It seems that money isn't enough, and it takes a sense of moral outrage to sustain a war. Much, much effort goes into manipulating public opinion. Watch out for the kids.

Remember at the start of the Gulf War when a Kuwaiti "nurse" testified to a committee of the US Congress she had seen Iraqi soldiers unplugging incubators at a Kuwaiti hospital? After it was all over the truth came out -the girl was the daughter of a Kuwaiti diplomat, and not a nurse, hadn't been in that hospital to see Iraqi soldiers, period. Typical stunt of anyone of any political or economic persuasion.

Beware the orphans.

The sad reality is that at the beginning of WW II neither the US nor the Allies really cared much about what happened to the Jews. Neither did the Roman Catholic Church, to it's enduring shame. They, at least, have apologized. There was a large, powerful element of the US public which was in sympathy with the National Socialist government in Germany. Lingberg wasn't operating in a vacuum. It was only after war was declared upon the US did we care enough to become heavily involved. Up until then, more or less behind the scenes, we were willing to assist folks who spoke our language, true, but not to the extent of risking war for ourselves.

Please don't misunderstand me - war is sometimes inevitable, just as are strikes in labor relations. Sometimes you get to the point where talking, negotiating just ain't gonna work, and then it the issue becomes who can hurt the other the most. Those are relatively honest situations, though, in that the issue is always economic. Sometimes the extreme folks try to make it a moral thing, a principle thing, and the issue is always economic.

And there's still nothing personal in it.

I don't know that we would have entered WW II if every major corporation was guaranteed to lose money. I doubt it. Had Germany been giving out Ford and Chevrolet dealerships in Paris and Berlin, contracted with AT&T for an Italian phone system, etc., I think you'd have seen a different scenario. I believe our diplomats would have responded the way they have toward China - let's draw them into the system, let's have them modify their human rights postitions through showing them the way, and so on.

Lastly, in my opinion, acknowledging harsh realities, recognizing the less noble aspects of human nature and being honest about motives isn't necessarily cynicism. It's only cynicism if one insists upon attaching moral judgements as to the worth of the individuals for having a normal human nature. Opinion only.

And, thanks for an interesting response.

Arf