"Anti-Americanism"...what is this critter?

For the record, Mr. Putin didn't resign, he was fired from his service (the "force"?? nice to know local name!) primarily for failing to destroy documents left behind at his old hangout in Leipzig after local citizens mobbed the building.

Walter - is our old Stasi acquaintance "Colonel" Wolf still around giving interviews and writing books? Maybe we could post his phone number on this thread to answer some questions - I propose to stop doing so, personally, but admire you for persisting <G>

Was the East German intelligence boss Marcus Wolf only a Colonel? IMHO, he was a Col.-General...

Yes, Hoft, he is: presenting this winter his latest book. (The next date will be in Ulm, on March, 8.)

Marcus Wolf was quite a character. Must of been at least an MfS Major-General as steissd indicates. . . Director of HvA/MfS. I remember the bad ole days . . . we didn't even know for sure what Marcus Wolf looked like. . .

Seydlitz - was present at part of his trial, in which as you know he was acquitted. One exchange remains engraved in my mind - though must paraphrase it from memory and in translation:

Prosecuting Attorney: "Herr Wolf, are you in contact with any of your successful agents in the West, such as the spy who caused the resignation of Bundeskanzler Brandt?"

Accused (Markus Wolf, in very bored tones): Herr Staatsanwalt, I would hardly call them successes - they're the ones who got caught!"

You know of course how his Russian hosts - to whom an old Jewish Stalinist inevitably became an intolerable burden - finally asked him to leave Moscow; and probably know of his subsequent stays in various Austrian "Gasthaus" and "pensions" establishments until finally even the Vienna crew had to discreetly ask him to go home, as he was too much bother to arrest locally.

He was never sure whether "Heim" meant Israel, but his wife was too tired to travel too far at that point so they just drove a few miles north to get arrested at the German border.

Many, if not most, of his "successes" evidently managed to travel further <G>

Anyone who thinks Perle or Wolfowitz are spooky ought to read Wolf's {i}Man with no Face[/i].



timber

HofT, wasn't Wolf found guilty of "Complicity in Kidnapping" but given a couple-year suspended sentence? Somewhere around '97, I think ... too lazy to look it up, but that's what I remember.


timber

Timber - he was found guilty of one of the minor counts against him, as you say, but not guilty of the major charge.

The Bulgarian secret service had tortured a man to death in what was then East Berlin and called up Wolf to ask if he would help with carrying the dead body giving secure passage through then East German territory - but the minor charge may have concerned another vile occasion....

Timber - haven't read Wolf's book (books? maybe Walter will let us know) and wouldn't know where to look for the tribunal's exact decision.

But to the extent that anything in that trial could be termed funny, it must have been his complaint that his Russian masters - fed up with a string of double- triple- quadruple- etc German agents just plain decided that all those folks were Germans first and whatever their politics wouldn't really undertake anything against their nation.

Wolf himself got in some such trouble for having objected to the massive destruction of trees involved in moving the Soviet mobile missile launchers carrying the SS-20s through then East German forests - though Greens are theoretically as free of nationalism as Communists, and in that sense at least the man is logically consistent.

A really lovely and informative piece on the history of anti-American sentiment in Europe by Simon Schama, "The Unloved American" http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/030310fa_fact

Good article, blatham. Much of that form of language has disappeared from our vocabulary, but a pleasure to read for anyone from that generation. Who would not enjoy reading these statements in today's political climate, "And in the twentieth century, though the United States came to the rescue of Britain and France in two world wars, many Europeans were suspicious of its motives. A constant refrain throughout this long literature of complaint, and what European intellectuals even now find most repugnant, is American sanctimoniousness, the habit of dressing the business of power in the garb of piety." c.i.

so that warrants hating the people and culture? Nonsense. Other countries are jealous of our freedoms and military standing. We are the new kids on the bloack and that pisses off many nations.

Really?Which ones?


While I admit much of US foreign policy is at the level of intelligence one would expect from a plastic boy band, I would love to see the line of reasoning that led you to this (erroneous) conclusion.

ok naysayer, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Russia for starters.
Please answer my question- What reasons do you have for hating America?

Canada is jealous of our freedoms? What planet do you inhabit?


Since I don't "hate America" I guess I am unable to answer your question.
Canada. thanks for the early morning laugh.

oh right, their military is mammoth compared to others Thanks for the hearty laugh.

What -if you don't mind to refer to actually posted responses - has a mammouth military to do with freedom - if not in a negative sense?

If I may opine, anti-Americanism falls into two main categories in my view: 1) An irrational contempt for all things American; and 2) A rational but wrong-headed opposition to America and what it represents.

The French are the best example of an irrational contempt for America. One of the best sellers in France is a book that contends that America attacked itself on Sep 11. It was a government conspiracy, you see. They say that no aircraft actually impacted the Pentagon that day. About a third of the population of France and Germany believe this conspiracy theory. That is an irrational anti-Americanism.

When I lived in the Philippines, even young lieutenants like me were considered wealthy by Philippino standards. We had cars. Only wealthy people own cars in the Philippines. We lived in cinder block homes, not thatched huts. We had refrigerators, stereos, plumbing, canned hams, and lots of things that were luxuries to the Philippinoes. We were to the Philippinoes what Donald Trump is to us. Such a difference in wealth naturally inspired envy and jealousy. That causes an irrational anti-Americanism.

Once I found a gekko in my house, a pretty green chameleon-like lizard, and tried to catch it to take a closer look at it. It hid under the open door, so I yanked the door back quick to grab it. It ripped the skin off the back of the poor thing and it writhed in agony to my horror. The relationship of America to many undeveloped countries is much the same. We are so powerful that even with the best intentions we can damage them in the simplest interactions.

You could see rational anti-Americanism parading in the streets during the anti-war marches. The former Communists of ANSWER, who organize the marches, oppose democracy and capitalism just as the Islamist terrorists do. The socialist organizations at these marches who fly banners advocating a socialist revolution in the US are rationally anti-American for the worst reasons.

Quite a few irrational anti-Americans were marching behind ANSWER. The people who flew American flags with Nazi symbols replacing the stars were a type of rabid anti-American most people seldom see. The guys on the bullhorns shouting that they didn't give a d*mn about the troops were rabidly anti-American. The scary guy wearing a sign that "America Must Be Destroyed" seemed anti-American to me.

The worst of the anti-Americans are the Islamists who mount terrorist attacks against America. They combine rational and irrational anti-Americanism in a particularly fetid package. They literally believe that government of the people, by the people, for the people should perish from the Earth to be replaced by Koranic theocracy. They are the the ultimated anti-Americans.

Not Tantor

Beautifully stated Not Tantor.

Anybody with a sense of history knows that the Unitied States is at least as humanitarian and benevolent as any nation on earth. A disaster can't happen anywhere that Americans aren't gathering up blankets and foodstuffs and cash and medical supplies to send to the stricken area, and our medical teams and rescue squads and carpenters and engineers actually go there if the country willl allow that. Our generosity has always been extended to our enemies as it is to our friends. Iraq notwithstanding, we do not go around the world seizing property or land, and if we are forced into war, we defeat our enemies, give them their country back, and then help them rebuild themselves.

Yet we seem to be the most despised and criticized nation on earth as well. Why? Because we are free? Because we are successful? Because we invented blue jeans? Is it due to contempt born of jealousy as Not Tantor suggested?

Or is it irrational?

Or is it evil?

I'm pondering these things.

I suggest that a quick perusal of post-WWII US foreign policy will answer your question.