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In Milart we read
this book called Hitler's Panzers East. The basic argument of the book
is that if Hitler hadn't made "one fateful decision" in the
summer of '41, Germany could have won the war. After reading the book
the first question the class asked was, "is this guy American?"
As it turns out the author is American. In the following lessons we
had to present on various topics discussed in the book, each person
had to vocally point out that they disagreed with Stolfi's argument
and that the Germans had no clue what they were getting into in attacking
the Soviet Union. I find it interesting that it is almost un-American
to say that there are other armies and counties that are better than
the US in some aspects. In my Armed Forces and Society class an interesting
comment was made in response to my teacher's question of whether or
not we thought the US Army would follow the example of other countries
in terms of acceptance of homosexuals, conscientious objection, and
other post-modern topics. A cadet answered that the US would not follow
in other countries' footsteps because as the world power, we are the
paradigm and our methods are right. While the reality of the statement
is probably sound, I find it a little distressing.
Today we had a lecture
by a Holocaust survivor/researcher. His research is centered around
understanding what factors allowed for the Holocaust, today he primarily
talked to us about his interviews with military SS officers. He posed
to us the question, "were the SS murderers, cowards, or warriors?"
He then relayed to us the experience he had with his first interview,
a man who was an SS four star general. How the man was civil and generous,
though authoritarian in nature. He found that the SS men believed they
were simply doing their duty to their country.
There was a point
I was trying to get to. One of them was the importance of being willing
acknowledge the experiences of other people, organizations, and nations.
When everything is boiled down, we're all humans, there are a couple
outliers that are legitimately insane, but overall there isn't an evil
undead race that wants only death and destruction. People/organizations
need to learn to see the good things we share, the bad things we share,
and the things that might just put others one up. Not that people/organizations
don't already do it to a degree, it's just something that can always
be worked on.