Defenestration of Prague, Number Four

[Peter Presland]

Interesting and moving personal story Jan. The Czechs quite agree with you and I that the Germans don't deserve to be able to buy-back or just win for free their homes in the old Sudetenland territory. They had collectively removed half of Europe's population [and killed/enslaved much of it] and collectively should bear the responsibility.

Well I certainly agree the 'moving personal story' bit but I equally certainly don't go along with the rest of the above.

Alter the place names and adjust for language usage and it might be a passage lifted straight from the Versailles Treaty. Which just goes to illustrate the perennial and grossly destructive tendency in human nature to exact collective punishment for what are perceived (usually quite wrongly) to be collective crimes. The 'German People' were no more guilty of enslaving half of Europe than were the British or the American 'People'. All were victims of mendacious, deeply psychopathic leaders. The German State - and the British and US States OTOH - well that's an entirely different matter. And on that subject I suggest that the British State, ably assisted by a vindictive French State and a complicit US State were at the root of what transpired throughout Europe through the 3 decades that culminated at the 'Victors Justice' charade that was Nuremberg.

And if I were asked for a judgement of the most culpable in the whole sordid mess it would be, without a doubt, the British State. In simple terms, the intent of the British - from well before the ink was dry at Versailles - was to conjure a Fascist Germany and a Bolshevik Russia in order that they destroy each other. The Anglo/US Establishments were single-minded in that over-riding but deeply hidden Machiavellian purpose for 2 decades. They sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind - the forces detailed by Jan were unleashed all over Europe and beyond. Most galling of all - they appear to have gotten away with it scot-free with their victims still shouldering the blame and their respective populations as deeply confused and 'in the dark' as ever.

For me, the lesson of Jan's story is the absolute, unmitigated horror and futility of ALL war. Nothing more, nothing less. As for collective punishment - I can't find the words to express my contempt for the idea that it might be a valid component of any kind of justice.