czechoslovakia, and the annexation
of the Sudetenland and Austria are infamous beads in the foul
necklace of tyranny that ultimately almost strangled the world.
Then, as now, France shamelessly flaunting her gutlessness was a
prime villain. Added now to her cowardice is her ingratitude. Twice
in a generation America has come to the rescue of France, but
French gratitude seems to have fallen by the roadside, along with
French courage -- which may indeed be an oxymoron. Alexander the
Great, as Churchill also noted, observed that the peoples of Asia
were enslaved because they had not learned to pronounce the word
"No." This certainly was true of the world in 1938 and 1939, and it
is equally so today.
The masses of people on First Avenue were as diverse a group as
imaginable. Some held up signs advocating the legalization of
marijuana, some were still protesting against the Vietnam War, a
few demonstrating against cruelty to animals. None were there to
protest against a regime that tortures its citizens, gang rapes
women while their families are made to watch, and has used
chemicals and poison gas against its neighbors and its own
citizens.
None of this was mentioned by the speakers, none of this seemed
to disturb the ardor of the crowd: pop-eyed, screaming,
flagellating themselves into euphoric frenzy -- a mindless lynch
mob with no one to lynch -- least of all the real villains. And no
one to ask the question, "If not us, who? If not now, when?"
Clearly, if this were Iraq, and people in that country rallied
in public against the government's policies, it would be a one-way
ticket for them to the torture chambers and then execution. Why do
these First Avenue demonstrators have the arrogance to believe that
they should be entitled to any more rights than an oppressed Iraqi
citizen? Edmund Burke observed that "All that is necessary for evil
to succeed, is for good men to do nothing." In an interconnected
world, evil somewhere is evil everywhere. This bunch should
ruminate on the thought that if we do nothing, there could come a
time when there may be nobody left to demonstrate on First Avenue
-- or there may not even be a First Avenue.
topics:
Business, Iraq
